Published: October 20, 2009 11:38 pm      

BRADBERRY: NAACP history is rooted in the Niagara Frontier

For the past two weekends I have been deeply immersed in two of the many “causes” I passionately believe in. Both have equal meaning in my life. Each is based upon my belief that we are all born with certain fundamental equal rights as human beings, including the right to be treated with dignity and fairness regardless of our differences.

To me that is basic; it drives me.

The first of the two weekends began with a five-hour drive to Albany where I attended the 73rd annual NAACP State Convention along with hundreds of members. I learned the obvious: Things are tough all over; we seem to be struggling for many of the same things the organization was formed to fight for 100 years ago. Only now, for too many reasons beyond color, the struggles are more difficult, sometimes more subtle and more difficult to take on alone.

The organization, like many others, has developed deep and abiding partnerships with people of all colors, from every level of the economy, every religion and political affiliation.

It felt to me, very much the way it must have felt in 1909 when W.E.B. Dubois and William Trotter began to realize the struggle for “negro” rights had to be broadened into a common fight for human rights, and that the initial call, which he had made five years earlier “to a few selected persons for organized determination and aggressive action on the part of men who believe in Negro freedom and growth” had to be expanded from the initial view of the Niagara Movement into something much bigger, and thus more powerful.

The Niagara Movement, as it became known was incorporated in January 1906 in the District of Columbia, but the group of 29 men met in Buffalo the week of July 9, 1905.

As DuBois wrote in his “The Autobiography of W.E.B. Dubois: A Soliloquy on Viewing My Life from the Last Decade of Its First Century”:

“Fifty-nine colored men from 17 different states eventually signed a call for a meeting near Buffalo, New York, during the week of July 9, 1905. I went to Buffalo and hired a little hotel on the Canadian side of the river at Fort Erie, and waited for the men to attend the meeting. If sufficient men had not come to pay for the hotel, I should certainly have been in bankruptcy and perhaps in jail; but as a matter of fact, 29 men representing 14 states came.”

Even though there are pictures of the men standing in what appears to be the falls, it is more likely that they were actually standing in front of a cardboard backdrop which could have been anywhere, but it is also likely that they at the very least visited the mighty Niagara while they were here, and there is no doubt whatsoever that they named the organization, The Niagara Movement.

While there is much speculation and often deep disagreement about whether they ever met here in the City of Niagara Falls, N.Y., we can all agree that they met in various places within the area we now generally refer to as the Niagara Frontier. This includes Canada, as well as Buffalo where historians have clearly documented that they did indeed assemble.

Some have even said the meeting was originally intended to be held here in Niagara Falls, that the “negroes were denied accommodation.” I do not know that to be true. I shall leave that to the legitimate historians to settle.

What is more important though, is that 100 years after the Niagara Movement grew and evolved into an international multiracial struggle for human and civil rights for everyone as a direct result of the seeds that they planted here, many of the same challenges still exist today.

Meanwhile I am hoping the 75th annual State Convention, which can draw more than 500 people into the city will be held here in 2011.

And as everyone probably knows by now, we kicked off our annual membership drive last Sunday (contact naacpniagara@yahoo.com to join) when our local NAACP Branch held our Centennial Celebration with an overflow crowd at New Hope Baptist Church.

The church was literally packed with a real diversity of people from all walks of life, different religious denominations, and opposing political affiliations, but they all gathered together in celebration of the movement that sprang forth in their own big back yard, the Niagara Frontier.

It was nothing short of amazing!

I had just returned from the annual Rotary International District 7090 Conference in Buffalo. Known as the “Best of Friends District” as it encompasses Rotary clubs on both sides of the international border, the organization is focused on many of the same challenges as the NAACP, ending suffering and bringing human dignity whenever and wherever it is necessary.

The largest non-governmental service organization in the world, Rotary has more than 3,200 active clubs with more than 1.2 million active members with hundreds of millions of dollars being used every year to support literacy programs, to end the spread of polio and to bring fresh water to the many hundreds of thousands of people all over the planet who are in great danger of dying for the lack of it.

Rotary has been on the ground, in the trenches in the poorest countries providing simple hand-operated water drilling equipment and wells, and delivering wheelchairs to men and women afflicted with the dreaded, albeit once thought eradicated crippling disease of polio in India, Africa and in other places around the world.

Rotary International, through its local clubs is constantly working to raise $200 million to match $350 million in challenge grants received from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As is pointed out at www.rotary.org, “The resulting $555 million will directly support immunization campaigns in developing countries, where polio continues to infect and paralyze children, robbing them of their future and compounding the hardships faced by their families.”

Read an intimate account of the effects of polio written by our very own Niagara Frontier author and polio survivor Janice Flood Nichols. “Twin Voices: A Memoir of Polio, the Forgotten Killer” is a touching and powerful account of her ordeal, the loss of her twin brother to the disease and how she recovered and has dedicated her life to its eradication. She lives in Lockport and her book is available at the Book Corner, as is everything else. Just give Jeff a call at 285-2928 and he’ll get it and any other books I mention for you.

What are the causes of discrimination and poverty? I don’t know, but I see the effects every day.

Contact Bill Bradberry at bill.bradberry@yahoo.com