“The Niagara Movement: The Early Battle for Civil Rights”

From the venue:

The Niagara Movement: The Early Battle for Civil Rights will premiere during Black History Month on WGTV.

Directed by Emmy® Award-winning and two-time Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Lawrence R. Hott, the film shines a spotlight on the fight pitting sociologist W.E.B Du Bois and Boston newspaper publisher William Monroe Trotter against educator and orator Booker T. Washington, then the de facto leader of Black America. The Niagara Movement was also distributed to public television stations around the country by American Public Television on February 1.

With commentary by prominent scholars and authors like Angela Jones, Aldon Morris, Amilcar Shabazz, and Chad Williams, the hour-long film immerses viewers in the conflict between three prominent Black leaders in the early days of the 1900s. While Washington had called the idea of social equality for African Americans “folly” and urged Blacks “to learn to dignify and glorify common labour,” the repressive Jim Crow laws and widespread lynching that sprung up at the end of Reconstruction pressed Du Bois and Trotter to oppose Washington’s conciliatory tact. The duo helped summon Black intellectuals, clergy, writers, newspapermen and activists from across the country to Buffalo, New York, to plan next steps. To avert disruption by Washington’s supporters, the group of 29 men ultimately met across the Niagara River in Fort Erie, Canada, where they formed a national crusade called The Niagara Movement which called for full rights for African Americans.