Presentation on the Negro Organization Society at Meeting

June 8, 2013

Middle Peninsula African-American Genealogical and Historical Society of Virginia (MPAAGHS) will hold its monthly meeting on Saturday, June 8, 2013, at 11:00 a.m. at the Essex Public Library, 117 North Church Lane (Rt. 17), Tappahannock, Virginia (map). The meeting will feature a talk about the Negro Organization Society (NOS) by MPAAGHS member Dr. Alvin C. Lomax.

Founded by Robert Russa Moten at Hampton Institute in 1912, the Negro Organization Society was a grassroots advocacy association that stressed self improvement for African Americans in Virginia during the Jim Crow era. The organization’s motto was "Better Schools, Better Health, Better Homes, Better Farms." Pursuit of these four goals was considered essential to the protection and welfare of black people, especially in rural areas where the great majority of Virginia's African Americans lived.

The Virginia Conference of Junior Organizations was a youth organization sponsored by the Negro Organization Society. In 1948, Alvin C. Lomax was elected to a two-year term as president of the Virginia Conference of Junior Organizations. The Negro Organization Society was in existence until 1958.

The public is cordially invited to attend the meeting. For further information about this meeting or about MPAAGHS, call 804.651.8753 or visit mpaagenealogicalsociety.org.