MILTON — Feb. 12, 1909, is the birth date of one of our nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organizations, NAACP.

A century after the birth of President Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, the association was established following a bloody race riot in his hometown of Springfield, Illinois.

Subsequently, a multiracial group of citizens gathered with the mission of eradicating rampant racism from American society.

Recently, members of NAACP’s Lower Sussex Youth Council gathered at the Milton Public Library to commemorate founders like Mary White Ovington, William English Walling, W.E.B. DuBois and Ida B. Wells. In addition, they created posters featuring the pioneering activists.