NAACP celebrating 100 years

PHOTO COURTESY WEST VOLUSIA NAACP
Freedom Fund speaker— Keynote speaker the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II is president of the North Carolina NAACP.

PHOTO COURTESY WEST VOLUSIA NAACP
Entertainment at Freedom Fund—Andre Darby will provide music.

West Volusia Freedom Fund Banquet set May 23

By Jen Horton
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted May 15, 2009 - 8:54:32am

The West Volusia Branch of the NAACP is hosting the 19th annual Freedom Fund Banquet Saturday, May 23.

This year’s theme is “Power, Justice, Freedom and the Vote.” The banquet will celebrate 100 years of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

In 1909, the NAACP was founded by a group of 60 men and women who signed a call to end the terrible violence that was being committed against African-Americans. Of the 60 original members, 53 were white.

West Volusia NAACP member Mike Williams said the NAACP is, and has always been, not just a black organization, but a human organization.

“Today, over one-third of our membership is white,” Williams said.

And, this year, the NAACP marks 100 years as a civil-rights organization.

Locally, the 19th annual Freedom Fund Banquet, presented by the West Volusia NAACP, will focus on protecting freedoms.

“The Freedom Fund Banquet is a major fundraiser that the National NAACP does every year, and each branch also does its own banquet,” Williams said.

Money raised at the annual banquet is used to fund three local scholarships for graduating high-school seniors, and to also help the West Volusia NAACP carry out its mission of securing equality for all.

“We continue to fight for justice for minorities,” Williams said.

Williams said, in this county, in every town, there is still injustice because of race or ethnicity.

“Job discrimination, police brutality, fair housing,” he said. “These all go on, right here.”

Events such as the banquet help the NAACP to reach its ultimate goal.

“We’d like to work ourselves out of business,” Williams said.

Williams has a family history of NAACP membership. His father purchased memberships for himself and the other members of his family in the 1940s.

Williams had a membership card long before he knew what that card meant.

“My father bought his membership from Harry T. Moore,” Williams said.

Moore founded the first branch of the NAACP in Florida, and was a well-known civil-rights activist in the 1940s.

Moore and his wife were the first civil-rights martyrs; they were killed when their Mims home was firebombed on Christmas in 1951.

Williams said the annual banquet is not to be missed, and all are welcome, whether or not they are NAACP members.

“First of all, the speaker is dynamite,” Williams said.

Keynote speaker the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II is president of the North Carolina NAACP.

Barber is pastor of the Greenleaf Christian Church Disciples of Christ, in Goldsboro, N.C. In addition to leading a 120-year-old congregation that has more than 400 members and 30 active ministries, Barber is chairman of the Rebuilding Broken Places Community Development Corp.

The nonprofit corporation has developed or inspired more than $7 million worth of community projects, including a 41-unit low-income senior-citizen complex, and 42 single-family homes.

Barber also leads an HIV/AIDS initiative, hosts two radio shows, teaches at the college level, and is the author of the book Preaching Through Unexpected Pain.

Williams said the NAACP banquet is always a good time. He has attended all 18 staged by the West Volusia branch.

“It’s always a festive evening,” Williams said.

David Staples, president of the West Volusia Branch of the NAACP, said several community members will receive lifetime-membership plaques at the banquet, and other awards will be presented.

“We just want people to know we are still in existence,” Staples said. “We’re still here to help people who feel like their civil rights have been violated.”

The Freedom Fund Banquet is set for 7 p.m. Saturday, May 23, in the Stetson Room upstairs at Stetson University’s Carlton Union Building, 131 E. Minnesota Ave.

Andre Darby will provide music.

Tickets cost $40 for adults and $15 for children. To reserve seats, call Milton Corley of the West Volusia Branch NAACP at (386) 738-0708.

For more information about the West Volusia Branch of the NAACP, call Staples at (386) 734-8327.

For more information about the history of the NAACP or the NAACP centennial, visit www.naacp.org/about/history.

— jen@beacononlinenews.com

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