The contemporary Black Lives Matter movement represents yet another phase in the protracted struggle for Black freedom and human dignity in the African Diaspora. This course explores the history of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), founded in 1909, as foundational to understanding the various campaigns to combat anti-Black racism, state violence, and racial inequality over the course of the twentieth century. Students will examine the ways in which the NAACP's anti-lynching campaigns, civil rights advocacy, and publications provided the foundations of the modern civil rights movement in the United States, which raised national consciousness around a fundamental notion that Black lives matter. The course also unpacks the ideological debates within Black political culture that shaped the NAACP's organizational and legislative strategies.