National Afro-American Council

National Afro-American Council
Formation1898
Dissolved1907
TypeNon-profit organization
PurposeAfrican-American civil rights
Presidents
Alexander Walters (18981902, 190507)
Timothy Thomas Fortune (190204)
William A. Pledger (1903 acting)
William Henry Steward (190405)

The National Afro-American Council was the first nationwide civil rights organization in the United States, created in 1898 in Rochester, New York. Before its dissolution a decade later, the Council provided both the first national arena for discussion of critical issues for African Americans and a training ground for some of the nation's most famous civil rights leaders in the 1910s, 1920s, and beyond.