Niagara Movement - End of The Niagara Movement

End of The Niagara Movement

The Niagara Movement suffered from a number of organizational flaws including a lack of funding and central leadership. Additionally, Booker T. Washington's opposition drew support away from the group. Following the Springfield Race Riot of 1908, the Niagara Movement admitted their first white member, Mary White Ovington, a settlement worker and socialist. In 1911, the remaining membership of the Niagara Movement joined with a number of white progressives to form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). According to the NAACP's Crisis Magazine of August 1914 which was edited by W.E.B. Dubois, Mary White Ovington wrote an article titled "How The NAACP Began" and the article states that having been prompted by the Springfield Race Riots which took place in Lincoln's hometown, the NAACP began by design on the 100th anniversary of Lincoln's birthday in 1909 to revive the spirit of Lincoln and abolition and that in 1910 upon hiring W.E.B Dubois, the NAACP learned from him of the Niagara Movement which was struggling financially and upon the members of the Niagara Movement, founded in 1905, learning about this new organization the NAACP, they decided to merge their organization with the NAACP. Mary White Ovington in her article never mentions being a member of the Niagara Movement.