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Exhibition Not an Ostrich: & Other Images from America's Library

Not an Ostrich: & Other Images from America's Library

R. P. SLATER. Niagara Movement Founders. 1905

R.P. Slater. Niagara Movement founders, 1905. Founding members of the Niagara Movement superimposed over an image showing Niagara Falls in the background; (l. to r.) front row, Henry L. Baily of Washington, D.C., Clement G. Morgan of Massachusetts, W.H.H. Hart of Washington, D.C., and B.S. Smith of Kansas; middle row, Frederick L. McGhee of Minnesota, Norris Bumstead Herndon, son of Alonzo Herndon, J. Max Barber of Illinois, W.E.B. Du Bois of Atlanta, Georgia, and Robert Bonner of Massachusetts; back row, H.A. Thompson of New York, Alonzo F. Herndon of Georgia, John Hope of Georgia, and an unidentified man, possibly James R.L. Diggs. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress
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R. P. SLATER. Niagara Movement Founders. 1905

In 1905, a group of African American men met at Niagara Falls to begin to formulate a program seeking full rights for blacks and to discuss alternatives to Booker T. Washington’s conciliatory policies. They were led by W. E. B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter, a journalist and businessman. The platform they developed included demands for free speech and press, the right to vote, equal civil rights, and educational and economic opportunity. Although the group met several times, they did not have the funds to implement their program. The NAACP later adopted most of their platform.