- Person
- Joel Spingarn
- Lived
- 1875–1939
- Field
- Civil rights & criticism
- From
- American
The story
Joel Spingarn, a Jewish literary scholar at Columbia University, joined the newly formed National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1910, after giving $100 to the defense of a Black tenant farmer in Arkansas who had been tortured by police. He was nominated to the executive committee by Oswald Garrison Villard, with W. E. B. Du Bois seconding. Early in 1911, the same year he was dismissed from Columbia, Spingarn was serving as an officer of the NAACP's New York Vigilance Committee.
The NAACP had been founded only in 1909. Its leaders included Black and white reformers, among them Villard, a founder of the association, and Du Bois, who edited its magazine, The Crisis. Spingarn's younger brother Arthur, a lawyer, became one of its vice presidents in 1911 and headed its legal committee.
He accompanied a group of Black men to a theater. When they were refused tickets, Spingarn did not let the matter drop: he helped the Vigilance Committee bring and win a suit against the theater's management.
It was the kind of direct, practical action Spingarn favored. In these early years he also helped shape the NAACP's program for combating racial discrimination and took on the tasks of publicizing the association and establishing local branches. EBSCO's biography notes that his example of combining scholarship with political activity encouraged other educated people to do the same. In 1913 he launched a campaign he called the New Abolition and became chairman of the NAACP's board, and the following year he created the Spingarn Medal.
Spingarn went on to serve the association as treasurer and, from 1930 until his death in 1939, as its second president. His brother Arthur, a lawyer who headed the NAACP's legal committee, succeeded him. The legal work the young association began grew so large that in 1940 it was spun off as a separate body, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
Why it matters
Winning in court showed that discrimination in public places could be challenged and beaten, a strategy the NAACP would use for decades.
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 led the NAACP and created the Spingarn MedalJoel Spingarn, a Jewish literary scholar, led the NAACP for decades and in 1914 created the Spingarn Medal for Black achievement, still awarded today.
- 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 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 Elias Spingarn EBSCO Research Starters
- Joel Elias Spingarn Wikipedia
- Joel Spingarn Jewish Virtual Library
- 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.