n coping with the effects of social
discrimination on largely white college campuses. In 1915, Carter G.
Woodson established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and
History and began publication of the Journal of Negro History.

In 1905, W. E. B. DuBois, John Hope, Monroe Trotter, Kelly Miller, and
other outspoken young Negro intellectuals met in Niagara Falls, Ontario,
and founded the "Niagara Movement." Unlike the other black institutions
mentioned above, the "Niagara Movement" was primarily political in its
objectives. On the one hand, it strove to seize the leadership of the
Afro-American community, taking it away from the more conciliatory
emphasis of Booker T. Washington. On the other hand, they wanted a
platform from which to condemn, loudly and clearly, the white prejudice
they found all about them.

The organization deliberately tried to resurrect the spirit of the angry
abolitionists immediately preceding the Civil War. The meeting places of
their three conventions were chosen for their symbolic value. Niagara
Falls was the terminal on the underground railway, the point at which
runaways had reached freedom. Harpers Ferry had been the site of John
Brown's violent assault on slavery, and Oberlin, Ohio, had been well
known as a center of abolitionist activity.

The growth of racism at the turn of the century, besides encouraging the
development of Negro institutions, revived the interests of some whites
in fighting for racial justice. Whites were particularly upset by
racially motivated acts of violence. Lynchings reached a high point in
American history at this time. Between 1900 and 1910, there were 846
lynchings, in which 92 victims were white and 754 Negro. Northern whites
were especially perturbed as racial violence began to move into the
North. Previously they had viewed it as a Southern white man's problem.
When a vicious race riot occurred in Springfield, Illinois, in 1908, this
illusion was shattered. William English Walling, the journalist, was
shocked and wrote an impassioned article, "Race War in the North," which
was published in The Independent.

Walling's article, which was based on his visit to Springfield, brought
several collaborators to his side. In it, he contended that Southern
racists were bringing the race war into the North and that the only
alternative was to revive the spirit of abolitionism and to fight for
racial equality. The following year a group of concerned indi