States in the south wanted to eliminate the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the late 1950s. In Louisiana in 1956, officials used a 1924 anti-law Ku Klux Klan law to force the civil rights organization to submit the names and addresses of members and officers.
“When the NAACP State Conference and the remaining branches refuse to divulge their members’ names or submit the non-Communist affidavit,” the Civil Rights Movement History states, “state Attorney General Jack Gremillion obtains an injunction barring the NAACP from ‘doing any business or acting as a corporation in Louisiana.’”
That’s when the New Orleans Improvement League was born.
Founded on June 21, 1956, the Improvement League’s goal was “to promote the economic, political, civic and social betterment of colored people and their harmonious cooperation with other peoples, etc.” Members included future City Council member A.L. Davis and state Supreme Court Justice Revius Ortique.
“Unofficially, its formation was part of a concerted effort by NAACP offices to circumvent the ban,” the Amistad Research Center states. “In addition to continuing the efforts of the NAACP to legally challenge segregation, this new organization also served as a forum for citizens to voice their grievances.”
Amistad states that the Improvement League had a “far-reaching impact on the Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans.” For instance, it conducted studies and collected data to show the inequities Black students faced at overcrowded schools.
After several years, the NAACP won its case against the state in “Louisiana vs. NAACP.”
“The New Orleans Improvement League continued to work alongside the NAACP, even when the ban was no longer enforced,” Amistad states. “The banning of the NAACP arguably set back the march to full integration by years, but activists were determined to continue to wage, and win, the fight against segregation.”
For more tales from New Orleans history, visit the Back in the Day archives.
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