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• 1 media/Founders-of-the-Niagara-Movement-in-1905-with-Du-Bois-is-in-the-middle-row-wearing-a-white-hat.jpg 2018-04-07T01:50:42-07:00 The Niagara Movement 2 image_header 2018-06-10T23:12:07-07:00 In 1905, Du Bois and William Trotter organized the Niagara Movement in opposition to Booker T. Washington. The group had to meet on the Canadian side of the falls because no American hotel would rent them rooms. The Niagara Movement called for an “organized, determined, and aggressive action on the part of men who believe in Negro freedom and growth.” Thirty people attended, all were well educated, light skinned, and all but 6 were from the North. They signed the Declaration of Principles which directly challenged Booker T. Washington’s leadership saying, “to ignore, overlook, or apologize for wrongs done to blacks was unworthy of the status of freedom." Signers swore to complain long and loud against offenses because only the most insistent will gain enough attention to make change happen. They vowed, “We refuse to allow the impression to remain that the Negro-American assents to inferiority, is submissive under oppression and apologetic before insults.” Civil rights, economics, education, due process, and health dominated their concerns. While the Niagara Movement grew quickly to 170 members in the first year, many African Americans were not yet ready to abandon Washington; most blacks had a foot in both camps.