NAACP Pecker Rabbit Sez

Photo of a rabbit with one ear with black text in front of an orange background. 

The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is the oldest and largest civil rights group in the U.S., established in 1909 to support the rights of Black Americans in legal, health, and economic areas. This button is a playful, novelty item with a rabbit mascot and a punny backronym: the large NAACP letters stand for “No Automobiles At Camp Please.” 

The caption “Pecker Rabbit sez…” is spoken in a mascot voice. It’s unrelated to “peckerwood,” which in 19th-century African American slang meant “woodpecker” and, by the early 1900s, became a derogatory term for white people—sometimes associated with hate groups that used woodpecker imagery. That history isn’t likely the purpose here; the joke relies on the backronym and an animal mascot telling visitors to avoid cars at the camp. The term "pecker rabbit" is likely a mishearing or typo for Peter Rabbit, the famous literary character by Beatrix Potter. It could also refer to a specific vintage Easter bunny plush made by Herman Pecker in the 1960s.