Leaders and Other Officials
Walters, who served as president until 1902, was succeeded that year by Fortune. Fortune then served until his resignation in 1904, followed by first vice president William Henry Steward of Kentucky, who served until Walters’s reelection in 1905. Bishop Walters was then reelected in 1906 and 1907.
Early officers in the Council included the nation’s only black congressman, Rep. George Henry White (R-N.C.), who served several terms as vice president and sought twice, unsuccessfully, to be elected president; Bishop Benjamin W. Arnett of Ohio and attorney William H. Lewis of Boston, both vice presidents; attorney Fredrick L. McGhee of Minnesota, who held several offices; Ida B. Wells-Barnett, first secretary and national organizer; journalists William A. Pledger, Harry C. Smith, and Christopher Perry, all vice presidents; future U.S. minister to Liberia Ernest Lyon of Maryland, Washington, D.C., orator and activist Mary Church Terrell, and Philadelphia activist Gertrude Mossell, all vice presidents.
The Council’s functional bureaus conducted much of its ongoing work between annual meetings, including work in education, business, anti-lynching activities, and legislation. Among many bureau directors during the Council’s existence were Professor W. E. B. Du Bois, who chaired the business bureau from 1899 to 1901; former Louisiana Gov. P. B. S. Pinchback, literary bureau (1899); Archibald H. Grimké, literary (1907); Wells-Barnett, Mrs. Terrell, and newspaper publisher George L. Knox, each of whom chaired the anti-lynching bureau; and William T. Vernon, a future U.S. Treasury Register who chaired the education bureau in 1902.
Among notable members of the national executive committee were Booker T. Washington of Alabama (1902); federal official John P. Green (1898) and professor William S. Scarborough (1900) of Ohio; anti-Tuskegee activist William Monroe Trotter of Massachusetts; former congressman George W. Murray and future U.S. minister to Liberia William D. Crum of South Carolina (1900); future U.S. minister to Liberia John R. A. Crossland of Missouri (1900); Henry O. Flipper of New Mexico (1901), the first black graduate of West Point; and U.S. Treasury Register Judson W. Lyons of Georgia (1900).
The Council came under the influence of Booker T. Washington in 1902, after Washington engineered the selection of Fortune as president, but quickly lost its earlier effectiveness and grew dormant. After the emergence of the Niagara Movement in 1905, Walters attempted to rejuvenate the Council and distance it from the Tuskegee orbit, hoping to attract new members and bring back older members who had grown disenchanted, such as Du Bois, McGhee, and others.
Read more about this topic: National Afro-American Council
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