- NAACP Youth Council
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The NAACP Youth Council is a branch of the NAACP in which youth are actively involved. In past years, council participants organized under the council's name to make major strides in the 1950's and 1960's Civil Rights Movement. The 1958 Oklahoma City Lunch-counter Sit-in, guided by activist Clara Luper, was organized by the local Youth Council, and Claudette Colvin, the first person to refuse to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, was a member of the Council.
The NAACP Youth Council is composed of hundreds of state and county-wide operations in which youth (usually teens) volunteer to share their voices or opinions with their fellow council members, and then strive to address the issues raised on a local or national level. Sometimes this volunteer work expands to an international scale.
Mission
"The mission of the NAACP Youth & College Division shall be to inform youth of the problems affecting African Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities; to advance the economic, education, social and political status of African Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities and their harmonious cooperation with other peoples; to stimulate an appreciation of the African Diaspora and other people of color’s contribution to civilization; and to develop an intelligent, militant effective youth leadership"
Objectives
- Leadership and Activism Training
- Proactive Political and Community Activism
- Recruitment of new Youth Units
- Maintenance of existing Youth Units
- Public awareness of the necessity of youth involvement
- To be the leaders and trendsetters in the area of youth leadership and civil rights training
External links
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Leaders Presidents/CEOs
(executive secretaries 1910–77;
executive directors 1977–96)Frances Blascoer (1910–11) · Mary White Ovington (1911–12) · Mary Childs Nerney (1912–16) · Mary White Ovington (1916) · Royall Freeman Nash (1916–17) · James Weldon Johnson (1917–18) · John R. Shillady (1918–20) · James Weldon Johnson (1920–31) · Walter Francis White (1931–55) · Roy Wilkins (1955–77) · Benjamin Hooks (1977–92) · Benjamin Chavis Muhammad (1993–94) · Earl Shinhoster (1994–96) · Kweisi Mfume (1996–2004) · Dennis Courtland Hayes (2005) · Bruce S. Gordon (2005–7) · Dennis Courtland Hayes (2007–8) · Benjamin Jealous (2007–present)
Elected presidents
(1909–96, abolished)Moorfield Storey (1909–29) · Joel Elias Spingarn (1930–39) · Arthur B. Spingarn (1940–65) · Kivie Kaplan (1966–75) · William Montague Cobb (1976–82) · James Kemp (1983) · Enolia McMillan (1984–90) · Hazel N. Dukes (1990–92) · Rupert Richardson (1992–96)ChairpersonsWilliam English Walling (1910–11) · Oswald Garrison Villard (1911–14) · Joel Elias Spingarn (1914–19) · Mary White Ovington (1919–34) · Louis T. Wright (1934–53) · Channing Heggie Tobias (1953–60) · Robert C. Weaver (1960–61) · Stephen Gill Spottswood (1961–75) · Margaret Bush Wilson (1975–83) · Kelly Alexander (1983–84) · William Gibson (1985–95) · Myrlie Evers-Williams (1995–98) · Julian Bond (1998–2010) · Roslyn Brock (2010–present)See also NAACP Theatre Awards · NAACP Image Awards · NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund · NAACP Youth Council · Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics · Spingarn Medal · Niagara Movement · National Negro Committee · The Crisis
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