NAACP president cites goals for 99th year
Gordon Jackson/Special to the NNPA from the Dallas Examiner
Issue date: 11/2/08 Section: Politics
SAN ANTONIO - New NAACP President Ben Jealous has already been getting that question: if Senator Barack Obama is successful at becoming the nation's first African-American president, will there be a need anymore for an organization like the NAACP?
At the 72nd Annual NAACP State Convention in San Antonio, Jealous, the keynote speaker at the Texas Heroes Banquet, addressed the audience on how he's been answering that question.
"The operative word in NAACP is "double A," Jealous said. "We're not the N-'triple A'-CP, not the National Association for the Advancement of A Colored Person.
Drawing laughter from the crowd, Jealous continued: "What decides whether or not we go out of business or not is the condition of the grassroots."
The 35-year-old Jealous, the organization's youngest president ever, was kept busy throughout the day, meeting and greeting NAACP members, young and old, heads of the various chapters and holding press conferences for both the mainstream media and Black press. Based on the adage that no one knows where they're going unless they know where they're coming from, he reminded the convention crowd of the incredible success record the organization has acquired in its 99-year history and his intentions of regaining that greatness as the NAACP prepares to celebrate its centennial this February.
"We'll be celebrating the Centennial, but at the same time, we'll be preparing for the future. The future for us will be rich," Jealous promised.
He cited every major goal that has been reached by the NAACP, the nation's oldest civil rights organization that took courageous leads in abolishing the lynching of Blacks, desegregating the military, dissolving Jim Crow laws, integrating all societal institutions in the country and contributing to the explosion of Black elected officials. The organization has further been credited with landmark court decisions like Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954 and the 1965 Civil Rights Act, organized by renowned figures like Thurgood Marshall, W.E.B. DuBois, Walter White and others.
At the 72nd Annual NAACP State Convention in San Antonio, Jealous, the keynote speaker at the Texas Heroes Banquet, addressed the audience on how he's been answering that question.
"The operative word in NAACP is "double A," Jealous said. "We're not the N-'triple A'-CP, not the National Association for the Advancement of A Colored Person.
Drawing laughter from the crowd, Jealous continued: "What decides whether or not we go out of business or not is the condition of the grassroots."
The 35-year-old Jealous, the organization's youngest president ever, was kept busy throughout the day, meeting and greeting NAACP members, young and old, heads of the various chapters and holding press conferences for both the mainstream media and Black press. Based on the adage that no one knows where they're going unless they know where they're coming from, he reminded the convention crowd of the incredible success record the organization has acquired in its 99-year history and his intentions of regaining that greatness as the NAACP prepares to celebrate its centennial this February.
"We'll be celebrating the Centennial, but at the same time, we'll be preparing for the future. The future for us will be rich," Jealous promised.
He cited every major goal that has been reached by the NAACP, the nation's oldest civil rights organization that took courageous leads in abolishing the lynching of Blacks, desegregating the military, dissolving Jim Crow laws, integrating all societal institutions in the country and contributing to the explosion of Black elected officials. The organization has further been credited with landmark court decisions like Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954 and the 1965 Civil Rights Act, organized by renowned figures like Thurgood Marshall, W.E.B. DuBois, Walter White and others.
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