The 1908 Springfield Race Riot made Illinois the center of national attention and uproar as it was the final straw for many advocates for racial justice in the United States. Those acts of racial terror committed in August 1908 gave way for the creation of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People or NAACP — one of the oldest civil rights organizations in the U.S. In its over a hundred years of existence, the NAACP has tirelessly worked to make racial justice and equality a reality for all Americans.

Sonali PrillmanFebruary 8, 2021NAACP, Martin Luther King Jr, Black History, March on Washington, 1908 Springfield Race Riots, Grandfather clause, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida Wells-Barnett, Mary Church Terrell, Niagara Movement, 13th Amendment, 14th Amendment, 15th Amendment, Guinn v. United States, Brown v. Board of Education, Civil rights movementComment