Racism
The more virulent strains, influenced by Darwin’s evolutionary theory, held that blacks were a “degenerate” race, genetically predisposed to vice, crime, and disease and destined to lose the struggle for existence with whites. By portraying blacks as incapable of improvement, racial Darwinism justified a policy of repression and neglect to African Americans. African Americans also endured a deeply racist popular culture that made hateful stereotypes of black people a normal feature of political debate and everyday life. Benjamin Tillman, a U.S. senator from South Carolina, denounced the African American as “ a fiend, a wild beast, seeking whom he may devour.”
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is an Interracial organization co-founded by W.E.B. Du Bois in 1910 dedicated to restoring African American political and social rights.