Niagara Movement Declares 'We Will Not Be Satisfied With Less Than Our Full Manhood Rights'

The Niagara Movement's Declaration of Principles, drafted by W.E.B. Du Bois at their first meeting in 1905, demanded universal suffrage, civil liberty, economic opportunity, education, and the end of caste distinctions. 'We will not be satisfied to take one jot or tittle less than our full manhood rights. We claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a freeborn American — political, civil, and social.' The Declaration directly challenged Booker T. Washington's philosophy and provided ideological grounding for the NAACP's program.