NAACP “Comes of Age:” Helps Senate Reject Supreme Court Nominee
The U.S. Senate on this day rejected John J. Parker, who had been nominated by President Herbert Hoover for the Supreme Court. The NAACP had lobbied hard against his nominati0n because anti-civil rights events in his past.
The Senate rejection was the first significant victory for the NAACP, the country’s leading civil rights organization, and it been labeled the day the organization “came of age.” (See the title of the book, below).
Organized labor also lobbied hard against Parker’s nomination, and deserves part of the credit for his rejection. Labor leaders refused to associate themselves with the NAACP in the anti-Parker campaign, however, because they were afraid of losing the support of southern Senators.
The NAACP was founded on February 12, 1909.
After Parker was rejected, President Hoover forwarded to the Senate the nomination of Owen Roberts, who was successfully confirmed and served on the Supreme Court from 1930 to 1945.
Read: Kenneth W. Goings, “The NAACP Comes of Age:” The Defeat of Judge John J. Parker (1990)
Learn about the NAACP’s history: http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-history
Go to the NAACP web site: http://www.naacp.org
Read: Gilbert Jones, Freedom’s Sword: The NAACP and the Struggle Against Racism in America, 1909–1969 (2012)
Visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture here