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Question 1 – Why was the Niagara Movement necessary?
By the dawn of the 20th century race relations in the United States had reached an all time low. The 1896 Supreme Court ruling Plessy v. Ferguson had established “separate but equal” as the law of the land; segregating schools, hospitals, restaurants, and stores, and generally confining black Americans to a legally codified second-class status. Along with segregation came economic and political disenfranchisement, and a tidal wave of violence and intimidation designed specifically to prevent African Americans from making progress of any kind. Historian Rayford Logan has referred to this period in as the “nadir” in American race relations.

The response of black people to racial oppression was varied. Many supported the accommodationist policies advocated by Booker T. Washington, which stressed self-improvement but did little to directly challenge racism. There were, however, individuals and groups of people determined to force the United States to live up the principles of freedom and justice for all articulated in the nation’s founding documents. In 1905, W.E.B. Du Bois convened a small gathering to create an organization and a movement that would challenge the prevailing system and fight for full civil and human rights for all black people.

Question 2 – Why was it called the Niagara Movement?
The first Niagara meeting (July 1905) was scheduled to take place in Buffalo, New York. The gathering was moved to Ontario when Du Bois and his colleagues were refused accommodations because of their race. This initial planning session took place near Niagara Falls and Du Bois and several other participants posed for at least one photo using the falls as a scenic backdrop.

Question 3 – Why did the Niagara Movement come to Harpers Ferry in 1906?
The reasons “Niagarites” chose Harpers Ferry were both symbolic and practical. Harpers Ferry was the site of John Brown’s 1859 raid and regarded by many black Americans as “sacred” soil. Harpers Ferry was also home to Storer College, a black institution of higher learning, whose meeting rooms and dormitories were made available for use by Niagara Movement participants.

Question 4 – Who were the principle leaders of the Niagara Movement?
The leaders of the Niagara Movement were, by and large, African Americans from what biographer Paul D. Nelson has referred to as the “generation of the 1860s.” These were men and women who had been emancipated during the Civil War or born free during the conflict or in the years immediately following its conclusion. To a person, they chafed under the indignities a segregated society inflicted and determined to improve conditions for their race.

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963) was one of the main driving forces behind the development of the Niagara Movement. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois was the first African American to graduate from Harvard University. Du Bois achieved wide fame in 1903, when he published “The Souls of Black Folks.” A trained historian and sociologist dedicated to rooting out the “truth” through rational, scientific methods, Du Bois, nevertheless, became increasingly active in the political struggle for racial equality and civil rights. He once wrote, “one could not be a calm, cool, and detached scientist while Negroes were lynched, murdered, and starved....”

John Robert (J.R.) Clifford (1848-1933) was a Civil War veteran, a Storer College student, and the first African American to serve as a lawyer in the state of West Virginia. Clifford’s 1898 landmark civil rights victory in the West Virginia Supreme Court (Williams v. Board of Education) was one note in a building crescendo of legal, political, and economic challenges that black civil rights pioneers were making against state-sanctioned segregation. Clifford helped to organize the 1906 Niagara meeting at Harpers Ferry and was friends and confidant of W.E.B. Du Bois.

Frederick L. (F.L.) McGhee (1861-1912) attended the 1906 Niagara meeting as the representative from Minnesota and as the head of the Niagara Movement’s legal department. The son of former slaves, McGhee became a lawyer and civil rights advocate, and operated successful law practices first in Chicago and then in St. Paul, Minnesota. McGhee became Minnesota’s first African American attorney and was one of the first prominent members of the black community to openly support the Democratic Party.

Question 5 – What role did women play in the development of the Niagara Movement?
Although women were not accepted as formal, voting members when the Niagara Movement was founded, black women did establish an auxiliary council to assist with planning and development. In February 1905, Mary B. Talbert opened her home to W.E.B. Du Bois and 32 other men for a planning session to prepare for the formal “first” gathering later that year. In 1906, women earned the right to participate in the Niagara Movement as full-fledged members.

