1945 · Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.: National Non-Partisan Council on Public Affairs of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, 1945. Very good. 10½” x 8”. Mimeographed typescript. Pp. 12. Very good: lightly toned; folded horizontally at center.
This is a rare issue of a periodical published by what at least two sources consider the first-ever dedicated congressional lobby for African American civil rights: the National Non-Partisan Council on Public Affairs (NPCPA). The NPCPA was founded as the legislative arm of Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA), in 1938. An article in a 1944 issue of The Journal of Negro Education claimed that the NPCPA was “the only Negro organization which compiles and sends to newspapers and others a Legislative Release analyzing pending legislation in terms of its effect on Negroes.”
According to the AKA website, the compiler of this issue, Thomasina W. Johnson, was the first African American woman to serve as a registered lobbyist in Washington. She was also a consultant to President Franklin D. Roosevelt as well as the Chief Consultant for Minorities in the United States Employment Services, the highest ranking Black woman in the federal government from 1946 to 1954. She was later the women's editor of The Amsterdam News.
Per text on the first page, Legislative Release was
“designed to give you, in layman's language, the essence and status of legislation now pending in Congress. It contains also a number of practical suggestions which should be of assistance to you in working out your own legislative program or in forming your own political opinions.”
The top of page two carried this admonishment,
“WAKE UP—Upon the decisions reached in Congress on many important issues may depend, not merely your PERSONAL welfare, and the welfare of Negroes in general, but the future freedom of America and a Peace which will abolish the causes of war. We elect REPRESENTATIVES, not RULERS. YOU helped to elect this Congress. YOU can influence them.”
Based on the seven bills discussed here, this issue was likely published in January or February 1945. Each bill was summed up in a short paragraph and the commentary included racial implications and suggestions for action. Important legislation considered that session included an anti-poll tax bill, an anti-Jim Crow travel bill, and an anti lynching bill. Following these discussions are a couple of pages regarding how to organize activist groups, and what to do once organized.
The NPCPA was dissolved in 1948. In its place, AKA, together with three other sororities and three fraternities, established the American Council on Human Rights (ACHR). The ACHR made recommendations to the United States government concerning civil rights legislation from 1948 to 1963.
OCLC shows no holdings of any physical issues and we sold a different issue a few years back. Exceptionally rare documentation of an important lobbying organization developed and wholly funded by an African American collegiate sorority. (Inventory #: 8632)
This is a rare issue of a periodical published by what at least two sources consider the first-ever dedicated congressional lobby for African American civil rights: the National Non-Partisan Council on Public Affairs (NPCPA). The NPCPA was founded as the legislative arm of Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA), in 1938. An article in a 1944 issue of The Journal of Negro Education claimed that the NPCPA was “the only Negro organization which compiles and sends to newspapers and others a Legislative Release analyzing pending legislation in terms of its effect on Negroes.”
According to the AKA website, the compiler of this issue, Thomasina W. Johnson, was the first African American woman to serve as a registered lobbyist in Washington. She was also a consultant to President Franklin D. Roosevelt as well as the Chief Consultant for Minorities in the United States Employment Services, the highest ranking Black woman in the federal government from 1946 to 1954. She was later the women's editor of The Amsterdam News.
Per text on the first page, Legislative Release was
“designed to give you, in layman's language, the essence and status of legislation now pending in Congress. It contains also a number of practical suggestions which should be of assistance to you in working out your own legislative program or in forming your own political opinions.”
The top of page two carried this admonishment,
“WAKE UP—Upon the decisions reached in Congress on many important issues may depend, not merely your PERSONAL welfare, and the welfare of Negroes in general, but the future freedom of America and a Peace which will abolish the causes of war. We elect REPRESENTATIVES, not RULERS. YOU helped to elect this Congress. YOU can influence them.”
Based on the seven bills discussed here, this issue was likely published in January or February 1945. Each bill was summed up in a short paragraph and the commentary included racial implications and suggestions for action. Important legislation considered that session included an anti-poll tax bill, an anti-Jim Crow travel bill, and an anti lynching bill. Following these discussions are a couple of pages regarding how to organize activist groups, and what to do once organized.
The NPCPA was dissolved in 1948. In its place, AKA, together with three other sororities and three fraternities, established the American Council on Human Rights (ACHR). The ACHR made recommendations to the United States government concerning civil rights legislation from 1948 to 1963.
OCLC shows no holdings of any physical issues and we sold a different issue a few years back. Exceptionally rare documentation of an important lobbying organization developed and wholly funded by an African American collegiate sorority. (Inventory #: 8632)
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