Sociology

With the indebted struggle to achieve fairness and equality in the various footholds of human life, there consequently arose NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), in the American continent. This was after a long trailing context and state of discrimination that had obviously left the non-white human population at a state of comparative disadvantage in the view of benefit from the state and national resources. Non-whites went through ruthless rejection, segregation, discrimination and brutality from the white men. The birth of this movement was by far described as the only source of refuge and hope that the non-white population was getting from their white counterparts. In its historical campaign for equality between these two social human backgrounds, however, the non-white human population lastly had to acknowledge of their resting point that constituted reservation of their rights. Principally however, the same movement coiled itself through multiple historical paradigms and actions before it could achieve its full splendid state of its mission in fighting for the rights of the Black Americans. Currently, the movement still anchors itself in a widespread state of reserved human dignity based on an unclassified equality. This paper shall be a well coordinated research activity that explores the basic and intrinsic variables that have characterized the functionality of the movement since its conception.

Introduction
The NAACP which is pronounced as the N-double A-C-P, stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.  This association is among the oldest civil rights bodies in the United States. NAACP is influential in the national politics, economic development educational and social equity which further tries to eliminate racial discrimination and fosters harmonious interaction among the humanity.  The headquarters of the organization is in Baltimore, Maryland and bestows numerous awards for its exceptional achievements in promoting human right among the African Americans in the US. Its current membership is about 300,000, whose budget is about 28,000,000 and its current president is Benjamin Jealous (NAACP, n.d).

Organizational Structure of the NAACP
With its headquarters in Baltimore, the organization has regional offices in different states, for example, the regional offices in California, Michigan, Georgia, Missouri, Texas, and New York.  Regional offices coordinate State conferences efforts within the region, organizing forums for youths, local as well as college chapters.  NAACPs leadership is made up of national board of coordinators, comprising of 64 members headed by a chair person and the board is responsible for the election of the organizations of president as well as the election of the chief executive officer.

As mentioned earlier, the current president who was elected in 2007 to replace the former president, Bruce S. Gordon after his resignation in March is Benjamin T. Jealous.  He is the youngest ever elected president. The chairman is Julian Bond, a former State senator at Georgia and an activist in civil rights movements. The organization is further divided into branches that organize leadership within the NAACP action areas. The college, the youth and the branch as well as the field departments are responsible for the organization of the local chapters. Court cases of varied spectrum are dealt by the legal department.  Some of the cases dealt by the court include the discrimination cases in education, employment or government. To lobby the United States government is the work of the Washington D.C. office, while the work of improving the public education programmes (at all levels federal, State and local) is the duty of the Education department (Ware, 1994). Heath care improvement among the minorities via education and the assurance of proper public policy implementation is a key objective at the health division.

Origin
The development of NAACP started with the meeting of 32 outstanding African American personalities with the aim of discussing and alleviating the challenges that faced the people who were not whites and the so called the people of color, meaning that they were not white skinned. This meeting was held in the 1905 and some of the problems included the blacks disfranchise at the southern region (1890-1908) after the ratification of new constitution in the south that imposed voter registration barriers as well as development of tough segregation rules that sidelined the people of color.
 
Since the group of activists met at the Niagara Falls in a hotel, it was then named the Niagara Movement which was in a years time joined by three whites who were a journalist and two social workers.  After struggling for some time, most of the Niagara movement members joined the NAACP in 1910 but the two organizations coexisted in their roles with overlapping membership and participation in roles (NAACP, n.d). The origin of the NAACP was at the very meeting that included the meeting of three whites and the initial Niagara movement members.

The formation of the NAACP was provoked by the race riot which took place in 1908 in Illinois, Springfield, the hometown of Lincoln.  This caused the desire to have civil right organization in the United States of America. The meeting of the three white, Mary W. Ovington, Wiliam E.Walling and Henry Moscowitz, in New York during early 1909 proposed a founding date as the 12th February 1909 in which a meeting was scheduled to coincide with the presidents anniversary (A. Lincoln).  However, the meeting only materialized three months later and a series of meetings with enrolment of new members followed. By 30th May 1910, the NAACP was full fledged with leaders Moorefield S. Boston elected as the first president to the organization and Wiliam, E. Walling as the executive officer, the treasurer John E. Milholland, executive secretary France B., the disbursing treasurer Oswald G.V., and the publicity and research director Dr. W.E.B., to spearhead the running of the organization.

