The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in 1909 in New York City, on the hundredth anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birthday. Founded by a group of citizens who were concerned with the lack of civil rights for African Americans, the NAACP evolved over the next couple of decades into a powerful advocacy organization striving to end discrimination and prejudice in this country. One of its primary tools to effect change was using legal action as a non-violent method of gaining full citizenship for African Americans.

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The mission of the national NAACP soon expanded to the local level with the chartering of numerous regional branches. The Albany branch of the NAACP was founded in 1935 in response to "continuing unnecessary violence" on the part of the Albany police toward the African-American community. The branch's first meeting was held in February 1935 at the Israel African Methodist Church on Hamilton Street. The first president of the branch was Dr. William Fletcher Brown, an Albany dentist who personally raised many of the signatures necessary to warrant a charter from the national organization.