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Abstract
It is, perhaps, part of the liberal credo that a man need not be black in order to become sincerely indignant about the second-class citizenship status which often is afforded his black neighbors. The twentieth century civil rights movement, as manifested through the rise of large- scale organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Urban League, have been 01-racial in both administrative leadership and membership. Indeed, whites were prominent in the founding of both organizations.
This study seeks a deeper understanding of the role, motivations, strengths, and shortcomings of the white liberal leadership within minority group organizations by focusing in-depth upon one such white liberal, J. E. Spingarn, an incorporator of the NA AGP and Chairman of its Board of Directors (1914-18; 1932-34) and President (1930-39). Spingarn is an ideal choice for a study of this nature for his active participation in the NAACP spanned, almost without interruption, the first twenty-eight years of the organization’s rise. More significantly, he, as an individual, was sufficiently complex and his Interests so varied that oy looking through his eyes and seeing the organization's rise as he saw it, much light is shed upon such pertinent questions as the relationship of whites like him to their alack co-workers as well as to other whites; the impact of a white liberal’s peculiar economic and social philosophy in shaping the organization’s tactical approach to the race problem; and, conversely, the impact of currents of black thought and changing times upon Spingarn’s personal philosophy and outlook on the race problem. Although a significant portion of the Association’s affairs is inevitably incorporated into the study, its central focus always is Spingarn.
