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The NAACP had many of its earliest victories during the Jim Crow law era, which blocked Black Americans from participating in local elections in various former slave states in the South. In some states such as Louisiana and Mississippi, the black population was over 25%, and therefore it was seen as a dangerous and unpredictable voting block to the states politicians. The NAACP did not have much impact in Washington at first, as Woodrow Wilson instituted segregation into the federal government in 1913, and the amount of lynching during World War I rose compared to pre-war levels. Eventually, however, the NAACP gained influence in Washington. In the 1930s Depression era, for instance, many remaining Jim Crow laws were finally abolished, and the Democratic Party enacted many protections for American consumers which also helped African-Americans to reduce the number of lynching victims in the South, although that practice continued sparingly until after World War II.

Fifty years after its formation in 1908, in the 1960s and what was to become the Civil Rights era, the NAACP was a principle actor in desegregation in the South. Having decades of expertise in approaching Washington, the NAACP became the voice for many in the South who were unable to voice their feelings at being kept out of white schools, white bathrooms, and white businesses. A hero of the NAACP at this time was an African-American lawyer by the name of Thurgood Marshall, who successfully argued Brown v. Board of Education before the Supreme Court. This reputation led to his being named the first African-American Supreme Court Justice in 1967 by President Lyndon Johnson. The NAACP backed Martin Luther King Jr., and assisted in the passing of Affirmative Action to ensure equal education opportunity.

In conclusion, the understanding of sociology has changed tremendously since the formation of the NAACP, but when looked at through the lens of history, we can see how many of sociology's best practices were developed in an organic manner through grassroots organization. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has remained strong since the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, and had many influential victories in regards to the 1990s race riots in Los Angeles, as well as eliminating the death penalty in the American penal system, which disproportionately disfavors African-Americans by a large percent in comparison to the demographic makeup of the United States as a whole.