Borders of Equality: The NAACP and the Baltimore Civil Rights Struggle, 1914-1970

CHAPTER FOUR: Youth Activism and the NAACP

109 CHAPTER FOUR Youth Activism and the NAACP [D]on’t let anyone tell you that theYoung People don’t work, for if it were not for them I could not have the success with the Baltimore Branch that we do.TheYouth Council Members turned out in full and looked beautiful. —LillieJacksontoJuanitaJackson,February17,19371 How to organize and sustain a youth wing of the NAACP was a perennial problem for the national office and its local affiliates. Firstly, it was an issue of how to attract younger people into an organization dominated by adults and to train them in activist tactics. Secondly, it was the issue of the relationship of the youth wing of the NAACP with the adult branch that, in many ways, had parallels with local adult branch tensions with the national organization in New York. Thirdly, there was the problem of generational tensions and the way that adults often appeared too conservative and slow-moving on civil rights when compared to the youth of a community. From the 1920s onward, adult attitudes towards youth dictated how they shaped youth adjuncts to the NAACP. Youth was seen as a time when people could be corrupted by undesirable influences, such as liquor or un-American ideologies such as communism, so it was best to shape their impressionable characters within respectable and established organizations . By so doing, they could also be taught civil rights history and activism and become part of a broader movement that sought group uplift. In 110 Youth Activism and the NAACP this way, youth was seen to be vulnerable to deviant influences but also had the energy, if harnessed correctly, to pursue the NAACP civil rights agenda with vigor. Civil rights activism was recognized, therefore, not simply as an immediate political activity but as a generational endeavor. The NAACP organized Youth Councils and College Chapters to sustain and mold the ongoing struggle and create continuity across the generations by socializing youth into black activist history. Exactly how to channel youth activism was an issue for the NAACP and it was invariably seen as women’s unique appreciation of childhood and youth experience that often channeled their activity toward being branch youth advisers. In Baltimore in 1926, a plan was submitted to the national office by Azzie Koger, wife of branch president Linwood Koger, for a Boys and Girls League that she envisaged being an NAACP auxiliary , based on the Boy Scouts but not segregated, and that it would spread throughout the South. Azzie Koger saw the group as being for those in the age range of 8 to 18, “for the teaching of elements of good citizenship and essentials of racial pride and leadership:2 Because of the alarming indifference of older members and friends of the National Association, and the lack of knowledge on the part of the youth of our group, it has occurred to Mr. Koger that something must be done to . . . secure future rights . . . [I]t is time to teach independent principles to our youth . . . Train youth to know needs of race, believe in and encourage Negro business and enterprises, learn general history, codes, customs, etc., of our race and other dark people throughout the world, to keep physically and morally fit, learn operation of the government as it relates to Negroes, visit historical places of interest to Negroes.3 A uniform would be adopted and there “must be oaths, salutes, mottoes, hikes, pilgrimages, etc.” The oath would be: “Upon my honor, I hereby promise to be reverent to God, loyal to my country, true to my race, dutiful to my family and home and fair to myself.” A salute would be used while administering the oath: “five fingers to denote five points in [the] oath—palm to the front to denote openness and cleanliness of thought and action.” In this manner, the group would be focused on patriotism and dutifulness, contradicting the white image of black youth as either indolent or criminally inclined, thus making them respectable and therefore suitable to have their rights granted. It was a constant struggle getting the civil rights youth groups to organize and survive an initial burst of enthusiasm. University and college Youth Activism and the NAACP 111 groups were often the first youth groups for the NAACP to organize, believing that students were the future leaders in their communities and in the struggle, and it was...