When was the NAACP founded?

• A. 1865
• B. 1909
• C. 1890
• D. 1930

Answer: (B)

This question checks your knowledge of the NAACP’s origin and the era when modern civil rights organizing took shape. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded in 1909 in New York City by a diverse group of reformers, including W. E. B. Du Bois and Ida B. Wells-Barnett, among others. They launched the organization in response to rising racial violence, including lynching, and with the aim of using legal action, advocacy, and education to secure civil and political rights for African Americans.

Two other dates don’t fit the historical timeline. 1865 marks the end of the Civil War and the formal moments of emancipation, not the formation of the NAACP. 1890 sits in the era of early Jim Crow but predates the establishment of the NAACP by nearly two decades. 1930 is well after the founding and reflects developments during the New Deal era, not the NAACP’s birth.