"After many years of neglect and faultfinding by contemporary activists, historians, and the media, Manfred Berg restores the NAACP to its rightful place at the heart of the civil rights movement. Berg reveals the group's eminently political character as he assesses both its historical achievements and its failures. He suggests that while the NAACP did make significant gains in furthering the progress of America's black citizens at the grassroots level, its national agenda should not be discounted. Berg challenges criticisms of recent years that the NAACP's goals and methods were half-hearted, ineffective, and irrelevant and reveals a resourceful, dynamic, and politically astute organization that has done much to open up the electoral process to greater black participation."--Jacket