Saaret Yoseph is a writer and Assistant Editor at TheRoot.com. She manages and blogs for \"Their Eyes Were Watching …\"
Founding Father
Joel Elias Spingarn, one of the NAACP's founders and second president. Spingarn was also one of the organization's first Jewish members.
The Man Who Killed Jim Crow
Lawyer, NAACP litigation director and former Dean of Howard University Law School Charles Hamilton Houston. He was involved in nearly every civil rights case brought to the Supreme Court between 1930-1954. Houston also trained Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall.
Lest We Forget…
A flag, frequently hung from the NAACP headquarters in New York, announces the death of a lynching victim.
Dynamic Duo
Former NAACP executive secretary Roy Wilkins and former Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall at work in the NAACP office.
First Lady First
Former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt attends an NAACP event in the 1950s.
The Dream Team
The 1964 conference on civil rights: From left: Bayard Rustin, Jack Greenberg, Whitney Young Jr., James Farmer, Roy Wilkins, Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis and A. Philip Randolph.
Ole Miss Man
Slain civil rights activist and former NAACP state field representative Medgar Evers. Evers, who worked hard to desegregate the University of Mississippi, was shot in his driveway in 1963. His killing shocked the nation and further energized the campaign to desegregate American life.
Birth of a Nation
The controversial 1915 silent film by D.W. Griffith was met with protest and demands of censorship by the NAACP. Despite the organization's national campaign against Birth of a Nation, it went on to become one of the highest selling Hollywood films, eventually beat out by "Gone with the Wind" in 1940.
Kentucky Klass Klash
A student of an integrated school in Sturgis, Ky. is escorted by the National Guard at the end of class.
At the Office
NAACP and The Crisis magazine office at 69 Fifth Avenue in New York City, N.Y.
Get Out & Vote!
A school bus sign advertising one of the NAACP voter registration drives.
Signs of the Times
NAACP members at the 1934 Crime Conference in Washington, D.C.
White Water, Black Water
A young black man drinks from a segregated water cooler in 1939.
Membership and Dues
In 1941, an NAACP membership poster targets new recruits and encourages readership of the magazine.
Visible Threats
Former NAACP executive secretary Roy Wilkins holds up a hangman's noose from Florida that was sent to the NAACP national headquarters.
Miss Lena Sings the Blues
Medgar Evers escorts singer Lena Horne into a Jackson, Miss. meeting hall for a civil rights rally in 1963.
Silent Protest
British NAACP picketers brandish anti-lynching posters.
War Wounds
Sept. 5, 1963: Pedestrians stop to look at the damaged home of NAACP attorney Arthur Shores. Assailants had bombed Shores' Birmingham, Ala. home the night before, injuring his wife.
Moving Forward
March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963.