Niagara+Movement


 * By Jabari, Ethan, **  ** Macire and Taylor Grade 4 **

The Niagara Movement was started by W.E.B. Du Bois in 1905. Du Bois wrote a letter to Black professionals to address racism, segregation and the right for everybody to vote. Du Bois wanted Booker T. Washington to stop having power to keep people from fighting segregation. The letter asked people to get together and stand up for the freedom to speak their minds, to get the jobs they needed, to vote and to have civil rights. In July, 1905, twenty nine Black professionals went to Niagara Falls and had a meeting. They called their group the Niagara Movement because the first meeting they had was on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. They couldn’t find a hotel that would take them on the American side, so they had to go on the Canadian side. William Monroe Trotter, Frederick McGhee, John Hope and C.E. Bentley were some of the people who went to the first meeting.

In August, 1906, they had another meeting. It was on the grounds of where John Brown fought against slavery, and died trying, at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. The people who attended the meeting took off their shoes because they felt they were on holy ground. Du Bois wrote an address from all the things said at the meeting.

**Niagara** **Address of 1906**

The Niagara movement says that we will not accept anything below the rights of a citizen. We will not stop fighting for our rights until we get every right that American citizens have. 1. We want to be able to vote, and we want that right now and forever.

2. We want to stop segregation in public places.

3. We want the right to be friends with anybody of any race.

4. We want anyone who breaks the law to go through the legal system including whites and Blacks, business owners and workers, and the rich and the poor.

5. We want our children to be educated and learn how to read. We want the national government to provide education for everybody. We want our children not to be taught to be servants. We want a proper education for our children so they can be leaders.

This is how we will get equal opportunity: by protesting non-stop, and by voting.