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Segregation on Its Deathbed, Dr. King Declares in Address
The newspaper article discusses Martin Luther King's lecture at a public forum on the progress in race relations. John W. Davis was the chairman of this meeting and King visited Davis' home. -
National Urban League (NUL)
The National Urban League is a civil rights organization that advocates for African American rights, fighting against racial discrimination. The Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negros was founded in 1910 by Ruth Standish Baldwin and Dr. George Edmund Hayes and it merged with the Committee for the Improvement of Industrial Conditions Among Negros and the National League for the Protection of Colored Women.
The organization provides many services such as job training, housing and community development, workforce development, educational opportunities, and voting assistance. Programs were developed to fight for health, employment, and housing equity. The organization has been involved in politics, protests, and social work throughout its history to achieve its mission. -
King, Martin Luther Jr. (1929-1968)
Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and a prominent leader of the civil rights movement. King's leadership in the movement began in December of 1955 and lasted until he was assassinated in April 1968. King is famous for his nonviolent resistance and protests. Some of his notable protests were the March on Washington in 1963 and the Selma to Mongomery Marches. "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" and "I Have A Dream" are the two well-known articles and speeches from King. He was the youngest man awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
He married Coretta Scott in 1953. He had four children, Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter, and Bernice. -
Davis, John Warren (1888-1980)
John Warren Davis was an educator and civil rights leader. He was president of West Virginia State University from 1919 to 1953. While in this position, Davis led the college to become fully accredited, making the institution one of the four black colleges and the first public college in West Virginia to become accredited. He also created the State 4-H Camp, the Civilian Pilot Training Program, and the Army Specialized Training Program.
Davis was also one of the founders of the first NAACP chapter in Atlanta, Georgia. He also established the NAACP's legal defense fund to desegregate colleges and provide black students with scholarships. He was also involved with the National Urban League and was the president of the Englewood Chapter. Other organizations he was involved with included the National Advisory Committee on Education of Negros, the National Advisory Committee on Education, the National Science Board, the National Science Foundation, and the National Education Association. He commonly hosted civil rights leaders in his home along with his wife, Ethel.
He was married Bessie Rucker Davis in 1916 until she died in 1931. He married Ethel McGhee in 1932. He had three children, Constance Davis Welch, Dorothy Davis McDaniel, and Caroline Davis Gleiter. -
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an interracial human rights organization. The mission of the organization was to abolish segregation and discrimination. It was founded in 1909 by a group of people including W.E.B. DuBois, Ida Bell, Wells-Barnett, and Mary Ovington. It gained traction due to the 1908 Springfield Race Riots in Illinois. Some founding members were involved with the Niagara Movement led by DuBois.
Some of the most notable actions of the movement were its activism in Supreme Court cases that fought against Jim Crow Laws and Lynching in the 1910s and 1920s. The creation of the NAACP Defense and Education Fund in 1939 which litigated the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, ending racial segregation in schools. They also won the 1946 Morgan v. Virginia, which ended segregation for interstate travel. The organization was extremely active and crucial during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
The organization remains one of the oldest and most influential multiracial institutions. It continues to recognize and fight for political, educational, social, and economic rights and the elimination of race-based discrimination. -
Bethune, Mary Jane Mcleod (1875-1955)
Mary Jane Mcleod Bethune was an influential African American educator, civil rights activist, and women's rights activist.
Bethune was born July 10, 1875 in South Carolina. She was the daughter of Samuel and Patsy Mcleod who were previously enslaved.
She married Albertus Bethune in 1899. She also had a son. Her marriage with Albertus ended in 1904. That same year she opened the Daytona Beach Literary and Industrial School for Training Negro Girls. The school evolved into a college, merging with the Cookman Institute forming the Bethune-Cookman College in 1929.
Bethune was heavily involved in activism, including the Women's Suffrage Movement. She was elected the president of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs in 1924 and she was the founding president of the National Council of Negro Women in 1935.
Bethune was friends with Eleanor Roosevelt and was the highest-ranking African-American woman in the United States government when Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her director of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration in 1936. A position she remained in until 1944.
In 1940 she became the vice-president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She was also the only black woman at the founding conference of the United Nations in 1945. -
Mary McCleod Bethune Controversy (1952)
Mary Mcleod Bethune was an important black educator, civil and women's rights activist, and government official. She founded many organizations for black women's suffrage, educating black youth, and consistently fought for gender and race equality.
She was invited to speak at Engle Street Junior High School in April of 1952 but was barred from speaking due to accusations of her involvement in communist subversive groups. The speech was postponed when the mayor of Englewood (1948-1953), Melvin Leslie Denning met with the President of Henry Douglas Post 58 American Legion Auxilary and President of the Board of Education. Reports made by the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the California Legislative Committee on Un-American Activities were shown. Bethune instead gave the speech at Englewood Negro Church.
There was a controversy over the refusal to allow Bethune to speak and the accusations the auxiliary leveled toward her. One side agreed with the decision to bar Bethune until she proved her innocence and the other denounced the actions of the leaders in Englewood for unfounded accusations. Some also believed that the Board of Education and the Auxiliary were using possible ties to communism as a means of racial discrimination.
Later in May, the Board of Education reinvited Bethune to give a speech. She returned in June to do so. -
Jackson, Alexander Louis (1891-1973)
Born March 1, 1891 in Englewood New Jersey, Alexander Jackson grew up on William and Humphrey Street in the heart of Englewood's historic African American community.
Jackson attended Lincoln and Liberty Schools, Englewood High School, Andover and Harvard University.
In 1915, along with his friend Carter G Woodson, he co-founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life. The ASNL established Negro History Week in 1926, which would later become Black History Month. In 1917 Jackson also became one of the founders of the Chicago branch of the National Urban League. From 1921 to 1924 he was the assistant publisher of the Chicago Defender, the largest owned African American newspaper during that era. He became the general manager in 1925. Jackson was the president of the board of trustees of the Provident Hospital and Training School, which was the first African-American-owned and operated hospital in America.
Jackson was married to Charlotte E. Walker in 1914. During this marriage, he had four children, Caroline Booth, Alexander Louis Jackson III, William Edward Jackson, and Winslow Loring Jackson. Charlotte died in 1928 and Jackson married Jana Lenas Booth who passed in 1966. His last wife was Marie Poston whom he married in 1968. -
Arnold Brown (1932-?)
Arnold Brown was born on April 12, 1932, in Englewood, Brown's family had deep roots in New Jersey and Englewood. Brown grew up in the 4th ward and attended Lincoln Elementary and Dwight Morrow High School. Brown graduated from Bowling Green State University and received his law degree in 1957 from Rutgers University. He practiced law from 1957 to 1986.
Brown became a key figure in the Civil Rights movement in Englewood as a leader of the NAACP and Urban League. He also founded the Du Bois Book Center, which focuses on African American Studies.
In 1965, Brown became the first African American elected to the state legislature from Bergen County. In the 1980s and 1990s, Brown became a prominent historian of African American history in Bergen County.
He married Lydia Barbara White in 1955. After her death, Brown married Gwendolyn Wertby. He has four children, Crystal L., Beverly M. Brown-Fitzhugh, Dale E. Brown-Davis, and Arnold E.