- Person
- Joel Spingarn
- Lived
- 1875–1939
- Field
- Civil rights & criticism
- From
- American
The story
Joel Elias Spingarn was born in New York City in 1875, the son of an Austrian Jewish immigrant. He was a leading literary critic and professor of comparative literature at Columbia University until 1911. In 1912 he tried, and failed, to add a statement condemning racial discrimination to the Progressive Party's platform, and the fight for racial justice became his life's work.
Drawn to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People partly by W.E.B. Du Bois, he became one of its first Jewish leaders, serving as chairman of the board from 1913 to 1919, treasurer from 1919 to 1930 and the association's second president from 1930 until his death in 1939. He recruited Jewish leaders such as Jacob Schiff, Jacob Billikopf and Rabbi Stephen Wise to the board, and as treasurer he strengthened the association's finances and hired more Black staff.
In 1914 he created the Spingarn Medal, awarded by the NAACP for outstanding achievement by a Black American. It was first given to the biologist Ernest E. Just in 1915 and has been awarded most years since. Its recipients read like a roll call of Black achievement: Du Bois in 1920, the scientist George Washington Carver in 1923, the singer Marian Anderson in 1939, Paul Robeson in 1945, Jackie Robinson in 1956 and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1957. Spingarn left $20,000 in his will so that the medal could be awarded indefinitely.
During the First World War he pressed for a training camp for Black officers. The army opened one at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, in 1917, and an NAACP publication credited him with helping see about 1,000 Black officers commissioned. The segregated camp drew criticism from some Black leaders, but the historian B. Joyce Ross argued that without it Black Americans would have been excluded from the war's officer ranks.
His work was carried on by his family. His younger brother, Arthur B. Spingarn, who had long led the NAACP's legal committee, succeeded him as president in 1940 and served until 1965.
Why it matters
Spingarn helped guide the NAACP through its formative decades, and his medal has honoured more than a century of Black achievement.
About Joel Spingarn
Literary scholar who became one of the NAACP’s first Jewish leaders, its chairman, treasurer and second president, and founder of the Spingarn Medal for African American achievement.
More about Joel Spingarn
- Joel Spingarn helped found Harcourt, Brace and CompanyIn 1919 Joel Spingarn helped found the publishing house Harcourt, Brace and Company, served as its literary adviser and edited its 25-volume European Library.
- Joel Spingarn called for a “new criticism” in 1910In a 1910 Columbia lecture called The New Criticism, Joel Spingarn argued that each work of art should be judged afresh, on its own terms.
- Joel Spingarn gave $100 to defend a tortured farmerIn 1910 Joel Spingarn read of a Black tenant farmer in Arkansas tortured to force a confession, gave $100 to his defense fund, and soon joined the NAACP.
- Joel Spingarn launched the New Abolition campaignIn 1913 Joel Spingarn began a campaign he called the New Abolition, reviving the spirit of the abolitionists and spreading the NAACP to new cities.
- Joel Spingarn lost his job defending a colleagueIn 1910 Joel Spingarn offered a faculty resolution supporting a Columbia professor summarily dismissed by the university's president, and was himself dismissed weeks later.
- Joel Spingarn helped win a suit against a segregated theaterIn 1911 Joel Spingarn accompanied Black men to a New York theater that refused them tickets, then helped the NAACP's Vigilance Committee win a lawsuit against the management.
- Joel Spingarn outfitted Howard students who enlistedDuring World War I Joel Spingarn trained as an officer, served as a major and donated uniforms for one hundred Howard University students who enlisted.
Sources
- Joel Spingarn Jewish Virtual Library
- Spingarn Medal Wikipedia
- Joel Elias Spingarn Wikipedia
- Arthur B. Spingarn Wikipedia
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.