The Blair County Branch of the NAACP came into existence in November of 1923. (According to the Crisis Magazine of April 1942)
The Hollidaysburg branch of the NAACP held its regular monthly meeting on Thursday, Nov. 6 in the evening. Elections were held for the 1924-1925 and then a program was held. Mrs. Dean B. Stives was selected as president; Mrs. Katherine M. Graves, vice-president; C. Randolph Brown, secretary; and treasurer, G.M. Graves. They were planning to have a Fashion Show and Dance with the Community Aid Club on December 1st to aid the poor in the community. (Pittsburgh Courier, Nov. 15, 1924, pg. 3)
The Crisis Magazine indicated that the Blair County branch was reorganized on February 10, 1939.
Dr. George Walker is elected to the executive committee on September 23 through 24, 1939, at the annual state conference in Philadelphia, PA. The Crisis Magazine, Nov. 1939, pg. 344
In 1942, Charles Randolph Brown of Hollidaysburg was selected as the vice-president of the PA State Conference of the NAACP. The Crisis Magazine, April 1942, pg. 141
In 1945, the Rev. D. Alpha Terry of Altoona was elected as chairperson of the Pennsylvania’s speaker’s bureau, according to Pittsburgh Courier of March 3, pg. 3. Dr. George Walker of Hollidaysburg was selected President of the state NAACP conference. The meeting took place in Pittsburgh.
The PA State NAACP Conference met in Altoona, October 18 or 19, 1951 according to the Pittsburgh Courier of October 20, 1951.
The Pittsburgh Courier of October 3, 1953 lists a Mrs. Elaine Hamilton of Altoona being voted onto the 1954 Executive Board of the NAACP. (pg. 1 and 4) The election took place in Ardmore, PA. In addition, Dr. George Walker was also selected to be on the Executive Board. Charles. R. Brown was selected as an honorary member.
In October 28 to 30, 1955, Mrs. Agnes Walker of Hollidaysburg was re-elected as 3rd Vice-President of the PA State NAACP. Her husband, Dr. George A. Walker, Sr. was elected as a Director of the State branch of the NAACP. The Crisis Magazine, December 1955, pg. 630
The 24th annual meeting of the PA State NAACP Conference met in Altoona at the Penn- Alto, at the First Presbyterian and First Methodist Churches of Altoona on October 24 through the 26, 1958. Althea Gibson, who had won Wimbledon in 1957 attended and spoke at this event. Crisis Magazine, Dec. 1958, pg. 607-610.
“The initial beginning of the Pennsylvania State Conference of NAACP Branches was in a residence on Juniata Street in Hollidaysburg, Blair County, Pennsylvania in 1934. This was the residence of Dr. George A. Walker and his wife Agnes. There were nine people in the initial meeting. Among this group was Mrs. Daisy Lampkin of Pittsburgh, who was the NAACP Field Director, member of the NAACP National Board and Vice President of the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper. Others present were Dr. and Mrs. George A. Walker, Mrs. Sophie B. Nelson, a school teacher and civil rights work from Pittsburgh, Charles R. Brown, a postal worker from Hollidaysburg, John G. Jones of Pittsburgh, Dr. James A. Gillespie and John B. Campbell both of New Castle.”
Since its inception, 16 persons have served as President of the State Conference of the NAACP. The first was Mrs. Sophia B. Nelson of Pittsburgh and the continuing list is as follows:
Dr. James A. Gillespie – Pittsburgh
Dr. George A. Walker – Hollidaysburg
Charles R. Brown – Hollidaysburg
Dr. Harry Green – Philadelphia
Joshua O. Thompson – Ambler
Dr. Burrell R. Johnson – Johnstown
Attorney Henry R. Smith – Pittsburgh
Louis E. Waller – Washington
Dr. Fred L. Vaughns – Uniontown
Dr. Charles H. Butler – Coatesville
*Thomas A. Smith, Jr. – Johnstown
Richard P. Burton, Sr. – Allentown
Charles T. Stokes – Pittsburgh
John Shelton, Sr. – Chester
Atty. Burrell A. Brown – Clairton
*Thomas A. Smith Jr. – Bethlehem
*Elected twice to serve as President of the State Conference”
http://pastatenaacp.org/aboutus.htm
Blair County NAACP Executive Directors: Nathan Benjamin (1968-1977) , Charles Randolph Brown, Louise Affred (sp?), Eudora Gore, Louise Arthur, Dr. George Walker, Sr., Donald Witherspoon (1990 to present) , Rev. Lawrence Garrett (1968), Rev. Delta Alpha Terry (1944), Charles Sexton (1961), Rev. Harry H. Flood (1951), Frank O. Hughes (1956), Rev. Frederick Gray (1957), Frank O. Hughes (1957), Rev. Albert H. Minney, James Dailey (1941), Mrs. Dean B. Leftwich (first president of Blair County NAACP, 1922 or 1923?), Mrs. Floyd Washington (1945-1946), Mrs. Deane B. Stives (1924)
