The Afro-American Council (AAC), like its predecessor, the National Afro-American League, was an organization formed in the late-nineteenth century to agitate for civil and political rights as anti-black violence, disfranchisement, and segregation became increasingly entrenched in American society. Both the league and the council established important precedents for black activists who were later involved in national rights organizations like the Niagara movement and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
By the 1880s, former political allies of African Americans in the Republican Party had abandoned black rights in the interest of pursuing sectional reconciliation and national economic and political stability. Disillusioned, many black activists turned away from the established political party structure and founded a variety of independent race organizations. One of the most militant and outspoken of these activists was the young New York journalist Timothy Thomas Fortune. Born a slave in Florida, Fortune is best known for editing the New York Globe, Freeman, and Age between 1883 and 1907. In an 1887 Freeman editorial, Fortune called for the creation of a National Afro-American League to address a series of issues confronting African Americans in the late nineteenth century. These included the suppression of black voting rights in the South, the increasing prevalence and toleration of lynchings, segregation in public transportation and accommodations, inequities in black school funding, and the southern penal systems use of chain gangs and convict lease programs. Fortune’s call to action received enthusiastic support in the black press, and numerous state and local leagues formed across the country. In January 1890, 141 delegates from twenty-three states met in Chicago to form a permanent national organization. Emphasizing its focus on southern concerns and hoping to stimulate participation of southern blacks, the league selected its officers primarily from the South. The North Carolina educator Joseph C.Price was elected president and William A.Pledger of Georgia, vice president, and Fortune was selected as the leagues secretary.
The constitution adopted at the inaugural meeting called for the use of the press, churches, public speakers and meetings, and the courts to seek redress for the denial of black rights. It also stressed the league’s independence from political parties and prohibited any political office-holder from simultaneously holding a league office. This policy kept the league free from the Republican Party’s control, but it also discouraged the participation of most black politicians. Opposition from black political leaders, inadequate funds, and a lack of mass support combined to make the league a short-lived endeavor. It was disbanded formally in 1893.
As conditions among African Americans in the South continued to worsen during the 1890s, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion bishop Alexander Walters and other black leaders urged Fortune to revive the organization. Despite his pessimism regarding the league’s ability to effectively address racial problems, Fortune lent his support and called for a national convention. In 1898 delegates met in Rochester, New York, and launched the new organization named the Afro-American Council. Walters was elected president. The council retained much of the league’s agenda, but, unlike the league, permitted the active participation of black politicians. With the inclusion of a broader spectrum of black leaders, the council became a site of conflict between those favoring militant activism and those advocating a conservative policy of gradualism and accommodation.
The conservative position reflected the ideas of Booker T.Washington, who, after his conciliatory Atlanta Exposition address in 1895, had emerged as the nation’s most influential black leader. Washington, principal of Alabama’s Tuskegee Institute, stressed the importance of industrial training and economic self-help for blacks while rejecting public agitation for civil and political rights. Working behind the scenes and drawing on a network of allies, Washington attempted to steer the council away from militant positions. In 1900 he formed the Negro National Business League to serve as his national mouthpiece and to undermine the potential influence of the council. Through skillful political manipulations, Washington managed to overcome the influence of the militants and gain effective control of the council by 1902. By this time he had become well-connected with white philanthropists and politicians and wielded considerable control over African Americans’ access to their financial contributions and political appointments. Even Fortune, along with many black editors and politicos, found Fortune’s militancy tempered by his need for Washington’s financial and political favors. Despite the continued opposition of activist council members such as Reverdy C.Ransom, Ida B.Wells Barnett, and William Monroe Trotter, Washington and his allies prevented the council from effectively challenging the denial of civil and political rights for blacks.
With conflict over the council’s leadership and direction dominating its activities, the masses of African Americans remained indifferent and membership in local councils declined. As Washington’s gradualist and accommodationist position came to dominate the council, many militants withdrew from the organization. In 1905, disgruntled council members and other anti-Washington intellectuals, most notably W.E.B.Du Bois, founded the Niagara movement as a militant organization that would agitate for suffrage, civil rights, economic opportunity, and racial justice. Ironically, Fortune accused Du Bois of stealing language from the leagues constitution in Du Bois’s outline of the Niagara movement’s platform. This incident suggests the extent to which the initial militancy of Fortune and the league had been lost when Washington gained influence over the council. Even moderate council members came to reject Washington’s leadership. The most telling desertion was the resignation of Bishop Walters, who joined the Niagara movement in 1908. By then, however, the council existed in name only. The Niagara movement also proved ineffective in pursuing its agenda, but in 1909 a number of white Progressives joined with Walters, Du Bois, and others to form a new biracial organization. The NAACP concerned itself largely with the same issues Fortune had attempted to address with the founding of the league in 1890. Though the league and council could celebrate few successes, and were torn by factionalism throughout their existences, they provided important precedents for independent black action in an era of limited political alternatives for African American activists.
FURTHER READINGS
Goldstein, Michael L. “Preface to the Rise of Booker T. Washington: A View from New York City of the Demise of Independent Black Politics, 1889–1902.” Journal of Negro History 62, 1 (1977); 81–99.
Meier, August. Negro Thought in America: Racial Ideologies in the Age of Booker T.Washington, 1880–1915. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1963.
Thornbrough, Emma Lou. “The National Afro-American League, 1887–1908.” Journal of Southern Education 27, 4 (November 1961); 494–512.
——. T. Thomas Fortune: Militant Journalist. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1972.
Mitchell Kachun
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