|
66
assembled at Bethel AME church to hear national NAACP leader Oswald
Garrison Villard speak.
The fourth residential segregation ordinance, passed in 1913, was, however,
upheld, and "the Baltimore idea" became an inspiration for segregationists
nationally. As more and more residential segregation ordinances were instituted in
municipalities around the country, the national NAACP mounted a concerted
campaign against them, thereby consolidating itself as a national force. In 1917 the
U.S. Supreme Court, in a response to a suit by the national office of the NAACP,
struck down the Louisville ordinance; Hawkins had filed a brief in the case on
behalf of the Baltimore branch. Three months later, in response to a longstanding
appeal by the Baltimore NAACP, the Maryland Court of Appeals overturned the
Baltimore ordinance. Although the practice of residential segregation in Baltimore
was subsequently continued by other means (restrictive covenants, systematic
intimidation, and conspiracies between the city government, real estate brokers and
banks), an important victory had been won, and the Baltimore branch of the
NAACP had established itself locally and nationally.
Throughout the late teens and the twenties, the Baltimore NAACP played
what became its characteristic role as the organizing center for freedom movement
campaigns in the political arena. The NAACP was in the middle of the multi-
faceted struggle over Black education throughout the 1920s, and NAACP leaders
were in the leadership of the Defense League - the coalition of community forces
formed during that struggle. Moreover, the NAACP functioned as the organizing
center of the Baltimore Black freedom movement in several other ways. First, it
maintained intimate relationships with movement organizations involved in the
economic struggle: as noted above, the president of the NAACP was a member of
the advisory board of the BUL. Secondly, the NAACP was strongly connected to
the more politicized wing of the Black Protestant churches, a fact symbolized by the
important roles Black ministers played in the leadership of the NAACP and by the
|
