Note:
Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago.
Therefore, this work is protected by copyright,
restricting your legal rights to reproduce it.
However, you are welcome to view it on screen, as you do now.
Read more about copyright.
Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 39. Negro Improvement and Protest Organizations - 5. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People - 6. The N.A.A.C.P. Branches
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
822 An American Dilemma
gain more members in the lower and middle classes of the Negro people.
In the present war crisis the Association is making great strides forward,
and it is reported that Negro workers are increasingly coming to join the
Association.** There is also in recent years a visible tendency to try to get
workers, and, particularly, trade union officials, on the boards of the
branches. It is not improbable that as a result of the rigors and exigencies
of the War, the N.A.A.C.P. will come out as an organization much
stronger in membership and with much more of a following among the
masses.
6. The N.A.A.C.P. Branches
The activity of the Association depends largely upon the effective organi-
zation of its branches. They provide it with membership, the larger part of
its financial support, and information from and contacts with its field of
work. The branches are the lifeline of the Association, and the National
Office is constantly struggling to maintain them in vigor and to found new
branches, especially in recent years.*®
It is a heavy task the Association demands from the branches. We quote
from a summary made by Bunche from the instructions given by the
National Office:
The branches are to assume responsibility for the general welfare of the Negro
population of the particular locality. In carrying out the broad program enunciated
by the National Office, they are local vigilante groups covering all of the ramifications
of Negro life in a prejudice ridden milieu. The branches are to check on “biased
and discriminatory legislation, biased and discriminatory administration of the law,
and injustice in the courts.” They arc to combat attempts at racial discrimination in
civil rights, parks, museums, theaters, conveyances and other public places, and in
charitable and public agencies. They are expected to bring test cases on the rights of
Negro citizens before the courts, where great injustice is done because of race or
color prejudice. Instances of police brutality against Negroes are to be fought, and
Northern branches are admonished to be on the alert for cases of extradition involving
Negroes who have sought refuge in the North against Southern injustice. Branches arc
to seek to secure new laws and ordinances to protect the welfare of Negro citizens
and to prevent race discrimination. . . . The branches are expected to assume respon-
sibility for stimulating school attendance of Negro children, and encouraging Negro
youth to attend high school and college, and also to see to it “that careful technical
training in some branch of modern industry is furnished all colored children.” The
branches must oppose all forms of educational discrimination, and demand equal
educational accommodations and facilities for Negro youth; direct educational
segregation, and the subtle zoning of educational districts so as to segregate Negro
children indirectly, should be fought, and the branches should cooperate in the
current fight to equalize teachers’ salaries in Southern schools, and to eliminate the
Negro-white differentials in educational appropriations. Similarly the branches are
to look after the health needs of the Negro communities} tax supported hospitals
excluding Negro patients should be attacked, and efforts put forth to place Negro
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
