author
Moorfield Storey
1845–1929
A Boston lawyer with a stubborn independent streak, he became one of the early NAACP's key leaders while also fighting imperialism and defending civil liberties. His long public life linked Gilded Age reform, anti-lynching activism, and constitutional arguments for equal rights.
1 Audiobook
The conquest of the Philippines by the United States, 1898-1925
by Moorfield Storey, Marcial Primitivo Lichauco
About the author
Born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1845, Moorfield Storey studied at Harvard, served as secretary to Senator Charles Sumner, and then built a prominent law practice in Boston. He was known as a constitutional lawyer and public speaker who often took unpopular positions when he believed principle mattered more than party loyalty.
Storey played a major role in several reform movements of his era. He was active in the Anti-Imperialist League, later served as president of the American Bar Association, and became the first president of the NAACP, holding that role from 1910 until his death in 1929. In that work, he supported legal challenges to segregation and helped shape the organization's early civil-rights strategy.
Remembered today as a complicated but important public figure, he brought together a deep belief in civil liberties, racial equality before the law, and skepticism of concentrated government power. His career shows how one lawyer used the courts, speeches, and public debate to push for a broader meaning of American freedom.