Social Movement Organizations and Response to Environmental Change: The NAACP, 1960-1973

From 1960 to 1973 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People struggled to maintain its relevance to the black protest movement in the United States in the face of competition from organizations espousing more radical goals and strategies. The NAACP altered its short-term goals and some of its strategies in response to this challenge, but remained faithful to its traditional long-term goal of integration for blacks. This paper uses the resource mobilization model to help analyze how the NAACP survived this period despite its minimal doctrinal and strategic change. I find that while its membership remained constant, its revenue increased as it became professionalized and drew substantially greater funding from external sources such as foundations and corporations.