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Wooster/Orrville
Digital History Project

Details Coming Soon!

How do you build racial justice in a small Midwestern community over time?

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

The NAACP reaches across the nation, creates history, and advocates for Civil Rights in rural and urban areas. In Wooster and Orrville, this means making changes that impact each generation. 

The history of the Wooster/Orrville NAACP reveals how ordinary people sustained civil rights activism across generations. Lesser known local chapters made equally important strides in the fight for racial equality, notably in the rural areas of the Midwest. 

Many are familiar with the work the NAACP has done on a national level. One major victory for the NAACP was the Brown v. Board lawsuit, which ordered desegregation of schools. 
When considering history in areas such as Wooster and Orrville, Black stories are often dismissed because they exist in predominantly white communities. This exhibition examines the question: How do you build racial justice in a small Midwestern community over time? 
The history of Wooster/Orrville NAACP shows how everyday people sustained civil rights activism across generations by connecting national movements for racial justice to local issues in a small Ohio community. 

Exploring generational and individual impact and ties to the national movement provides insight into the work of the NAACP at the national and local level. 

Telling the stories of those involved in the Wooster/Orrville NAACP tells us what it was and is like to create racial justice for the Black community in a rural space.

Explore by Decade

Our history exhibit explores the Wooster/Orrville NAACP throughout the twentieth century. Explore by decade below:

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1960s

The 1960s saw national expansion of the NAACP to a network of grassroots organizations. In Wooster, students founded a college branch of the NAACP in 1963. In 1965, James Harris founded the Wooster/Orrville NAACP branch that still exists today.

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An early photo of the NAACP headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. (Image courtesy of WGBH).

1970s

With the growth of education programs and affirmative action policies, the 1970s built upon the expansion of the 1960s. In 1971

1980s

The 1980s witnessed progress in representation across community life, education, politics, and the economy.

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1990s

Short summary of the 1990s paired with an image.

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