History Vault

NAACP Papers:  Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and National Staff Files (Module 5)

The content in module 5, NAACP Papers- Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches and National Staff Files, is internal memos, legal briefings, and direct action summaries from national, legal, and branch offices throughout the country. It charts the NAACP's work and delivers a first-hand view into crucial issues: lynching, school desegregation, and discrimination in the military, the criminal justice system, employment, and housing, among others. It provides a comprehensive view of the NAACP’s evolution, policies, and achievements from 1909–1970.

ProQuest’s digitization of the NAACP Papers begins with the central organizational records of the Association. Foremost among these records are thousands of pages of minutes of directors’ meetings, monthly reports from officers to the board of directors, proceedings of the annual business meetings, and significant records of the association’s annual conferences. This module also collects voluminous special reports written by the association’s officers and committees on a wide range of issues including the Ku Klux Klan, discrimination in public employment, the depiction of Blacks in motion pictures, economic equality, the church and civil rights, the changing attitudes of Black youth, and more.

The Annual Conferences served both as a major catalyst for attracting publicity and as an important avenue for grass roots participation (through branch delegations) in the affairs of the national organization. The conferences were held in a different city each year. The speeches and the resolutions passed at the annual conferences are excellent ways to study the major concerns of the NAACP on a yearly basis.