The Chicago NAACP and the Rise of Black Professional Leadership, 1910-1966

During the Civil Rights Revolution of the 1960s, the Chicago NAACP became less aggressive in its stance as it accommodated to the machine politics and growing influence of Congressman William L. Dawson, a supporter of a gradualist approach to gaining rights for African Americans. Reed contends that widespread support within the black community, regardless of class distinctions, gender issues, and political and ideological differences was essential to reaching institutional status. [...]the organization had to view the entire black community as its constituency, addressing both the basic socio-economic needs of the black working class and the status needs of the growing black middle and upper classes. The NAACP's growing militancy on jobs and fair employment practices, open housing, equal and integrated education, voting rights, and other issues was reflected in its concerted challenges to authority through the use of mass meetings and marches and direct action such as sit-ins.