The NAACP is founded on Lincoln's centennial
On this day · 12 February 1909
Spurred by a deadly race riot, a biracial coalition launched what became America's oldest and largest civil rights organization.
On 12 February 1909 — the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth — a biracial group issued a “call” that gave rise to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The spark was the 1908 Springfield, Illinois race riot, white mob violence in Lincoln’s own hometown that shocked reformers into action.
Around 60 people signed the founding call, among them W.E.B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell. They set out to secure the rights promised by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments and to end racial discrimination through the courts and public pressure.
Du Bois soon became director of publicity and research and launched The Crisis, the association’s influential magazine. From this base the NAACP fought decades of legal battles, culminating in landmark victories such as Brown v. Board of Education.
It endures as the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization.
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