The role of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in the struggle for African American rights in the 1950s-1970s.

Aroniya Anastasiya Mamukaevna Senior Lecturer; Department of General History; Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education 'Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M. V. Lomonosov' 17 Severnaya Dvina Embankment, Arkhangelsk, 163002, Russian Federation a.aroniya@narfu.ru

Introduction: relevance and problem statement

Issues related to the legal status of African Americans remain quite acute to this day, and affirmative action policy is causing a particularly acute debate in American society. In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the cases of Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard ^[1] and Students for Fair Admission v. the University of North Carolina ^[2] actually abolished this practice for admission to higher education institutions. In this regard, human rights activities, which are also implemented through the National Organization for the Advancement of People of Color (orig. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, abbreviated NAACP). In this regard, it seems relevant to characterize the role of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in the struggle for the rights of African Americans in the 1950s and 1970s. The purpose of this study is to analyze the methods and evaluate the effectiveness of the NAACP's activities during the chronological period that covers the civil rights movement, as well as the decade that followed, when politics was actively developing. affirmative action.

An overview of historiography and characteristics of the source base

In foreign and domestic historiography, when characterizing African-American resistance in the United States, the main focus is on non-systemic forms and methods of protest, such as demonstrations, strikes, and rallies. The human rights activities carried out mainly by the NAACP, despite the fact that they remained relevant throughout the history of the African-American movement, have not received due attention in foreign and domestic historiography for a long time. Thus, the American historian Adam Fairclough wrote back in 1995 that the NAACP is the most important, but also the least studied of the civil rights organizations ^{[3, p. 671]}, and Manfred Berg called the Association "the stepdaughter of civil rights historiography" ^{[3, p. 671]}. Among the modern researchers whose works reflect the activities of the NAACP are T. Minchin and S. Collins.

The source base of this study is historical sources, which can be divided into two groups.:

1. Legal sources provided by court transcripts that reflect changes in the legal status of African Americans. In addition, the article used the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

2. Sources related to the NAACP, namely program documents, which contain information about the goals and main activities of the organization, as well as reports presenting the results of the Association's work.

Formation and main directions of the NAACP work

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was formed in 1910 on the basis of the Niagara movement, initially the Association set itself the goal of achieving compliance with the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as well as equal access to education. It is important to note that the NAACP was one of the first organizations to include both white and colored activists. The key feature of the Association's activities was its systemic nature, that is, work in a strictly legal field, the desire to achieve changes through current legislation, and therefore the main method of work of the organization was the preparation and filing of lawsuits, as well as the protection of the rights of African Americans in the courts. This tactic was extremely effective in the Anglo-Saxon legal system, as it is based on a legal custom based on judicial precedent. At the same time, a positive precedent not only meant that in a similar process the court would also side with African Americans, but also led to officials or company owners themselves eliminating discriminatory practices without waiting for lawsuits.

In the 1950s, in the wake of the general upsurge of the protest movement, the NAACP also intensified its work, the main directions of which were published in May 1956 in the booklet "Program and Goals" ^[4]. It is important to note that the objectives of the Association's work covered all spheres of American society, and we would like to mention the key ones.:

Combating discrimination in employment — since the right to work is basic and work is necessary in order to provide for oneself and family, the denial of decent work on the basis of race is "the deprivation of the very basis of existence" ^[4];

Promoting school integration — by 1956, racial segregation of public schools was legally eliminated by the Brown v. Board of Education decision, but this decision did not regulate the process of desegregation of educational institutions, which led to the de facto preservation of separate education;

The fight against segregation of public spaces — since 1955, all recreation areas have been recognized as common, but some organizations, such as restaurants and shops, continued to refuse service to African Americans.

The document also outlined other areas for efforts, such as the implementation of the right to vote and fair housing. Thus, in the 1950s, the African-American population experienced discrimination in almost all areas of life, this was especially evident in the Southern United States. The NAACP's mission was to protect the rights of people of color in all designated areas. To achieve these goals, the Association is developing a legal strategy that includes a number of methods, including the tactic of filing class action lawsuits. In addition, the NAACP collected complaints from African Americans about discrimination and helped defend their interests in the courts. For this purpose, the NAACP members distributed complaint forms about human rights violations ^[5]. In 1953 alone, the Association prepared lawsuits against 13 railroads in the Southern United States, resulting in the Interstate Commerce Commission ordering an end to interstate passenger segregation by January 10, 1956^[4].

NAACP activities in the field of desegregation of school education

The NAACP's strategy has achieved the greatest success in the field of education, where it was possible first to achieve desegregation and integration, and later to implement affirmative action policies. It is in this area that the Association's work seems to be the most systematic.

The filing of lawsuits was preceded by preparatory work – since the 1930s, NAACP members began collecting materials on the state of schools and the quality of education in them, as a result, the organization's lawyers concluded that separate education could not be equal, since conditions in schools for people of color were almost always worse than in schools for whites. children.

