Branch #7025
About Us
Vision Statement
The vision of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights and there is no racial hatred or racial discrimination.
Our Mission
The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.
Objectives
The following statement of objectives is found on the first page of the NAACP Constitution:
To ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of all citizens.
To achieve equality of rights and eliminate race prejudice among the citizens of the United States.
To remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes.
To seek enactment and enforcement of federal, state, and local laws securing civil rights.
To inform the public of the adverse effects of racial discrimination and to seek its elimination.
To educate persons as to their constitutional rights and to take all lawful action to secure the exercise thereof.
Our History
The Beginning — 1946
Stephen R. Young was the First Branch President. The St. Mary's County Branch Charter was approved by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (National) Board of Directors on January 7th, 1946.
“The Charter is granted on the condition that the local Branch will endeavor to the best of its abilities to cooperate with the National in furtherance of the Association's object namely to uplift the colored men and women of this country by securing to them the full enjoyment of their rights as citizens, justice in all courts, and equal opportunity everywhere.”
Early Advocacy — 1930s & 1940s
Prior to the issuance of the Branch Charter, in the late 1930s local residents met with a young NAACP attorney named Watts who came to the county several times to meet with residents. Immediately after receipt of the charter, members gathered to insist on help from National to improve the pitiful conditions in St. Mary's County Public “Colored” Schools.
Groves v. Board of Education — 1956
Although St. Mary's County was not chosen as a plaintiff in Brown v. Board of Education, the county became the plaintiff for a follow-up lawsuit filed about 1956 — Groves v. Board of Education. Conrad Groves (age 15) and Elaine Groves (age 17) were denied entry into the all-white Great Mills High School due to the St. Mary's County Board of Education's policy on integration.
The lawsuit asked the Court to uphold the Supreme Court decision directing all public schools to be desegregated. While St. Mary's County Board of Education prevailed in the local Circuit Court, Groves appealed to the Maryland Court of Appeals where the decision was overturned — a landmark victory for civil rights in Southern Maryland.