July 10th, 2025 • Volume 6 • Issue 22
Mayor Wayne Redekop
Those who frequent the park at Waverly Beach will be familiar with the plaque that commemorates the founding meeting of the “Niagara Movement” in July 1905 at the Erie Beach Hotel, which sat in the area of the park. The meeting was intended to create an organization that would more aggressively pursue the rights of black people in the United States, in contrast to the National Afro-American Council, led by Booker T. Washington, who believed that African-Americans should not agitate openly for political rights as long as they were provided economic opportunities and basic due process rights, but should instead focus on education and work to raise their race.
This approach did not sit well with W.E.B. Du Bois and his followers, who felt a need to confront the back-sliding in rights available to Afro-Americans, which had reached a zenith in the two decades following the Civil War, resulting in the “separate but equal” segregationist policies enshrined by the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of the United States Supreme Court in 1896. Tensions between Washington and Dubois groups reached a crescendo in 1903 when a brawl broke out at a meeting in Boston. Another activist, William Monroe Trotter, was arrested along with a number of his colleagues.
Du Bois and Trotter were determined to create their own organization. They originally planned to meet in Buffalo. While the usual reason cited for the meeting to be moved to Fort Erie was the refusal of Buffalo hotels to accommodate the attendees, new research suggests that the fear of interference by supporters of Booker T. Washington (“Bookerites”) was the actual reason. In order to avoid confrontation and possible violence, Du Bois opted to hold the gathering at the Erie Beach Hotel, a quiet location close to the water. Twenty-nine prominent community leaders and notable lawyers attended the conference, which adopted the name “Niagara Movement”, chosen to reflect the site of that first meeting and to be representative of the “mighty current” of change that its leaders sought to bring about.
The group drafted a “Declaration of Principles” that emphasized militancy over patience. The Declaration outlined the Niagara Movement’s philosophy and demands, including the right of all men to vote, an unfettered and unsubsidized press, universal free and compulsory school education, an end to racial discrimination and, in essence, equality for all American citizens.
While the movement continued to meet annually, by 1909 fractions had developed and efforts to unite the diverse groups seeking to advance the interests of Afro-Americans were underway. Following a major race riot in Springfield, Illinois, in 1908, a number of prominent white civil rights activists called for a major conference on race relations. The following year, a conference held in New York City laid the foundation for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which was formally established in 1910. In 1911, Du Bois, who had been appointed the NAACP’s director of publications) recommended that the remaining membership of the Niagara Movement support the NAACP’s activities.
This fascinating part of Fort Erie’s history – the 120th Anniversary of the founding of the Niagara Movement – will be commemorated on July 12th at Waverly Park, starting at 2 p.m. All are welcome. There will be a number of prominent attendees and speakers as part of the formal ceremony. When the 110th Anniversary was commemorated, a letter from the President of the United States, Barack Obama, was delivered and read by a member of his staff. That letter is now part of the collection of valuable documents at the Fort Erie Museum.