PAPERS OF THE NAACP
Part 26: Selected Branch Files,
1940–1955
Series B: The Northeast
Edited
0225 Pennsylvania State Conference, 1943–1945. 79 pp.
Major Topics: Tenth annual meeting (1944); finances; branch officers.
Principal Correspondents: Thurgood Marshall; Ella J. Baker; Sophia B. Nelson; Roy Wilkins; John G. Grantham; Charles R. Brown; George A. Walker; Eva Campbell; Edna Carr; John G. Jones.
0304 Pennsylvania State Conference, 1946–1947. 162 pp.
Major Topics: Pennsylvania FEPC legislation; membership statistics; suggested programs for 1946 and 1947; thirteenth annual meeting (1947); executive board meeting (January 26, 1947).
Principal Correspondents: Charles R. Brown; O. M. Graves; George A. Walker; Ella J. Baker; Carolyn Davenport Moore; Lucille Black; Gloster B. Current; Ruby Hurley; Edna Carr
Pennsylvania State Conference, 1950. 109 pp.
Major Topics: Fifteenth annual meeting (1949); Pennsylvania FEPC legislation; sixteenth annual meeting (1950); membership statistics; branch officers.
Principal Correspondents: Lucille Black; Clarence Mitchell; Walter White; Madison Bowe; Marie Gordon Bright; M. T. Somerville; Gloster B. Current; John G. Jones; Lancess McKnight; Charles R. Brown; Edward J. Blotzer Jr.; Madison S. Jones Jr.; Jesse Thompson; Agnes Walker.
Pennsylvania State Conference, 1951–1952. 163 pp.
Major Topics: Report by John W. Flamer on visits to branches in western Pennsylvania; membership statistics; branch officers; seventeenth annual meeting (1951); Pennsylvania antidiscrimination laws; eighteenth annual meeting (1952).
Principal Correspondents: Gloster B. Current; Daniel E. Byrd; Charles R. Brown; Lucille Black; Burrell K. Johnson.
Pennsylvania State Conference, 1953–1955. 139 pp.
Major Topics: Survey of race policies and practices in Pennsylvania public schools; branch officers; membership statistics; twentieth annual meeting (1954); resolutions on education, housing, employment, police brutality, voting and voter registration, and migrant workers; annual report (1955) on Pennsylvania FEPC legislation, migrant labor, youth conference, and finances; twenty-first annual meeting (1955).
Principal Correspondents: Gloster B. Current; Herbert L. Wright; Joshua O. Thompson; Isabel Long Strickland; Elaine Hamilton; Charles R. Brown; Burrell K. Johnson; Herbert Hill; John W. Flamer; Lucille Black; Henry R. Smith Jr.; June Shagaloff; Agnes Walker; Effie M. Brown; Kathleen Brown.
(emphases are done for the researcher’s purpose of identifying Blair County members)
http://academic.lexisnexis.com/documents/upa_cis/1496_PapNAACPPt26SerB.pdf
PAPERS OF THE NAACP
Part
3
The Campaign for
Educational Equality
Series C: Legal Department
and Central Office
Records, 1951-1955
UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS
0332 Pennsylvania, 1954-1955. 74pp.
Major Topics: Articles on de facto segregation in York; Steelton, Chester, and Willow Grove school desegregation; reports on Dauphin County Branch; desegregation activities of Dauphin and Blair County branches; Chester school desegregation case; Chester School Board policy on African American teachers’ status.
Principal Correspondents: Thurgood Marshall; Elmwood H. Chisholm; Robert L. Carter; Roy Wilkins; Gloster B. Current; Charles R. Brown; A. H. Showalter; June Shagaloff; George T. Raymond; Frank G. Andrews; John W. Flamer; Henry Lee Moon; Hannan Adams; Laura Bowman.
http://academic.lexisnexis.com/documents/upa_cis/1514_PapersNAACPPart3SerC.pdf
