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What was the Niagara movement?

The Niagara movement was a short-lived but important African American organization that advocated "the total integration of blacks into mainstream society, with all the rights, privileges, and benefits of other Americans." Founded in Niagara Falls, Ontario, in 1905, the Niagara movement was led by writer, scholar, and activist W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963), who was then a professor of economics and history at Atlanta University in Georgia. The organization was often described as the anti-Bookerite camp. This was a term for supporters of educator Booker T. Washington (1856–1915), who rose from slavery to found Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in 1881. He believed that change for black people should come about through education and self-improvement and not through the demanding of rights and privileges. Washington opposed the social and political agitation favored by some reformers.

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