Which event counters the viewpoint expressed in the newspaper excerpt that African Americans refused to defend their civil rights?

While these amendments abolished slavery and granted citizenship and voting rights to African American men, they were primarily legal changes rather than direct actions taken by African Americans themselves. The amendments were significant milestones, but they do not reflect the active defense of civil rights that the NAACP represents.

The Emancipation Proclamation was a crucial executive order that freed slaves in Confederate states, but it was issued by President Lincoln as a wartime measure rather than as a result of African American advocacy. This event does not illustrate the proactive defense of civil rights by African Americans, as it was more about the government's response to the civil war.

The Great Migration involved the movement of African Americans from rural southern areas to urban northern cities in search of better opportunities. While this migration demonstrated a desire for improved living conditions, it does not specifically illustrate the organized defense of civil rights as effectively as the founding of the NAACP.