Founded in 1909 in response to the ongoing violence against Black people around the country, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is the largest and most pre-eminent civil rights organization in the nation. We have over 2,200 units and branches across the nation, along with well over 2 million activists. It was founded in direct response to the oppression, racial discrimination, and disenfranchisement of Black people.

 

The original NAACP General Meeting of the Lexington-Fayette Branch was on January 30, 1919, Local member citizens worked tirelessly to establish the local branch in Lexington, KY. Mrs. Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beatrice Cooke Fouse (1875–1952), a committed social activist and a member of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) and the founder of the Phyllis Wheatley Y.W.C.A. in 1920, who later became President of the Kentucky Association of Colored Women (KACW), was instrumental in the establishment of the Lexington chapter. She is listed in the NAACP historical papers as the Principal Correspondent for the Lexington, Kentucky chapter. On March 4, 1919, the Lexington chapter received a letter from the national office in New York indicating that the National body of the NAACP had approved the establishment of the Lexington-Fayette Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.  On March 26, 1919, a letter was sent to the local branch informing them that their charter was in the mail and to "pass it on to future branches." 

 

Mrs. Fouse’s legacy of commitment lived on even after her passing on October 22, 1952, as the message inscribed on her tombstone in Cove Haven Cemetery reads, “To live in the hearts we leave behind, is not to die.” That legacy continued on as the branch worked to increase in influence and commitment to the community, guided by strong leaders like Audrey Grevious and Flora D. Mitchell.

 

In 1955, Audrey Grevious got involved with the NAACP in Lexington, Kentucky. After attending the NAACP convention in New York, she felt that something needed to be done about discrimination in public places. She volunteered for a project to drive down to Kentucky through Washington, D.C., and Virginia. from New York. They planned to stop at restaurants and hotels to be served. They were refused service in most places, while some areas offered to only serve them by giving them food in a paper bag through a side window or back door. 

 

​In 1957, she was elected as president of the NAACP in Lexington. Her anger over her trip fueled her passion to get involved in the civil rights movement. She was also vice president of the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE). The two organizations collaborated to begin boycotts. They had a boycott for all stores on Main Street and two grocery stores in hopes that the grocers would open up more opportunities for African Americans. Between 1958-1962, both organizations began organizing sit-ins at local ten-cent stores. 

 

Continuing the legacy of the Lexington-Fayette Branch, Ms. Flora D. Mitchell, a local community activist and an NAACP life member, born October 14, 1935, and died on October 16, 2019, worked along with others in Lexington to break down barriers and open up opportunities for African Americans in Fayette County. She participated in many marches as a young adult. Flora was an active member of the Lexington Fayette County branch of the NAACP and served as this branch’s president for more than 20 years. During her tenure, she focused her efforts on keeping a branch office of the local NAACP open providing a haven for those in need, and continued to align the local chapter’s objectives with the state and national objectives of increasing registered voters while working with other local members of the NAACP and community partners, objectives that we still focus on today. Her efforts along with other partners and community advocates increased the registration rolls significantly during her tenure, and as with Ms. Mitchell, a major focus for the Lexington-Fayette Branch is continuing to educate citizens about the importance and value of their vote and to help usher in awareness and legislative focus on the restoration of voting rights for felons who have served their time.​​​