One could argue that black Americans’ struggle for justice in America is as old as the nation itself, and this may help explain why one of the goals of our national government is to create a more perfect union, as stated in the Preamble of our U.S. Constitution. Also, “the struggles of black Americans are fundamental to the very meaning of the United States itself.” This quote by Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is most appropriate in the context of celebrating this 2019 yearlong commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Africans being brought to the Virginia Colony in 1619. Consequently, it was in Virginia in the 1660s that laws were passed to make Africans brought to the colony slaves for life, setting a precedent that would continue in each of the thirteen colonies.
Throughout this historical journey over the past 400 years in America, a constant theme has been the triumph of the human spirit and the ongoing struggle for human dignity and equality. Now, as we reflect on the contributions and achievements of blacks since 1619, it has become evident that no other civil rights organization has done more to advance the cause for justice and racial equality than the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People(NAACP). Founded in 1909, the NAACP was established at a time when the fight for justice and equality took on a new urgency.
During the first decade of the 20th century, black Americans were at the nadir in American society, being viewed as a “rejected, despised people.” Thinking that the time had come “to assail the ears of America,” and to put more light on America’s troubling race relations, an interracial group of progressive American reformers met on Feb. 12, 1909—which was the centennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln—and founded the NAACP. Just imagine, two hundred ninety years after the arrival of the first blacks in what became the United States, it was the NAACP acting as an advocate on every front, that led the way in the assault against bigotry and injustice, exposing the oppressive effects of racism and Jim Crow.
Having helped America get on the right path, the NAACP has been an agent of change for the past 110 years and must remain in the forefront for racial equality and social justice. As Americans of all stripes, we do owe a great deal of gratitude for the NAACP’s impact on American life and history. To be sure, the founders of the NAACP would strongly encourage us to remain vigilant in our march toward complete freedom, vowing to never give up the struggle to overcome generations of inequality, while resolving to work harder at building a more just society. We must continue to “plant trees under whose shade we may never sit.”
As the conscience of the nation, the NAACP must remain the key player, on the frontline in changing America for the better.