NAACP in Kentucky
Encyclopedia
NAACP in Kentucky is very active with branches all over the state, largest being in Louisville and Lexington. The Kentucky State Conference of NAACP continues today to fight against injustices and for the equality of all people.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
was founded in 1909 as a civil rights organization for African-Americans during some of the most violent times of segregation
in the United States
. With locations across the United States, it grew to ensure the rights for all people within the country no matter race or ethnicity: “to fight for social justice for all Americans.”. Branches are set up in different states and work together for the common goal of equality. There are also different branches within the states. In Kentucky, there are over 55 branches located throughout the entire state (see the list at the NAACP Kentucky website).
from Louisville, Kentucky
(1877–1936), an American labor reformer and socialist educated at the University of Chicago
, the Hull House
and Harvard Law School
, brought his interest in women's rights
to his work with the American Federation of Labor
and founded the National Women's Trade Union League. A few years later, the Springfield Race Riot of 1908 in Illinois informed his work with Mary White Ovington
and Henry Moskowitz
to form the NAACP.
The Kentucky branch of the NAACP gained national recognition as early as 1940 in Louisville, Kentucky
. The NAACP had already supported several court cases to protest the unequal pay of African Americans teachers. Vallateen Virginia Dudley Abbington (1907–2003), one of several school teachers in Louisville who petitioned against the differential in pay, became a plaintiff in a NAACP suit argued by Thurgood Marshall
that led to the removal of a 15 percent salary discrepancy between black and white teachers in the Louisville public schools. The case, Abbington v Board of Education of Louisville (KY), filed on December 5, 1940, caused the School board to agreed to equal pay, but only if Mrs. Abbington from Jackson Junior High School dropped the lawsuit. The lawsuit was dropped and the salaries of teachers in Louisville no longer differed on the basis of race.
The Kentucky branch of the NAACP also fought against other discrimination through the civil rights movement
and beyond. In the case of Eilers v. Eilers, attorney James Crumlin, Sr. of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
, helped Anna sue for custody of her five children from her ex-husband, George Eilers of Jefferson County, Kentucky
. In 1964 Eilers had successfully sued his former wife (a white woman from New Haven, Kentucky
) after she married Marshall C. Anderson, an African American man, gaining custody of their children since interracial marriage was illegal in Kentucky at the time. Another important leadership role of the NAACP in Kentucky was in the 1970s when the NAACP of Louisville and the Kentucky Civil Liberties Union
worked together to fight segregation
in the Jefferson County Public Schools.
Chapter. Other accomplishments within the NAACP included the first woman prosecutor in Kentucky (1964), Alberta Jones, who also was the first African American woman to pass the Kentucky Bar (1959). With the help of Julia Etta Lewis, Grevious was able to join the Lexington Congress of Racial Equality
together to increase their efforts towards equality. Other notable African American women in Kentucky’s NAACP throughout history include:
Women within the Kentucky branches of the NAACP also received several notable awards in the organization such as the NAACP Magistrate Daniel Massie award for NAACP Involvement Above and Beyond the Call of Duty and the NAACP Herman E. Floyd Award along with other community awards for their participation. Women in the NAACP also helped to organize fundraisers and other events to help fund their causes and struggle.
Ashland - Boyd County Branch
Covington Holmes High School Chapter
Cynthiana & Harrison County Branch
Danville Youth Council
Danville-Boyle County Branch
Falmouth-Pendleton County Branch
Frankfort (Franklin County) Branch
Hamilton/Fairfield West Chester Branch
Hardin County Branch
Hardin County Youth Council
Hazard Perry County Branch
Kentucky State University
La Grange Reformatory Branch
Lebanon Branch
Lexington (Fayette County) Branch
Louisville Branch
Louisville Unit
Madison City Branch
Madison County (Richmond) Branch
Maysville Mason County Branch
Nelson County Branch
New Albany Branch
Northern Kentucky Branch
Northern Kentucky University Cc
Oxford
Paris-Bourbon Branch
Scott County Branch
Shelby County Branch
Springfield Branch
University Of Kentucky
University Of Louisville
Winchester (Clark Co)
Woodford County (Versailles) Branch
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
was founded in 1909 as a civil rights organization for African-Americans during some of the most violent times of segregation
Racial segregation in the United States
Racial segregation in the United States, as a general term, included the racial segregation or hypersegregation of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. With locations across the United States, it grew to ensure the rights for all people within the country no matter race or ethnicity: “to fight for social justice for all Americans.”. Branches are set up in different states and work together for the common goal of equality. There are also different branches within the states. In Kentucky, there are over 55 branches located throughout the entire state (see the list at the NAACP Kentucky website).
