NAACP Support of the Vietnam war: 1963-1969 (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) (Essay‪)‬

Introduction Bishop Spottswood must surely have been aware of the irony of his concluding remarks at the 59th Annual Convention of the NAACP in 1968, as he brought the crowd to its feet with his rendition of the well-known hymn Onward Christian Soldiers. While he was marching NAACP civil rights soldiers to the war against American racism in the late 1960's, a disproportionate number of African-American soldiers assigned to combat duty were dying in Vietnam. Spottswood's concluding remarks are symbolic of a concerted effort by the NAACP Executive Director Roy Wilkins to avoid alienating President Johnson's support for civil rights initiatives, as well as to promote the role of African-American involvement in the Vietnam War. From 1963-1969, numerous articles, editorials, and photo essays within the pages of the Crisis highlighted the accomplishments of African-American involvement in the Vietnam conflict, the first racially integrated war fought by the U.S. government. Conspicuously absent from the pages of the Crisis during this period were articles and editorials critical of American involvement in Vietnam.