National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Memphis Branch

Historical Note

In 1917, NAACP Field Secretary James Weldon Johnson came to Memphis to investigate the lynching of Ell Persons, an African American man who was arrested for raping and murdering a white woman. While Persons was imprisoned and awaiting trial he was captured, lynched, and burned alive, without anyone being charged for his murder. When Johnson arrived he met with businessman, political activist, and politician Robert R. Church Jr., who founded and financed the Lincoln League in Memphis which was established to increase voter registration and participation among the city's Black residents. Johnson and Church organized a charter for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Memphis. The establishment of the NAACP charter in Memphis marked only the fourth branch in the South and its first branch in Tennessee, and by 1919, the Memphis NAACP became the largest branch in the South. Robert R. Church Jr. was the first member elected to the NAACP National Board of Directors from the South and helped in the establishment of 68 branches in 14 states, which represented over 9,000 members. From 1977 to 1993 Benjamin J. Hooks of Memphis served as the NAACP's Executive Director.

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