Historic Highlights
And Justice for All By Scott Kirkwood 
One hundred years ago this summer, a band of men and women gathered at Harpers Ferry to launch America's civil rights movement. In 1747, when Robert Harper first came upon the confluence of rivers and mountains that would one day bear his name, his slave Beck was the first black woman to set foot on the land. Fifty years later, enslaved African Americans helped build the federal armory in Harpers Ferry, then provided labor for the machinery that turned out rifles and muskets for the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the War of 1812, and the Mexican War. In 1859, the same small town in Virginia (now West Virginia) was the site of John Brown’s uprising—an event that failed to end the institution of slavery, but cast a light on the injustice, sowing the seeds of the Civil War.
So in 1906, when the descendants of freed slaves set out to advance the cause of African Americans, they could think of no more appropriate place to stake their claim. That group of 29 business owners, teachers, and clergy dubbed themselves the Niagara Movement, after their first gathering in Erie Beach, Ontario, July 1905. (They had been denied meeting space in nearby Buffalo, New York.) Thirteen months later, the group held its first public meeting on American soil, inviting women as full and equal members.
“This was the first national civil rights organization of the 20th century—the first organization that said ‘We’re not going to take this anymore,’ ” says Todd Bolton, project director of the Niagara Movement Centennial at Harpers Ferry. “In the latter part of the 19th century, with failed reconstruction in the South, and the Supreme Court issuing the Plessy vs. Ferguson decision making segregation the law of the land, this was the organization that stopped the hemorrhaging and began to slowly turn the tide in a positive direction.”
“If the Niagara Movement hadn’t taken place, the civil rights movement in this country would be years behind the times,” says George Rutherford, director of the Jefferson County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). “This country would be nowhere near where we are right now in terms of civil rights—Martin Luther King’s achievements wouldn’t have taken place and Brown v. Board of Education [Supreme Court ruling that effectively ended segregation in the public schools] would have happened much later—Niagara was the cornerstone for all of it.”
The members of Niagara tried to effect change in courtrooms and capital buildings, but also reached out to entertainers, authors, and political figures, addressing issues of crime, economics, religion, health, and education, among others. They did not politely ask to be recognized—they demanded equal rights in a forceful voice that hadn’t been heard before. They challenged the legality of Jim Crow laws, which amounted to institutionalized racism, but they often lacked the funds or political muscle to make meaningful change.
Even so, their work sent a powerful message to the entire country. W.E.B Du Bois, the leader of the new movement, was a college professor and respected author who not only stood up to white America, but also stood up to the most powerful black man in America at the time: Booker T. Washington.
“Du Bois and his followers didn’t want to settle for social segregation—they felt that a black man and a black woman should have every right afforded to a white man and a white woman,” says Bolton. “Whereas Washington was focused more on industrial training and education of the hands, Du Bois believed that every type of education should be opened to African Americans.” It’s no coincidence that most southern black colleges founded near the turn of the century tacked on the letters A&I at the end, for “Agriculture & Industry.” Du Bois and his followers wanted more.
Washington did all he could do to prevent the movement from gaining momentum, calling for a press blackout on coverage of the Harpers Ferry event. Even so, a handful of black papers printed articles, primarily those with connections to members of Niagara, like The Guardian and Voice of the Negro. Mary White Ovington, a white reporter for the New York Evening Post, wrote quite eloquently about the proceedings, and later became one of the primary founders of the NAACP, which emerged as Niagara came to a close near 1910. Du Bois went on to become an officer of the NAACP, the editor of Crisis magazine, and the backbone of the organization in its early years, joined by other prominent members of Niagara.
As the 100th anniversary of the meeting arrives in August, the Park Service has scheduled several events to be held in Harpers Ferry with help from NPCA and other sponsors. The Count Basie Orchestra will perform, Pulitzer-prize winning author David Levering Lewis will speak, and actors will recreate historic events. Visitors will hear from a panel of pioneers including Cheryl White, the first female African American jockey; Monte Irvin, one of the first baseball players to follow Jackie Robinson into the major leagues; Eddie Henderson, the nation’s first African American figure-skating champion, and others. For details, visit www.nps.gov/hafe/niagara/events.htm.
Scott Kirkwood is senior editor for National Parks magazine.