Verina Morton Harris Jones (1865-1943) participated in both the 1905 and 1906 Niagara meetings. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Morton-Jones became the first woman of any race to practice medicine in the state of Mississippi. She was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Women (founded in 1896). Morton-Jones was a steadfast advocate for women’s suffrage and a board member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Adrienne McNeil Herndon (1869-1910) graduated from Atlanta University and later became a teacher of elocution and the performing arts at her alma mater. Adrienne McNeil met and married Alonzo Herndon (primary investor and first president of the Atlanta Life Insurance Company) and accompanied him to the 1905 Niagara meeting. Their son Norris is the boy featured in the historic photograph of Du Bois and the other Niagara meeting principles taken in 1905 in front of Niagara Falls.

Question 6 – Why do we know so little about the Niagara Movement?
The Niagara Movement directly challenged the views of Booker T. Washington, who was, in 1906, arguably the most widely known black person in the United States. In his 1895 speech known as the “Atlanta Compromise,” Washington urged blacks to “cast down their bucket” where they stood, by which he meant that friendly relations with southern whites and the development of black industrial and agricultural skills better suited the race than pursuit of a radical civil rights agenda and advanced education. Washington truly believed that Du Bois and his cohorts were advocating a course of action that would yield no benefits to black people, while also alienating white allies. As Washington argued, “our greatest danger is, that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions of our hands…”

Du Bois, F.L. McGhee, and other black men and women regarded Washington’s views as far too conciliatory for the times and often delivered their criticisms of Washington’s views in highly personal attacks. Washington, in turn, used his substantial influence to stifle most press coverage of the Niagara Movement, and with a few exceptions he succeeded.

Moreover, the Niagara Movement suffered throughout its short life from an acute shortage of funds. This led to an inability to take on high profile legal cases, establish and maintain national campaigns that were press-worthy, and expand the membership of the organization. Once the Niagara Movement folded, memories of that brief but powerful assemblage were eclipsed by the birth of the NAACP, which Du Bois helped to establish in 1909.

Question 7 – What happened at the 1906 Niagara meeting at Harpers Ferry?
The “Niagarites” met for three days to plan the future of their organization and receive reports about the state of “Negro affairs” in various parts of the United States. The participants helped craft a passionate call for an immediate end to racial segregation and violence (especially lynching), freedom to work and to assemble, and the right to vote. The1906 Niagara “Address to the Country” accurately captured the defiant and radical nature of the Niagara Movement.

In detail our demands are clear and unequivocal… We want full manhood suffrage, and we want it now, henceforth and forever.

On the last day of the gathering, Du Bois led his fellow Niagarites to John Brown’s Fort, located then on the Murphy Farm. As they approached the sacred structure men and women doffed their shoes, socks, and stockings, and made their way forward barefoot; a small token of their respect for John Brown’s effort to free four million enslaved Africans.

Question 8 – What was the immediate impact of the Niagara Movement on the United States and U.S. race relations?
The impact of the Niagara Movement on one hand was minimal. The press blackout orchestrated by Washington kept Niagara out of most major papers. Du Bois, Clifford, and McGhee, were all known more for their individual accomplishments or affiliations with later groups than for their roles as founding participants of the Niagara Movement. The Harpers Ferry meeting did, however, consolidate a solid core of Niagara men and women behind the drive for full, immediate, and equal rights and protection under the law. In many ways, the signal achievement of the Niagara Movement was that it set the stage for later movements and individuals to finally capture the rights its delegates had identified and demanded at Harpers Ferry in 1906. In that way, the second Niagara Movement meeting truly helped give birth to modern civil rights era.

Question 9 – What does the National Park Service have to do with the Niagara Centennial?
The Park Service manages Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, which includes within its boundaries the campus of Storer College. Because of the Niagara Movement’s spiritual ties to John Brown and its physical presence at Harpers Ferry in August 1906, the Park Service regards the Niagara Movement as an integral component of the history they interpret and preserve. Of the 390 parks in our current National Park System, fully two-thirds of the units commemorate the nation’s cultural and historic legacy.

Question 10 – How can I learn more about the Niagara Movement Centennial?
For additional information on the Niagara Movement and the Centennial celebration taking place August 17-20, 2006, please visit www.nps.gov/hafe/niagara or contact Alan Spears at aspears@npca.org.