By 1911, the organization was incorporated with its missions to advance the equality of rights thus getting rid of racial prejudice, encouraging impartiality in the insecurity provisions, ensuring unlimited education to all young as well as equal employment opportunities for all citizens regardless of their races. NAACP comprises of various groups of leaders and members from the white, Jewish Americans and African Americans. Although the executive directors were elected from the African American, but not until 1975 did they elect a black president.

NAACP largely used the court to try overturning the   statutes of Jim crow that had ordered legitimacy to racial isolation.  For example, in the year 1913, NAACP mobilized the resistance of the racial segregation by the president Wood which was practiced in his offices and policy making in the federal government as well as the employment sector.  In 1914, NAACP had fifty branches and over 6000 enrolled members.  Under pressure from the desire of African Americans to serve in the First World War and as officers caused an increased rate of registration by 1915, the group staged a nationwide demonstration to counter segregation of races (Taubers, 1998).  Disfranchise of the people of color in the south and the racism that existed forced the NAACP to file lawsuits against them on behalf of the citizens. By 1917, the Supreme Court under pressure from the NAACP drafted clause in the constitution that stated that the African American would no longer be segregated in the public places and local authorities.

The invitation of James Weldon by Joel Spingarn, who was the chairman in the 1916, was very instrumental because James became very influential to the team encouraging a high rate of registration from nine thousand to ninety thousand in 1920.  His election as the head of this organization was vital for his lobbying power in driving the organization to a greater level of advocacy and fight for human freedom and rights within the next 10 years.  The NAACP dedicated a greater percentage of its time to fight against the killing of blacks which occurred in large numbers in the interwar years all over the United Nations of America. For example, in the October of 1919, 200 black tenants are said to have been killed when the deputy sheriff was attacked at a union conference in which only one white man was killed.  Although NAACP did not win most of their attempts to counter the courts rulings on the lynching of most blacks, the motive was always to fight for equality between the human races and promotion of their well being (Taubers, 1998). They organized demonstrations and filed lawsuits to object the unfair treatment and killing of the black as well as their discrimination.  It fought for the recognition of the African American despite the continued killings at the time.

Plan against segregation
NAACP took up on itself to bear the cost of civil suits that regarded human rights and discrimination against races.  These legal proceedings were undertaken under the legal department of NAACP led by Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall who together campaigned against discrimination. The formation of the NAACP legal Defense Fund was a strong stepping ground towards the fight against segregation in schools at Maryland State in 1940.

Only after the Supreme Courts ruling in the 1954, under the education board meeting, it was shown that segregation was unconstitutional for all state funded elementary school.  This made the NAACP work tirelessly towards the desegregation of the southern part of the nation, especially by organizing activists demonstrations in the city streets and in public places.  Bus boycotts were common and as a result in 1955, the Alabama State in response barred NAACP from its border operations since it failed to disclose its members list (NAACP, n.d).  There was fear among NAACP activists that if they unveiled their members, they could be victimized or even killed.

With time, many other human rights activists rose to fight for the rights of African Americas.  These included student groups, Christian movements, and youth groups whose approach was neither litigate nor legislative but community mobilization oriented in trying to advance these rights.  In 1960s, NAACP had already managed to have full civil rights laws put in the constitution with persuasion from different presidents to work on the employment bills.  By 1975, the group had recorded much progress on their roles of letting the enslaved black constitutionally free.

NAACP under crises in the 1990s
The organization which had already formed the legal defense fund was now under crisis. It ran out of funds and two of its leading officials were dismissed from the organization.  The appointment of revered Benjamin Chavis in 1993 as the executive director was not amusing since he was found to be controversial and was thus laid off after 8 months of leadership.  He misused the organizations funds.  The next figure was the chairman, Evers Wiliam who was elected in 1995 after the accusation of Gibson for overspending the NAACP funds and Kweisi Mfume of Maryland became the president.  Later in the 1990s, the organization managed to revive its collapsing fund sources and was back to its operations (Ware, 1994).

NAACP operations are still in process because the organization is still vocal on contravention of presidents and senators who seem to contradict the promotion of equality among citizens. For example, President Lee Alcorn who discriminated against the election of Senator Joe as vice president just because he was a Jew was reprimanded at once by the NAACP president Mfume.  The US former president Gorge Bush is recorded as the first president who failed in his speech to address the NAACP even though they had invited him in 2004 in one of their conferences.  However, after persistent invitations, Bush addressed the group in 2006 and called for support to the republican Americans by Africa Americans.

Conclusion
Summarily, the strive by the NAACP organization is worth its credits for the best work that it has done in the promotion of human life, working with the governments over the years and the youths as well as the unity restoration among many races in the U.S and serving as a roll model to many developing nations.