This study uncovers the forgotten contributions of late 19th and early 20th century national organisations - including the National Afro-American League, the National Afro-American Council, the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, and the Niagara Movement - in developing strategies for racial justice organising, which they then passed on to the NAACP and the National Urban League. It tells the story of these organisations' leaders and motivations, the initiatives they undertook, and the ideas about law and racial justice activism they developed and passed on to future generations.