Constitution for Youth Councils of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

New York, 1950. About very good.. 21pp. Original printed self wrappers, stapled. Some edge wear, creasing, and soiling to outer wrappers, small chip to top corner of front wrapper. Occasional manuscript underlinings, annotations, and emendations to text. The very rare 1950 constitution written specifically for youth chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The Youth Council of the NAACP was limited to any person between twelve and twenty-five years of age. The present constitution's stated objects are delineated in Section 2, the first of which seeks "to inform youth of the problems affecting the Negro; to promote the political, economic, educational, and social betterment of colored people and their harmonious cooperation with other peoples, to stimulate an appreciation of the Negro's contribution to civilization, to develop an intelligent, militant youth leadership through devising, working out and pursuing local youth work programs and to cooperate with and support the national program of the Association."

The constitution is organized into seventeen articles covering the typical areas, but also with youth-specific needs: name and object, officers, senior adviser, committees, membership qualifications and dues, meeting rules, order of business, and so forth. The last article is concerned with Junior Councils of the NAACP, which can be carved out of Youth Council chapters with twenty-five members or more under sixteen years of age. Interestingly, one of the provisions of Article IV stipulates that Youth Council members shall form a committee devoted to the sale of The Crisis and other NAACP publications.

OCLC records copies of the 1954, 1967, and 1973 editions in one or two institutions, but no copies of this 1950 edition.