Afro-American League Founded as First National Civil Rights Organization

Timothy Thomas Fortune convened the founding convention of the National Afro-American League in Chicago in January 1890, creating the first national organization dedicated to fighting segregation and disfranchisement through legal and political means. It demanded enforcement of the 14th and 15th Amendments and federal anti-lynching legislation, dissolving in 1893 before being reorganized in 1898.