The Association

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the oldest, largest and most prominent civil rights organization in America. The NAACP is a not-for-profit and non-partisan association. The International headquarters of the Association is located in Baltimore, Maryland. There are seven regional field offices and some 2,200 local branch chapters with more that a half million members.

The Goal

Over the past decades, African Americans have reaped the benefits of many courtroom decrees and legislative victories won by the NAACP. Today the picture of racism has changed. Discrimination is more subtle than it used to be. Instead of the battle against blatant segregation and discrimination, the NAACP wages the next level of assault against the "glass ceiling", the pretense of affirmative action, apathy toward equal application of the law and the old established voter redistricting schemes. In addition to the traditional civil rights role, the NAACP has embarked on urgently needed programs directed at drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, illiteracy, joblessness, the violent crime epidemic and the portrayal of minorities in the media. These pressing societal, political and economic problems threaten our nation's progress toward equal rights, economic advancement and personal well being for all African Americans.

Elmira/Corning Branch

The Branch is the vehicle through which most of the Association's efforts on the local level are carried out. The Branch is composed of the General Membership which elects officers and an Executive Committee every even numbered year. Your local branch is an all volunteer organization with no paid staff nor government and private sector funding for programs or administration.