The Niagara Movement at Storer College

In 1906, the Niagara Movement held its second annual meeting on the campus of Storer College in Harpers Ferry. It was the first national organization of Negroes to aggressively and unconditionally demand the same civil rights for their people that other Americans enjoyed. The meeting was symbolically important as the group’s first gathering on American soil, and the organizers carefully chose Harpers Ferry for its rich history, including John Brown’s raid to end slavery, and Storer College for its commitment to education for people of all races. At the conference, W.E.B. DuBois declared, “We claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a freeborn American, political, civil and social.”

Lovettsville, Maryland · United States