The principal objective of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of minority group citizens of the United States.

The NAACP is committed to non-violence and relies upon the press, the petition, the ballot, and the courts, and is persistent in the use of legal and moral persuasion, even in the face of overt and violent racial hostility.

The NAACP was founded in 1909 in New York City by a group of black and white citizens committed to fighting social injustice. Sixty persons signed a "call" asking for the creation of an organization that would be an aggressive watchdog of Negro liberties. Today, the NAACP is a network of more than 3,000 branches in the fifty states and the District of Columbia. There are youth branches, college branches, and branches overseas. Total membership exceeds half a million people, representing every hue of color.