Work on desegregation of school education began in 1951 in Kansas, when lawyers for the Association began preparing a class action lawsuit against the Topeka Board of Education. Although 20 parents signed the lawsuit, Oliver Brown's name appeared in the legal documents, as his last name was at the top of the alphabetical list. The final case in the Supreme Court was called "Brown v. Board of Education" and included 5 lawsuits.:

Davis v. Prince Edward County School Board ^[6];

Gebhart vs. Belton ^[7];

Balding vs. Sharpe ^[8]:

Briggs vs. Elliott ^[9];

Brown v. Topeka Board of Education ^[10].

These lawsuits were considered in the Supreme Court at the same time. The NAACP lawyers built their defense tactics based on previous research and argued that segregated educational institutions were not equal, since the quality of education, as well as its conditions in schools for people of color, were worse. As a result, in 1954, the Supreme Court abolished racial segregation in public schools, ruling that the doctrine of "separate but equal" was not applicable and violated the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution ^[10], which guaranteed equality to all citizens of the country.

The court's decision, Brown v. Board of Education, abolished segregation, but did not introduce a procedure for integrating educational institutions, nor did it provide for sanctions for violating the resolution. In this regard, the NAACP continued to work in the field of monitoring the execution of the court's decision, the organization collected complaints about ongoing discriminatory practices, after which the Association's lawyers sought to suspend federal aid for states and school districts where school segregation persisted ^[11]. It is also important to note that even before the start of the Brown v. Board of Education process, the NAACP held public meetings, consulted with officials, and drafted petitions trying to convince states to abandon segregated education even before the court's decision ^[11].

Desegregation of school education provoked resistance from a part of the white population, which in some cases was expressed in violent actions, for example, in Lamar, Missouri, white activists surrounded a school bus with African Americans and threw bricks at it, as a result of which some children were injured ^{[3, p. 670]}. To prevent such incidents, NAACP lawyers engaged federal marshals to ensure the safety of schoolchildren, as a result, those responsible for the riots were brought to justice.

In April 1955, the Association published a progress report ^[12], in which it cites the following results of its work in the field of desegregation of school education:

The most positive dynamics was observed in the state of Missouri, where 110 of 177 schools were integrated without incident ^[12];

In Kansas, 14 of the 18 school districts were desegregated by September 1954.;

30,000 students in Virginia attend integrated educational institutions;

The Oklahoma school authorities set a goal to eliminate segregated educational institutions by September 1955.

The same report notes that school integration is extremely slow in some southern states, and the Association proposed creating the following conditions to solve this problem:

Assistance in preparing society for the execution of court decisions through churches, forums, and civil associations;

School boards must clearly formulate their policies, which must be strictly followed despite possible public resistance.;

Rapid and effective police work is needed to prevent violence.;

Attempts to sabotage integration must be identified and suppressed.;

It is necessary to form an understanding in American society of the harmfulness of educational segregation for the economic development of the United States, the international prestige of the country, as well as to consolidate the idea of the moral unacceptability of segregation.

Combating discrimination in employment and employment

Another important area of the NAACP's work has been the fight for equality in employment. This issue became one of the priorities for the Association after the adoption of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which established the legal equality of U.S. citizens regardless of race. In combating discrimination in the field of employment, the NAACP relied on Section 7 of the aforementioned law – "Equal Employment Opportunities" ^[13], according to which, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (orig. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, abbreviated EEOC). The Commission's tasks included collecting complaints from the public, as well as checking the companies against which these complaints were received. In the first months after its formation, the EEOC was overwhelmed with complaints about violations of labor laws ^{[3, p. 687]}. The NAACP played a major role in this process, as on September 15, 1965 alone, the Association's legal department filed 216 complaints, and 1,600 in 1967 ^{[3, p. 687]}. In addition, the NAACP actively lobbied for the expansion of the Commission's powers. Just as in the case of school education, the lawyers of the Association represented the interests of African Americans in the courts. One of these processes was the case "Pettway v. American Company for the production of Cast Iron pipes", 1970 ^[14]. The company's steelworkers filed a complaint about discrimination in the company, where, according to them, the practices of racial segregation continued, so the owners of the enterprise retained separate canteens, medical offices, as well as entrances for African Americans, in addition, they were denied access to management boards and charitable foundations. The terms of payment were also unfair. Thanks to the efforts of the NAACP lawyers, these practices were stopped, we note that the actions of the plaintiffs were coordinated by the factory Committee for Equal Employment Opportunities. The case was handled by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, and similar incidents were quite common in the South, and NAACP lawyers worked closely with workers who were discriminated against.

NAACP's efforts to desegregate public spaces

Desegregation of public spaces was also one of the key areas of the Association's work. It should be noted that legally such a division was abolished by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, while in practice discrimination against African Americans continued after, however, this Law made it possible to combat it in the legal field. One of the most famous processes in the field of integration of public institutions was the case "Willis v. Picric Restaurant" ^[15]. The owner of the restaurant, Patrick Lester Maddox, continued to refuse service to African Americans after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, while threatening them with force. The New York Times wrote about one incident in this restaurant – Maddox, armed with a pistol and other supporters of segregation, chased away colored visitors ^[16]. During the process, the NAACP lawyers were able to obtain a decree obliging the owner of the institution to receive visitors regardless of race. This case was not the only one, for example, in January 1965, the lawyers of the Association filed a lawsuit against the Alamatt Hotel in Mississippi, which refused to serve African Americans ^{[3, p. 677]}, similar applications were filed throughout the South, which led to accelerated integration of public spaces.

