Editing Niagara Movement (section)

===Declaration of Principles===
The attendees of the inaugural meeting drafted a "Declaration of Principles," primarily the work of Du Bois and Trotter.<ref name=DecPrin>{{cite journal|title=The Niagara Movement's "Declaration of Principals"|journal=Black History Bulletin|date=March 2005|volume=68|issue=1|pages=21–23}}</ref> The group's philosophy contrasted with the conciliatory approach by Booker T. Washington, who proposed patience over militancy.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Brinkley | first1 = Alan | title = The Unfinished Nation | chapter = Chapter 20 - The Progressives | publisher = McGraw Hill | year = 2010 | isbn = 978-0-07-338552-5}}</ref> The declaration defined the group's philosophy and demands: politically, socially and economically. It described the progress made by "Negro-Americans", 
<blockquote>"particularly the increase of intelligence, the buy-in of property, the checking of crime, the uplift in home life, the advance in literature and art, and the demonstration of constructive and executive ability in the conduct of great religious, economic and educational institutions."<ref name=DecPrin/></blockquote>  

It called for blacks to be granted manhood suffrage, for equal treatment for all American citizens alike. Very specifically, it demanded equal economic opportunities, in the rural districts of the South, where many blacks were trapped by [[sharecropping]] in a kind of [[indentured servitude]] to whites. This resulted in "virtual slavery". The Niagara Movement wanted all African Americans in the South to have the ability to "earn a decent living".

[[File:Niagara-women.jpg|thumb|left|Women at the 1906 Niagara Movement Conference at Harpers Ferry: [[Gertrude Wright Morgan|Mrs. Gertrude Wright Morgan]] (seated) and (left to right) Mrs. O.M. Waller, Mrs. H.F.M. Murray, Mrs. Mollie Lewis Kelan, Mrs. [[Ida D. Bailey]], Miss Sadie Shorter, and Mrs. Charlotte Hershaw.]]
On the subject of education, the authors declared that not only should it be free, but it should also be made compulsory. Higher education, they declared, should be governed independently of class or race, and they demanded action to be taken to improve "high school facilities." This they emphasized: "either the United States will destroy ignorance, or ignorance will destroy the United States."<ref>{{cite web|last=Du Bois|first=W. E. B.|title=Address to the Nation|url=http://www.wfu.edu/~zulick/341/niagara.html|location=Harper's Ferry, West Virginia|date=August 16, 1900|publisher=Second annual meeting of the Niagara Movement|access-date=December 3, 2012|archive-date=July 8, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120708031329/http://www.wfu.edu/%7Ezulick/341/niagara.html|url-status=live}}</ref> They demanded for judges to be selected independently of their race, and for convicted criminals, white or black, to be given equal punishments for their respective crimes.  

In his address to the nation, W. E. B. Du Bois stated, "We are not more lawless than the white race; we [are] more often arrested, convicted and mobbed. We want justice, even for criminals and outlaws." He called for the abolition of the [[convict lease]] system. Established after the Civil War before southern states built prisons, convicts were leased out to work as cheap laborers for "railway contractors, mining companies and those who farm large plantations." Southern states had passed laws targeting blacks and leasing them out to pay off fines or fees they could not manage. The system continued, earning money for local jurisdictions and the state from leasing out prisoners. There was little oversight, and many prisoners were abused and worked to death.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wells|first=Ida B|title=The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World's Columbian Exposition: The Afro-American's Contribution to Columbian Literature.|year=1999|publisher=University of Illinois Press|location=Illinois|page=23|author2=Frederick Douglass |author3-link=Irvine Garland Penn|author3=Irvine Garland Penn |author4=Ferdinand L. Barnett |chapter=Chapter 3: The Convict Lease System}}</ref><ref>Douglas Blackmon, ''Slavery by Another Name''</ref> Urging a return to the faith of "our fathers," the declaration appealed for every person to be considered equal and free.

The declaration also targeted the treatment blacks received from labor unions, often oppressed and not fully protected by their employers nor granted permanent employment. It validated the already announced affirmation that such protest against outright injustice would not cease until such discrimination did. Secondly, Du Bois and Trotter stated the irrationality of discriminating based on one's "physical peculiarities", whether it be place of birth or color of skin. Perhaps one's ignorance, or immorality, poverty or diseases are legitimate excuses, but not the matters over which individuals have no control. Near its end, the document condemns the [[Jim Crow]] laws, the rejection of blacks for enlistment in the Navy and by the military academies, the non-enforcement of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments protecting the rights of blacks, and the "unchristian" behaviors of churches that segregate and show prejudice to their black brothers. The Declaration thanked those who "stand for equality" and the advancement of this cause.<ref name=DecPrin/><ref>{{cite web|last=Williams|first=Scott|title=The Niagara Movement|publisher=Department of Mathematics, University at Buffalo|url=http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/0history/hwny-niagara-movement.html|access-date=December 3, 2012|archive-date=October 30, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030170441/http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/0history/hwny-niagara-movement.html|url-status=live}}</ref>