Richmond County is in dire need of a little history lesson. In a recent letter to the editor Barbara Jackson stated a couple of mistruths. The first mistruth stated by Jackson was that three “white men” started the NAACP.
In 1905, a group of 32 prominent, outspoken blacks met to discuss the challenges facing “people of color” (a term that was used to describe those who were not white people) in the U.S. and possible strategies and solutions.
Among the issues they were concerned about was the disfranchisement of Blacks in the South from 1890 to 1908, when ten of eleven southern legislatures ratified new constitutions’ creating barriers to voter registration and complex election rules. Men who had been voting for 30 years were told they did not “qualify” to register.
Because hotels in the U.S. were segregated, the men convened under the leadership of Harvard scholar W. E. B. Du Bois at a hotel situated on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. A year later, “three whites joined the group”: journalist William E. Walling; social workers Mary White Ovington and Henry Moskowitz (Jewish).
Jackson also stated the mistruth that “white men” had started the United Negro College Fund.
Frederick Douglas Patterson a “black man” founded the United Negro College Fund in 1943. In 1944 Dr. Patterson launched UNCF’s first national campaign to raise funds for 27 small private, historically black colleges and universities. In 1964 Dr. Patterson was appointed CEO and President of the United Negro College Fund.
It is truly not my intention to say that whites and others did not help the movements to the freedoms that blacks enjoy today, but let’s try and print the truth when quoting the history of the United States.
Barbara Leviner Jackson, as usual, angry and misinformed.
Patti Almanza
Hamlet
I'm sorry that you're uneducated. I'm sorry that you cannot either A) open a history book, or B) Bother to look online.
Since you did bother to mention the term fool, aren't you the foolish one for the name-calling, when you, and partially Ms Alamanza are the ones in the wrong?
Well, maybe not foolish, just stupid - since you can bother to look the information up, but you refuse not to - thereby removing the premise that you could have just been ignorant, but instead, hated knowledge.
You must have some friends that are "thugs" - you know, the kinds of miscreant youths that HATE actual knowledge.
Poor Sookie - cool tv show, though.
While I agree with you about Douglass beginning the UNCF, you're not correct in your assertions about the NAACP.
DuBois did found the Niagara movement, which came about almost 5 years before the NAACP. It consisted of mostly African American members. HOWEVER, when the sympwas created, it came about jointly with DuBois - AS PART of a GROUP - consisting mostly of caucasian, and yes, even a Jewish person.
It's understandable that this happened. After all, sympathetic caucasian support was almost necessary given the state of things at the time of its inception (1909), and it still took over 50 years go accomplish many of its primary goals.
Your passion and enthusiasm are admirable, but don't call the kettle "black" just yet in your admonishments.