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Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009

NAACP marks first 100 years at convention in WR

WARNER ROBINS — A big deal at this week’s annual NAACP state convention has been celebrating the civil rights organization’s first 100 years.

But while reflecting on a century’s worth of accomplishments and history-making achievements, there’s an underlying theme that the NAACP is still as relevant and needed as ever.

“For those who might say, ‘Where’s the NAACP? What’s the NAACP been doing?’ our mission and vision are still the same,” Al Tillman, president of the Bibb County chapter, said during Friday’s session at Warner Robins CME Church. “We have gone from saving civil rights to human rights. Human rights is a broader thing.”

Some NAACP officials wonder how many of today’s younger generation understand the struggles that blacks endured to earn the most basic of civil rights.

“A lot of them really don’t know,” said Houston County NAACP President Larry Holmes. “They can walk into a restaurant and sit down and eat wherever they want. The schools they go to are integrated. I don’t think they all understand what we had to go through.

“Our kids need to realize everything is not going to be given to them on a silver platter.”

Atlanta author and convention delegate Martha Plowden displayed her latest book — an account of the NAACP’s history — on a table in the church foyer. It’s important, she said, that the younger generation know the organization’s story.

“Eventually, we have to pass the baton,” she said. “If they don’t understand it, they will come in with their own mission.”

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded in 1909, but traces its roots back to the Niagara Movement, a group that formed in 1905 under the leadership of Harvard scholar W.E.B. DuBois.

“Many of those members were founding members of the NAACP,” said Plowden.

Jordan Casson saw to it Friday that some of the NAACP’s newest members were put on the rolls before the annual membership luncheon.

He turned in 100 new memberships from Morehouse College in Atlanta. The school’s sister college, Spelman, turned in 106 new memberships, he said.

Casson, a 22-year-old senior philosophy major, is president of Georgia NAACP Youth and College Division. He’s spearheaded efforts to mobilize chapters at colleges in the Atlanta area and Middle Georgia, and now is focused on south Georgia.

The college chapters have been actively involved in the fight for a new trial for death row inmate Troy Davis, who was convicted in 1991 of killing a Savannah police officer. After several eyewitnesses recanted their testimony, the Davis case drew the attention of the NAACP, Amnesty International and other groups.

The college chapters were encouraged to post information about the case on Facebook. Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that Davis should get an evidentiary hearing.

“The adults started it, and we just sort of ran with it,” said Casson.

“It’s not so much the death penalty. We’re fighting for justice. ... Until justice is seen as the face of every level of government, the NAACP will always be relevant.”

The convention is the Georgia NAACP’s 67th meeting. It began Thursday and continues through Sunday.

Besides the business meetings where resolutions are passed and officers are elected, the schedule lists workshops and sessions covering topics ranging from education to criminal justice to politics.

Thursday, a group of pastors from across Middle Georgia served as panelists in a workshop that examined the role churches have played and still play in the NAACP’s efforts.

“A lot of our meetings take place in church social halls,” said Demetrius Fisher, state executive director. “We have similar missions, and we want to piggyback off that and become more effective.”

Friday morning, the focus turned to the 2010 census and the NAACP’s “Yes We Count” effort to encourage participation by blacks in the upcoming population count.

In 2000, an estimated 1 million people of color and more than 620,000 blacks were not counted, said Ryan Haygood of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

“The census is about us getting our fair share,” Haygood said, explaining that the census is used to determine congressional representation, voting districts, funding for government programs and more.

Today’s schedule includes a session to discuss health-care reform. It starts at 2:30 p.m. at the Warner Robins CME Church, 200 Othal H. Lakey Circle, and the public is invited.

To contact writer Rodney Manley, call 744-4623.