NAACP: A New Day

L-R: Ravi Perry(President), Calvin Hill(Third VP), Andrea Park(Second VP), NaTonia Trammell(Secretary), April Slater(Asst. Secretary), Veronica Thomas(Treasurer), Elizabeth St.John(Executive Board Member), Dorothy Ware(Executive Board Member), Cedric Arno(First VP)

Today marked a new beginning for the NAACP in Worcester, which has laid dormant for over 8-years.  Well, that all changed today with elections taking place at the Worcester Public Library.

What struck me as a huge plus, was the fact that the people that attended the meeting and elections were from various walks of life and showed just how diverse Worcester is.

There were women and men of various racial backgrounds, and people, genuinely, wanted to know what the National Office of the NAACP was planning to do with changing the perception that the NAACP was only for Blacks.  While the National Office has a game plan of what's going to be done on the national level to change those perceptions, there's a void at the local level that will take creative minds and a willingness by the local chapter to do things differently.

Allow me to share the background of the NAACP:

The NAACP was formed partly in response to the continuing horrific practice of lynching and the 1908 race riot in Springfield, the capital of Illinois and resting place of President Abraham Lincoln. Appalled at the violence that was committed against blacks, a group of white liberals that included Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard, both the descendants of abolitionists, William English Walling and Dr. Henry Moscowitz issued a call for a meeting to discuss racial justice. Some 60 people, seven of whom were African American (including W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell), signed the call, which was released on the centennial of Lincoln's birth.

And with a principal objective,"to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of United States and eliminate race prejudice. The NAACP seeks to remove all barriers of racial discrimination through the democratic processes."

I'm sure I'll post some other articles about the NAACP, the upcoming meetings and opportunities for you to become an active member of the chapter.

Here are two videos that I filmed with my phone.

Announcing the winners of the elections:



Swearing in of newly-elected members: