Introduction to the Niagara Movement special issue.

Armfield, Felix

During October 5-9, 2005 the Association for the Study of African American Life and History held its annual conference in Buffalo, New York. For four and a half days the city of Buffalo played host to this premier black history organization as part of the yearlong planned celebration in commemoration of the centennial of the 1905 Niagara Movement. The first Niagara Movement meeting was caucused in the city of Buffalo. Therefore the theme of the conference was the Centennial of the 1905 meeting. All of the essays in this special issue of the Journal of Afro-Americans in New York Life and History were in fact presented during the 2005 conference. We solicited the essays after the conference by contacting each of the individuals. All of the individuals agreed to contribute to this special issue with much excitement and understood that this single issue would offer much needed documentation for this historical event. Each of the essays allows us to reflect back on the 1905 meeting and simultaneously offers sustenance for the future.

All of the essays are original essays that were designed for the 2005 conference meeting. Moreover they each offer new and insightful discussions of the 1905 Movement that has been sorely lacking within our discourses. Beginning with Kyle Wolf's essay returning us back to the original purpose for the 1905 meeting as well as reminding us of who the pivotal players were in addition to mapping out each of the Principles. The second essay by Mark Elliott focuses our attention on forgotten figures such as Albion Tourgee along with W. E. B. Du Bois and the meanings of the Principles. The third essay by Ida Jones challenges us to revisit the black intellectual tradition through a study of intellectual leader Kelly Miller and the significant role of historically black colleges and universities during the era of the Niagara Movement. The final essay in this issue is a much-anticipated area of under studied scholarship, the role of black women during and immediately after the Niagara Movement. Anita Nahal and Lopez D. Matthews, Jr. author this essay, as they discuss the role of women during the actual period of the Niagara Movement's existence, 1905-1909. These essays shall serve as bench markers for sometime to come as we seek to know more about this historic event--the 1905 Niagara Movement.

Felix Armfield (1)

(1) Dr. Felix Armfield is a member of the Department of History and Social Studies Education at Buffalo State College.