History of the NAACP in Kentucky
Kentuckians played a large role in the NAACP. William English WallingWilliam English Walling
William English Walling was an American labor reformer and socialist born in Louisville, Kentucky. He was the grandson of William Hayden English, the Democratic candidate for vice president in 1880, and was born into wealth. He was educated at the University of Chicago and at Harvard Law School...
from Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
(1877–1936), an American labor reformer and socialist educated at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, the Hull House
Hull House
Hull House is a settlement house in the United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located in the Near West Side of , Hull House opened its doors to the recently arrived European immigrants. By 1911, Hull House had grown to 13 buildings. In 1912 the Hull...
and Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
, brought his interest in women's rights
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
to his work with the American Federation of Labor
American Federation of Labor
The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
and founded the National Women's Trade Union League. A few years later, the Springfield Race Riot of 1908 in Illinois informed his work with Mary White Ovington
Mary White Ovington
Mary White Ovington was a suffragette, socialist, Unitarian, journalist, and co-founder of the NAACP.-Biography:...
and Henry Moskowitz
Henry Moskowitz
Henry Moskowitz was a civil rights activist, and one of the co-founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.-Biography:He was born in 1879 in Romania....
to form the NAACP.
The Kentucky branch of the NAACP gained national recognition as early as 1940 in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
. The NAACP had already supported several court cases to protest the unequal pay of African Americans teachers. Vallateen Virginia Dudley Abbington (1907–2003), one of several school teachers in Louisville who petitioned against the differential in pay, became a plaintiff in a NAACP suit argued by Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall
Thurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991...
that led to the removal of a 15 percent salary discrepancy between black and white teachers in the Louisville public schools. The case, Abbington v Board of Education of Louisville (KY), filed on December 5, 1940, caused the School board to agreed to equal pay, but only if Mrs. Abbington from Jackson Junior High School dropped the lawsuit. The lawsuit was dropped and the salaries of teachers in Louisville no longer differed on the basis of race.
The Kentucky branch of the NAACP also fought against other discrimination through the civil rights movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
and beyond. In the case of Eilers v. Eilers, attorney James Crumlin, Sr. of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City....
, helped Anna sue for custody of her five children from her ex-husband, George Eilers of Jefferson County, Kentucky
Jefferson County, Kentucky
As of the census of 2000, there were 693,604 people, 287,012 households, and 183,113 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 305,835 housing units at an average density of...
. In 1964 Eilers had successfully sued his former wife (a white woman from New Haven, Kentucky
New Haven, Kentucky
New Haven is a city in Nelson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 849 at the 2000 census.New Haven was founded as Pottinger's Landing in 1781 and later named New Haven by Samuel Pottinger after the Connecticut town...
) after she married Marshall C. Anderson, an African American man, gaining custody of their children since interracial marriage was illegal in Kentucky at the time. Another important leadership role of the NAACP in Kentucky was in the 1970s when the NAACP of Louisville and the Kentucky Civil Liberties Union
Suzy Post
Suzy Post, Louisville, Kentucky is an award-winning civil rights activist in the struggle against discrimination and social injustice in Kentucky. She joined a student branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People while a student at Indiana University...
worked together to fight segregation
Racial segregation in the United States
Racial segregation in the United States, as a general term, included the racial segregation or hypersegregation of facilities, services, and opportunities such as housing, medical care, education, employment, and transportation along racial lines...
in the Jefferson County Public Schools.
Women in the Kentucky NAACP
Women had leadership roles in the state and local branches. Osceola A. Dawson served as secretary to the Kentucky NAACP and Audrey Grevious was the president of the LexingtonLexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...
Chapter. Other accomplishments within the NAACP included the first woman prosecutor in Kentucky (1964), Alberta Jones, who also was the first African American woman to pass the Kentucky Bar (1959). With the help of Julia Etta Lewis, Grevious was able to join the Lexington Congress of Racial Equality
Congress of Racial Equality
The Congress of Racial Equality or CORE was a U.S. civil rights organization that originally played a pivotal role for African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement...
together to increase their efforts towards equality. Other notable African American women in Kentucky’s NAACP throughout history include:
- Olive Burroughs (1951–2003), the first African-American woman elected to the Owensboro, KentuckyOwensboro, KentuckyOwensboro is the fourth largest city by population in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is the county seat of Daviess County. It is located on U.S. Route 60 about southeast of Evansville, Indiana, and is the principal city of the Owensboro, Kentucky, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's...
