Humboldt County Historical Society

No matter who wins the game, for the first time in history a black head coach will take his team to victory in the 41st Super Bowl in February. This historic moment, which has been so long in arriving, allows us to reflect on the meaning of Black History Month and on black history itself.

Our county's local chapter of the NAACP has a long history of participation in the ongoing struggle for racial equality. Organized by local citizens-fifteen black and two white-the Eureka Branch of the NAACP received its charter on June 14, 1954. Robert Neloms was installed as president and the celebratory event was attended by Tarea Hall Pittman of the West Coast NAACP; members of the Ministerial Association; the Labor Council; Senator Arthur Way; and other dignitaries. Spirituals were sung by Eureka NAACP founding members Margaret Neloms, Myrtle O'Neal, Herbert and Dorothy Taylor, Matilda Bartie, Clara Simmons, and Viney Lenon.

The organization tackled such overt discrimination practices as the local newspapers' continual failure to capitalize "Negro" in the press, as well as the newspapers' identification of black criminals by their race. They also tackled more insidious problems like housing discrimination and the discouraging of blacks from entering restaurants and bars.

Over the years, the work and advocacy of the NAACP has been wide-ranging, from helping a Eureka family with burial expenses, to the purchasing of African-American literature, magazines, and videos for Humboldt County Libraries, to educational assistance, to fundraising-the NAACP's 37th annual Soul Food Dinner is held this year on May 26. At the same time, the group participated in the national civil rights movement and continues to work for nationwide racial equality.

In 1960, Matilda Bartie became the first woman president of the local NAACP. In 1963, Bartie left Eureka for the front lines of the civil rights struggle: she went to Lake Charles, Louisiana, the region of her birth, to spend two years working with the Education-Registration Drive sponsored by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In these years preceding the Voting Rights Act of 1965, her work was teaching citizenship and voting rights and responsibilities to Southern blacks who had never before voted. She left her young daughter with relatives in Sacramento.

To put one's life on the line at that time in the South was a sacrifice not all could make, and to support Matilda Bartie and her work, a resolution was unanimously passed at the January 19, 1964 NAACP meeting to start a special fund for this purpose.

Likewise, in solidarity with Southern blacks who were being jailed for sitting at lunch counters in Woolworth and Kress stores, NAACP president Herbert Taylor and former treasurer E. J. O'Neal and others marched with signs in front of the local Woolworth and Kress stores in March of 1960 to remind people of the need for civil rights and social justice for all Americans.

The NAACP Collection at the Humboldt County Historical Society-the gift of longtime NAACP member Ina Harris-preserves the history of the groundbreaking local organization, while providing an historical picture of the African-American experience on the North Coast.

Today, the Eureka branch of the NAACP continues to work for civil rights and social justice for all, as America continues its ongoing work toward a full realization of its democratic ideals. This year's Super Bowl is a milestone on the journey.