New PBS Documentary Spotlights the NAACP’s Earliest Incarnation

In 1906, a Black writer and teacher named Barbara Pope attempted to sit in the “whites only” section of a train in Virginia. Her protest against the Jim Crow laws of the South got Pope removed and fined $10. Determined to fight, Pope sought out assistance from the Niagara Movement, a short-lived but important civil rights group that pre-dated — and helped establish — the NAACP.

Pope, with the Niagara Movement’s assistance, was successful in her bid to get Virginia’s Supreme Court to overturn her fine. The Supreme Court of the District of Columbia also ruled in Pope’s favor in 1907 when she sued the Southern Railway Company, with the Niagara Movement’s backing. Unfortunately, instead of awarding Pope the $20,000 she asked for, the court granted her just one cent in compensation. By the time the cases were over, the Niagara Movement was almost bankrupt and Pope’s reputation was in ruins. She fell out of favor with her family, and her career was over. One year later, she hanged herself in a public park in Virginia.

The hard-won victories and tragic consequences of Pope’s legal battles are just one of the fascinating elements in Niagara Movement: The Early Battle for Civil Rights, a PBS documentary airing on KQED this week. Directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Lawrence R. Hott, the hour-long special focuses on the philosophical splits that pitted Black leaders against one another at the turn of the century.

On one side was Booker T. Washington, a formerly enslaved man who preached progress for the Black community, but not parity. On the other was W. E. B. Du Bois, a fierce academic and the first Black man to earn a postgraduate degree from Harvard. Du Bois rejected Washington’s teachings after the torture and lynching of Sam Hose in Georgia in 1899. The murder made Du Bois understand that a more radical approach was needed, so he joined forces with writer and editor William Monroe Trotter. Trotter’s publication, The Guardian — a particularly outspoken Black newspaper in Boston — not only argued for full citizenship, it actively referred to Washington as a hypocrite and even “the Benedict Arnold of the negro race.”

Together, Du Bois and Trotter organized the first anti-racism conference — a group of 29 Black men who traveled to Niagara Falls from 14 states to discuss voting rights and new strategies to transform America. That small group was the start of what became known as the Niagara Movement. It was a major departure from the Afro-American Council — an organization that followed the teachings of Washington, of which Trotter and Du Bois had both been members.

Niagara Movement breaks down the who, what, why and when of the organization, as well as the ways it established the actions and principles on which all future civil rights movements would be built. And the documentary excels by not shying away from the infighting and philosophical conflicts that were ever present within the struggle.

Niagara Movement proudly holds up the strengths of Washington, Du Bois and Trotter, but is unflinching when examining each man’s flaws. We see a petty, insecure side of Washington when we find out he sent spies to the first Niagara conference to report back to him. The film also looks at Trotter’s fervent opposition to women’s involvement in organizing, juxtaposing his illogical reasoning with the fact that the National Association of Colored Women already had 15,000 members during the first year of the Niagara Movement.

The documentary strictly focuses on Eastern and Southern states, meaning it doesn’t get into California’s approaches to civil rights during the same period. The fact that Barbara Pope’s court cases came a full 40 years after Mary Ellen Pleasant’s California Supreme Court victory is not mentioned. Niagara Movement also doesn’t explore how Du Bois’ criticism of racist attractions at World’s Fairs around the country probably influenced Alameda County Day — a demonstration and celebration of local Black culture at San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915.

Still, Niagara Movement acts as an effective explainer of the machinations and motivations of America’s early civil rights movement. It’s a fascinating jumping off point to see how civil rights on the other side of the country impacted the movement here in California — and vice versa. It is also an inspiring treatise on embracing rebellion, as well as a reminder that no movement is perfectly formed.

Ultimately, the Niagara Movement lasted just three years. It imploded under the weight of Du Bois and Trotter’s leadership clashes, financial strains and attacks from Washington. However, as the documentary makes clear, it planted important seeds around how civil rights movements could operate radically even within established legal systems. It also served up lessons on what not to do — instructions Du Bois heartily put into action when co-founding the NAACP in 1908. He did so with two women, Ida B. Wells and Mary White Ovington.

‘Niagara Movement: The Early Battle for Civil Rights’ airs on KQED on Feb. 21, 2024 at 11 p.m. and is currently streaming on PBS.