The work of the Association in the 1970s: the politics of affirmative action

By the end of the 1960s, the civil rights movement was coming to an end, this was due to the achievement of legal equality of African Americans with the white population, but in subsequent years neither protest activity nor human rights work ceased. The focus of the movement's leaders is shifting from legal discrimination to socio-economic inequality. In the 1970s, the problem of affirmative action policy emerged in the legal field, which was designed to mitigate the effects of prolonged discrimination, including racial discrimination. During this period, the NAACP was actively involved in the struggle for the introduction of affirmative action in various spheres of American life. As well as in its activities against legal inequality, the Association continues to use the tactics of collective lawsuits and defending the interests of African Americans in the courts, which contributed to the creation of precedents.

One of the most successful cases was the case "NAACP v. Allen", 1972 ^[17]. The association sued the Alabama Department of Public Safety because the police in that state remained completely white, and African Americans were not allowed to serve. This case was a major victory for the NAACP, and the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama banned Walter L. Allen, Director of the Department of Public Safety, and John S. Frazier, Director of the Alabama Department of Personnel, from engaging in any employment-related practice. The court also decided to hire one African-American police officer for every white person employed, until the latter's share in the Alabama police force reaches 25% ^[17]. This resolution, in fact, has become a precedent for consolidating the practice of affirmative action in the field of employment.

One of the most pressing issues in the implementation of affirmative action policy has been the application of this principle in the American education system. In this area, the case "Members of the Board of the University of California v. Allan Buck" is noteworthy ^[18]. The verdict on this process was extremely contradictory — on the one hand, the court confirmed the possibility of affirmative action in education, but on the other, it severely limited the possibility of introducing quotas for national minorities. One of the judges in this trial was Thurgood Marshall, who had been an NAACP lawyer for many years. The tension of this case is evidenced by the fact that opinions in the panel of judges were divided on most issues. Thus, 5 out of 9 judges, including T. Marshall, voted for the fact that Section VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not prohibit the university admission program based on race ^[18]. According to the claim that the provision on equal protection allows race to be one of the many factors in the admission program, the votes were also divided ^[18], according to the opposite statement, the votes were divided 4 to 9, with T. Marshall voting against ^[18].

The contradictory verdict and the obvious tension of the trial forced the NAACP to issue a special statement in 1978 in the case "Members of the Board of the University of California v. Allan Buck" ^[19]. This statement emphasized that educational institutions should not be misled by the court's decision, in general, the statement was issued in order to clarify the ruling on the Bakka case to the public. The NAACP argues that the court's decision clearly shows approval of affirmative action that takes race into account as a means of providing opportunities for minorities ^[19].

In general, the issue of affirmative action in higher education in the United States has been and remains one of the most pressing, and NAACP lawyers have stood by the need for such policies in educational institutions to ensure racial diversity. As noted in the introduction to this study, the last processes related to the implementation of affirmative action policies in the field of higher education took place in 2023, while taking into account that the Association continues to work quite actively in this area, it cannot be considered that the issue has been definitively resolved.

Conclusions

Human rights advocacy was one of the most important tools to combat discrimination against African Americans during and after the civil rights movement. This work was carried out mainly through the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which determines the importance of this organization in the African-American protest movement.

The NAACP's activities covered all areas of American society in which people of color faced violations of their rights based on race. In the 1950s and 1970s, the Association's priorities were education, employment, and desegregation of public spaces.

One of the main features of the Association's work was its intra-systemic nature, i.e. its activities were based on current US legislation, as well as on lobbying tools to achieve changes.

The key method used by the NAACP was the filing of class action lawsuits in courts of various instances, as well as the subsequent work of lawyers to protect the interests of the African-American community during the trials. This tactic was extremely effective in the context of the precedent Anglo-Saxon legal system. It is important to note that human rights activities did not exist in isolation from other protest methods, as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, adopted against the background of mass protests, was later used by NAACP lawyers to form judicial precedents that further contributed to the enforcement of this Law.

Thanks to the activities of the Association, it was possible to achieve desegregation of school education, compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the field of employment and employment, as well as the integration of public spaces. In addition, the activities of the NAACP continued even after successful court cases — lawyers collected complaints of discrimination, as well as monitored the enforcement of court decisions and adopted laws.

It is also important to note the consolidating effect of the Association's work — the filing of collective lawsuits greatly contributed to the consolidation of African-American society and the growth of its civic consciousness, and during the collection of complaints, NAACP lawyers also carried out educational work.

Thus, without the human rights activities carried out by the NAACP, achieving success in combating legal discrimination would have been extremely difficult. The importance of the Association is also confirmed by the fact that its work is in demand in the USA today.

The article is published in the version approved by the reviewers (after receiving a positive review recommending the manuscript for publication) with corrections made by the author (after receiving the editor’s comments, if any).
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