Buffalo’s pivotal role in the founding of the civil rights movement will be examined again this spring in honor of the 100-year anniversary of the Niagara Movement. The Niagara Movement, founded here in Western New York in 1905, sought full civil liberties for persons of African descent, and its goals became the founding principles of the NAACP.

During the fall, the series focused upon pre-conditions that existed in Western New York and outlined how the Queen City provided fertile ground for its selection as the birthplace of the early civil rights movement. Topics included: “Tales of the Underground Railroad: On the Erie Canal”, "Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery and the Emergence of the Neo-Slave Narrative”, the status of "Freed Persons in the Antebellum North", and a panel discussion among Afro-Canadians that examined ties between Western New York and the founding of communities in Canada. The final session, "From Pan-American Exposition to the Niagara Movement, addressed ties between the Pan American Protest, the Negro Exhibit, and the Niagara Movement. Each program featured a literacy component for young people between the ages of seven to twelve.

The series re-opens on January 26th at The Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society where the discussants will examine the remarkable leadership of Reverend J.Edward Nash, who served for over sixty years at the helm of the historic Michigan Street
Baptist Church. This lecture will feature Jesse Nash, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Canisius College and Felix Armfield of Buffalo State.

The next session, on February 16th at the Buckham Campus School, at Buffalo State, will feature the screening of a work-in- progress “The Triumph and Tragedy of Booker T. Washington” by the award-winning film director, Avon Kirkland. The capstone lecture on March 16th at Warren Enters Theatre, in Upton Hall, Buffalo State, features David Levering Lewis,

Julius Silver University Professor and professor of history at New York University,author of the two-volume, Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of W.E.B. Du Bois. April will feature two sessions: the first on April 4th at Erie Community College, City
Campus, will examine “Black Women and the Early Freedom Struggle”, featuring Lillian S. Williams, SUNY, Buffalo and the topic of the final session, April 27th at Karpeles
Library and Manuscript Museum “From the Niagara Movement to the NAACP” will feature Patricia Sullivan, civil rights historian from the University of South Carolina and Bruce Dierenfield, Peter Canisius Distinguished Teaching Professor of Modern American History, Canisius College, along with Kim Biggs, Director of the Niagara Movement Centennial Project at Harper’s Ferry.

All lectures take place on Thursday evenings at 6:00 p.m.

All lectures are FREE and open to the public.

For more details, please visit our website: http://www.buffalostate.edu/niagaramovement