This collection contains physical and digital materials that document the chapter's role in minority recruitment and retention for U-M, strengthening relations between U-M faculty, staff, and the chapter leadership, involvement in NAACP conventions, and other internal and community activities. Materials include administrative records, reports, conference materials, correspondence, flyers, clippings, photographs and video recordings, among other materials. The order within each file has been maintained.
The University of Michigan student chapter of the NAACP was founded on May 8, 1951. The goal of the chapter was to provide a centralizing force for student interest in issues of discrimination and racial injustice. The chapter's first president was law student Edward Dawley (class of 1952). Throughout its history, the chapter has focused on educating its membership and the wider university community on national, local, and campus issues. Examples of activities include opposition to the Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork in 1987, rallies and marches for social justice issues, voter registration drives, minority student dorm environment satisfaction survey, the Ann Arbor employment project, etc.
The chapter played a large role in the 1970 Black Action Movement (BAM), protesting for increased minority admissions and financial aid. According to the October 9, 1995 edition of the Michigan Daily, after the second BAM in 1976 the chapter virtually "disappeared" from campus. In 1985, the chapter was briefly reorganized, but it "suffer[ed] from a lack of interest and...disbanded in 1993."
In 1995, it was rechartered by Loren McGhee (who became president of the chapter) and several other students, who felt that other campus organizations failed to address the issues and concerns of Black students. One of the first actions of the reorganized chapter was a sit-in for affirmative action. Around 1999, the chapter became inactive once again.
In 2002, sophomore Ravi Perry took on the role of NAACP Reactivation Campaign Coordinator and revitalized the student chapter. Erin Hendrix was elected president. As of 2020, the U-M chapter consisted of seven committees: Health and Awareness, Membership, Education, Finance, Program and Research, Press and Publicity, and Political Action/Juvenile Justice.
