North San Diego County (NSDC) NAACP Branch #1086 History
Mrs. Charlesetta Allen, the first North San Diego County NAACP President, was installed as the Branch #1086 President in 1965 by Mr. Hartswell Ragsdale of the Anderson-Ragsdale Mortuary. After being installed, her first effort was to seek improvement in the streets and sewer system within the minority community.
Her stay in Oceanside marked the beginning of her dedication to creating a spirit of brotherly love and
compassion for all mankind, regardless of race, color, or creed. She came to be recognized as the first black woman to live in Oceanside. She was a true pioneer, especially in the field of civil rights and the cause of freedom. In this era, young black Marines had no place to spend their leisure hours as a result of racism so, Charlesetta gladly opened her home; a "home away from home".
Mrs. Charlesetta Allen's many accomplishments include:
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Organizing and serving as Director of the First Girls Club in this area.
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Leading the effort and helping to persuade the city to lease the land where Balderrama Community Center is now located.
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Serving as an adviser during the establishment of the Oceanside Park and Recreation Commission in 1966.
OUR FOUNDING FOUNDERS
NAACP History
Founded February 12, 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s foremost, largest, and most widely recognized civil rights organization. Its more than half-million members and supporters throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, leading grassroots campaigns for equal opportunity and conducting voter mobilization.
In 1908, a deadly race riot rocked the city of Springfield, the capital of Illinois and the resting place of President Abraham Lincoln. Such eruptions of anti-black violence – particularly lynching – were horrifically commonplace, but the Springfield riot was the final tipping point that led to the creation of the NAACP. Appalled at this rampant violence, a group of white liberals that included Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard (both the descendants of famous abolitionists), William English Walling and Dr. Henry Moscowitz issued a call for a meeting to discuss racial justice. Some 60 people, seven of whom were African American (including W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell), signed the call, which was released on the centennial of Lincoln’s birth.
Echoing the focus of Du Bois’ Niagara Movement for civil rights, which began in 1905, the NAACP’s aimed to secure for all people the rights guaranteed in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution, which promised an end to slavery, the equal protection of the law, and universal adult male suffrage, respectively. Accordingly, the NAACP’s mission was and is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of the United States and eliminate race prejudice. The NAACP seeks to remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes.
The NAACP established its national office in New York City in 1910 and named a board of directors as well as a president, Moorfield Storey, a white constitutional lawyer and former president of the American Bar Association. Other early members included Joel and Arthur Spingarn, Josephine Ruffin, Mary Talbert, Inez Milholland, Jane Addams, Florence Kelley, Sophonisba Breckinridge, John Haynes Holmes, Mary McLeod Bethune, George Henry White, Charles Edward Russell, John Dewey, William Dean Howells, Lillian Wald, Charles Darrow, Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, Fanny Garrison Villard, and Walter Sachs. Despite a foundational commitment to multiracial membership, Du Bois was the only African American among the organization’s original executives.
He was made the director of publications and research and in 1910 established the official journal of the NAACP, The Crisis.