Naacp of North Carolina

NAACP Celebrates 100 Years

Update: News Coverage "A Century of Success" -- "In Fayetteville, in the shadow of the Market House where slaves were once sold, the NAACP celebrated the 100th anniversary of the NAACP." Click.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded on February 12, 1909, the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. A multi-racial group of activists answered ''The Call'' for a national conference in response to a vicious episode of white racist violence against Black people in Mr. Lincoln's hometown of Springfield, Illinois. The racist attack came 10 years after the prototype of such attacks, the ugly racist coup d'etat in Wilmington, N.C. in 1898. The Wilmington terrorism had been condoned and covered over by racist histories, and no one was brought to justice for it. This set the stage, throughout the next decade for similar attacks across the South. When these pogroms reached Lincoln's hometown, it sparked enough outrage among some white progressives to put out a call to action which said, in part:

'Our Work Is Far From Done'

"Just because an African American, Barack Obama, might be elected president doesn't mean the fight for racial equality is over," the president of the NC NAACP told a gathering of the Surry County branch recently. Continue reading...

NAACP Legal Redress Chair Al McSurely Honored With Citizen Award from NC Independent

Al McSurely, legal redress chair of the NC NAACP, was honored with a citizen award from the North Carolina Independent for his civil rights activism, and specifically for his legal work in helping to free James Johnson from jail where he spent three years awaiting trial for a murder he did not commit. ""What Al brings to the table is a historical perspective with an almost youthful idealism," NAACP President William Barber told The Independent. "He has not lost his idealism and yet he has the historical perspective of having lived through the '60s, '70s and '80s. That means he is able to give very wise counsel."

"It's rewarding to see a white guy be as honest as he is and to understand what is taking place here," says Frank Jones, who is black and fought for James Johnson's release. "It's sad to say we don't have enough Al McSurelys to speak out when they see an injustice." Read the whole story.

In 2005, McSurely won the national NAACP's William Robert Ming Advocacy Award, the highest honor given to an attorney by the civil rights organization. Details here and here.

Amina Turner, Executive Director, NC NAACP

In high school, the seniors would leave the bad food or calculus teacher to the rising seniors in their last will and testament. And although comical, oftentimes there was a grain of truth in the humor.

Legacy is what we do not tend to contemplate upon on a daily basis for it reminds us that we are not here to stay.

But our work -- what we do and what we don't do -- remain as our testament and as our legacy to our children -- our progeny for generations to come.

To build a legacy requires both commitment and involvement. We have often heard the story of the pig that provides the side of bacon as breakfast as committed, and the hen who lays the egg as involved. But a person, organization or community must first possess the will to create something of value worth leaving, thus a legacy, for those who come behind.

In its 98-year history as the oldest civil rights organization in the nation, the NAACP has built a legacy that expresses our longstanding commitment and involvement to bring about social justice in America.

Whether in urban centers, mid-size communities or rural towns, NAACP members have been the boots on the ground to bring America closer to her ideals.

As the campaign against lynching served as a rallying cry for NAACP in 1909, today's landscape calls for us to cross lines of race, class, gender, language and geography to build One North Carolina.

For it is a matter of national security that every child has a first-class education, every wage earner has a livable wage, every senior can afford medicine, every worker has rights, any student can go to college, that all of our communities are safe, and that all of us have economic parity and justice in the courts.

Throughout the decades, NAACP's living legacy has remained to be our volunteers -- both youth and adult who tirelessly work for justice in their respective communities paying the price, against the odds while accumulating principled victories.

I urge you to join your local NAACP branch in its efforts to "Build a Legacy" and use the key -- involvement -- to change outcomes, close gaps, and eradicate racism for a brighter future.

It is up to us. What kind of legacy do we want to leave our children? Hasten to answer the call.

If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
If I am not for others, what am I?
And if not now, when? -- Rabbi Hillel

Get Involved:

• Click here to Introduce Yourself
• Click here to join our Facebook Group
• Click here to donate.

Contact by email: turner at naacpnc.org (replace "at" with "a").

-- Amina Turner, executive director, North Carolina NAACP.

Illustrious History of the NAACP

Since its inception the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was poised for  a long, tumultuous and rewarding history. Although it may be possible to chronicle the challenging and harrowing legacy of the NAACP, the real story of the nation's most significant civil rights organization lies in the hearts and minds of the people who would not stand still while the rights of some of America's darker citizens were denied.