A Journal of Research in Africana Studies
Freedom: Volume 3
Confronting Police Aggression: The NAACP’s Legal Advocacy Work during the Great Migration
By Adam Lee Cilli
Assistant Professor of History, University of Pittsburgh at GreensburgPublished in Freedom: Volume 3
Keywords
Black reformers; NAACP; police brutality; Thurgood Marshall; New York City; Great Migration
Abstract
This article examines the case of James Samuel to illuminate Black reformers’ multi-dimensional efforts to shield Black Americans from the worst excesses of a racially biased criminal justice system. In 1939, when Samuel alleged that he had been assaulted by three New York City police officers, the NAACP took up his cause. This article thereby highlights the Association’s investigations of unwarranted police aggression in northern cities during the Great Migration, and in the process, it contributes to a growing body of scholarship examining social justice struggles at the intersections of race, policing, and incarceration.
In many instances, northern Blacks like James Samuel usually could not expect vindication from the criminal justice system. Aside from overworked public defenders, their best hope for redress came from local NAACP staffers who might take up their case. If the NAACP’s goals and tactics were far less revolutionary and forceful than those of Black separatists and communists, its victories on the criminal justice front nevertheless materially affected the experiences of ordinary African Americans.