|
From: Cornell William Brooks
President and CEO
NAACP
Critics of the NAACP have found an interesting way of welcoming me as the new president of this most prestigious civil rights organization.
They ask the question, “Is the NAACP still relevant?” I’m sure they hope I will find the question worrisome. I do not. I find it wearisome.
During my address to the 105th Annual NAACP Convention on Monday, I spoke about why I find it so wearisome. It’s because the answer is so obvious: “Are they serious?”
My incredible mother marched for the right to vote in the late fifties and sixties. Her father fought for the right before her. Today, a little less able-bodied, she must use her walker to go around the house and search for the proper ID needed to vote because jurists gutted the Voting Rights Act.
And some wonder if the NAACP is still relevant.
My oldest son is the same age Trayvon Martin was, and my youngest is the same age Emmett Till was. Our children ask us to explain the morally befuddling verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. They ask how a young man on the streets of New York can be forced to the ground and choked to death.
And some wonder if the NAACP is still relevant.
On Sunday, six hundred incredible young people participated in the NAACP ACT-SO competition. They are brilliant children—budding orators, scientists, artists, and entrepreneurs. Too many of them face unfathomable challenges while trying to get a quality education, disserved and abandoned by the public schools in their hometowns.
And some wonder if the NAACP is still relevant.
This is no ordinary time in our nation’s history, and progress requires extraordinary effort and activity. If you are a son or a daughter, a parent or a grandparent, a mentor or a role model; if you are a student or a member of the workforce, the NAACP and the issues we fight for are VERY relevant to you, and we need your help. We need the help of your family and friends. We need a multi-generational NAACP, a multiethnic NAACP, a million-member NAACP, working together to build a better future for all.
It won’t always be easy. But if Julian Bond did it then, we can do it now. If Daisy Bates did it then, we can do it now. If Rosa Parks did it then, we can do it now. We will stand for our youth, for our elderly, for our collective future. We will go all in for justice and equality.
This is an extraordinary time. An NAACP time. And I am beyond honored to work with you.
Thank you,
Cornell William Brooks
President and CEO
NAACP |
