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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - IX. Leadership and Concerted Action - 39. Negro Improvement and Protest Organizations - 5. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
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Chapter 39. Improvement and Protest Organizations 821
bers of both races j
at present it is composed of 30 Negroes and 17
whites. There are 13 vice-presidents, 4 of whom are Negroes.^’*’ The
main executive officer and the responsible head of the Association is the
secretary. This office is now held by Walter White. Few branch officers are
white, although some whites serve on executive committees of branches.
It is estimated that about 10 per cent of the total membership of the Asso-
ciation is white. The Association is interracial only at the top, but practically
all Negro at the base.
The war crisis is giving increasing importance to the Association and
during the last few years there has been a remarkable increase in the num-
ber of local branches and in membership rolls. Currently there are 481
branches of the Association and, in addition, 77 youth councils*’^’^ and 22
college chapters. The total membership of the Association is approximately
85,000. The Crisis has a circulation of about 17,500 copies. Since 1940 the
Association has published a monthly paper, the N.A.A.C.P. Bulletin^ which
goes to all members. The National Office operates on a budget of around
$85,000. Much the larger part of the budget is derived from membership
fees, but a smaller part is raised by contributions from individuals and from
a few foundations, most often given for specific purposes.^’’’*
The branches—and consequently the National Association—have no-
where been able to build up a real mass following among Negroes. The
membership is still largely confined to the upper classes. It should be
remembered, though, that lack of mass participation is not peculiar to the
N.A.A.C.P. or even to the Negro world but is a characteristic of American
public life as a whole. Few similar organizations have reached the organ-
izational stability and the membership size of the N.A.A.C.P. It should also
be stressed that, while the lack of mass following is a weakness, the high
intellectual quality of the membership of the N.A.A.C.P. is an asset. Few
organizations in the entire country compare with the N.A.A.C.P. in respect
to the education and mental alertness of the persons attracted to it. In a
study of 5,512 Negro college graduates from all areas and of all ages,
Charles S. Johnson found that 25 per cent of them were members of the
N.A.A.C.P.®® No other organization for Negroes approached this percent-
age. The quality of the membership is reflected in the National Office. The
national leaders of Negroes have generally been intellectuals,®^ and the
N.A.A.C.P. represents the highest manifestation of this general tendency.
In most branches Negro professionals and businessmen constitute almost
exclusively the officers, boards and executive committees.
More fundamentally, however, this structure of the Association is a
weakness. The Association should have a much larger popular support in
order to be able to fight with greatest success. The national leaders of the
movement, and 3)eomostol the o&ccrslhavcCDinc’jn contsc!
with; are aw^rg pf the fart that the Association, if if wants to grow, must
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