Our History
The Brooklyn Branch of the NAACP grew out of the fight against lynching. Its organizing meeting, held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in December 1920, was an anti-lynching rally. Among those in attendance were Congressman Leonidas C. Dyer of Missouri, who had introduced the Anti-Lynching Bill in Congress, and Senator Joseph I. France of Maryland, a steadfast anti-lynching advocate. The branch received its charter in 1922, at a time when the lynching of Black men was still widespread across the country.
At its peak, the branch counted some 10,000 members, and it built a reputation as one of the largest and most influential branches in the NAACP. After a period of decline, the branch was reorganized in June 2005 by a new generation of leaders committed to carrying that legacy forward.
Today, the Brooklyn Branch continues to defend the social, economic, political, and legal rights of Black Brooklynites, from winning a 2024 lawsuit that protected the right to support voters waiting in line at the polls to publishing a white paper on health equity in the borough.
Our Mission
The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination.
The following statement of objectives is found on the first page of the NAACP Constitution – the principal objectives of the Association shall be:
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, and to take any other lawful action in furtherance of these objectives, consistent with the NAACP’s Articles of Incorporation and this Constitution.