African American Politicians & Civil Rights Activists

African American Politicians & Civil Rights Activists — page 3
AFRICAN AMERICAN POLITICIANS CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS THE NAACP RISES TO FIGHT INEQUALITY After the riots sixty people met in New York City to discuss the mistreatment of African Americans Seven were black The rest were white Many white northerners did not support segregation laws or legal discrimination This group formed an organization called the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP In 1909 the NAACP began fighting for equal rights for all races Forty-one years later the NAACP was called upon to help fight school segregation All over the South schools for black children children were in terrible condition The good schools were reserved for whites In Topeka Kansas thirteen black families tried to enroll their children in white schools They were turned away At about the same time Barbara Johns was a sixteen-year-old high school student in Virginia The school she attended was terribly terribly overcrowded Some of her classes were taught in buses or cold leaky shacks The students school supplies were torn and tattered Fed up with these terrible conditions Barbara organized a student strike Students walked out of school and refused to return until a new school was built The NAACP wanted to help the students But the lawyers understood that building a new school for blacks would not solve the real problem of segregation It would simply continue to follow the racist separate but equal laws So the NAACP agreed to help the students on one condition condition that they give up their demands for a new school and join the bigger fight to end school segregation Barbara and her fellow 6