City Commission - Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beatrice Cooke FouseElizabeth FouseElizabeth Beatrice Cooke Fouse was a Kentucky woman dedicated to gaining equality for African American women on both local and national levels. She founded as well as became the head of many organizations, with the ultimate goal of ending discrimination...
(1875–1952), served as the national organization's principal correspondent from Lexington, KentuckyLexington, KentuckyLexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region... - Rebecca Craft (1887–1945), a schoolteacher from Versailles, KentuckyVersailles, KentuckyAs of the census of 2000, there were 7,511 people, 3,160 households, and 2,110 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 3,330 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 88.18% White, 8.67% African American, 0.15% Native American, 0.35%...
, who formed the San Diego Women's Civic Organization and was president of the local branch NAACP - Daisy Jones, escaped from slavery in Kentucky to live in Canada, trained to be a nurse and when she moved to Denver, ColoradoDenver, ColoradoThe City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
in 1904, she became one of the organizers of the NAACP there - Jennie B. Liggin (1904–1977), founded the first AMEAfrican Methodist Episcopal ChurchThe African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination based in the United States. It was founded by the Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from several black Methodist congregations in the...
Girl Scout troop in Kentucky and with her husband, Reverend Clyde Absalom Liggin, in 1938 led a successful membership campaign of the Louisville Branch of the NAACP - Frances Harriet Williams (1899–1992), born in Danville, KentuckyDanville, KentuckyDanville is a city in and the county seat of Boyle County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 16,218 at the 2010 census.Danville is the principal city of the Danville Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Boyle and Lincoln counties....
was active in the YWCA and the NAACP
Women within the Kentucky branches of the NAACP also received several notable awards in the organization such as the NAACP Magistrate Daniel Massie award for NAACP Involvement Above and Beyond the Call of Duty and the NAACP Herman E. Floyd Award along with other community awards for their participation. Women in the NAACP also helped to organize fundraisers and other events to help fund their causes and struggle.
Local Branches
For more information on each of the branches below, see the national NAACP website:Ashland - Boyd County Branch
Covington Holmes High School Chapter
Cynthiana & Harrison County Branch
Danville Youth Council
Danville-Boyle County Branch
Falmouth-Pendleton County Branch
Frankfort (Franklin County) Branch
Hamilton/Fairfield West Chester Branch
Hardin County Branch
Hardin County Youth Council
Hazard Perry County Branch
Kentucky State University
La Grange Reformatory Branch
Lebanon Branch
Lexington (Fayette County) Branch
Louisville Branch
Louisville Unit
Madison City Branch
Madison County (Richmond) Branch
Maysville Mason County Branch
Nelson County Branch
New Albany Branch
Northern Kentucky Branch
Northern Kentucky University Cc
Oxford
Paris-Bourbon Branch
Scott County Branch
Shelby County Branch
Springfield Branch
University Of Kentucky
University Of Louisville
Winchester (Clark Co)
Woodford County (Versailles) Branch
See also
- Audrey GreviousAudrey GreviousAudrey Ross Grevious , born Audrey Louise Ross in Lexington, Kentucky, became one of the central leaders in the local civil rights movement in Lexington and the Commonwealth of Kentucky.- Early Life :...
- Loving v. VirginiaLoving v. VirginiaLoving v. Virginia, , was a landmark civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, the "Racial Integrity Act of 1924", unconstitutional, thereby overturning Pace v...
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored PeopleNational Association for the Advancement of Colored PeopleThe National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
- NAACP Legal Defense and Educational FundNAACP Legal Defense and Educational FundThe NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is a leading United States civil rights organization and law firm based in New York City....
External links
- Biography of John J. Johnson, youngest president of a Kentucky chapter of NAACP (currently Executive Director of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights) http://kchr.ky.gov/aboutExecDir.htm
- "Living the Story: The Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky – Audrey Grevious." Kentucky Educational TelevisionKentucky Educational TelevisionKentucky Educational Television, also known as KET: The Kentucky Network, is Kentucky's non-commercial educational public television state network...
: Education, Public Affairs, Arts and Culture, Online Video. Ed. Betsy Brinson, Tracy K’Meyer, Arthur Rouse, and Joan Brannon. Kentucky Oral History Commission, 2001. Accessed 16 Sept. 2010. KET video. - Johnson, Larry. "An Unsung Hero: Audrey Rice Grevious," History of Kentucky Women in the Civil Rights Era. University of Kentucky. Accessed 28 Nov. 2010. http://www.kywcrh.org/voices/grevious.