NAACP celebrates 100 years with President Obama

NEW YORK (NNPA) - Cheers, applause, laughter, repeated standing ovations - and even church-like shouts of "Yes!" and "Amen!" at the recent NAACP centennial meeting showed the world that amidst the daily responsibilities of the Oval Office, President Barack Obama has not lost his rock-star appeal in the Black community."What an extraordinary night, capping off an extraordinary week, capping off an extraordinary 100 years at the NAACP," he shouted his first words to the applauding crowd in New York City, the founding place of the civil rights organization.

President Obama presented the Spingarn medal, the highest justice award bestowed upon a civil rights warrior to NAACP Chairman Julian Bond.

"So Chairman Bond, Brother Justice, I am so grateful to all of you for being here. It's just good to be among friends," Obama said.

He continued, "It's a journey that takes us back to a time before most of us were born, long before the Voting Rights Act, and the Civil Rights Act, Brown v. Board of Education; back to an America just a generation past slavery. It was a time when Jim Crow was a way of life; when lynchings were all too common; when race riots were shaking cities across a segregated land.''

The rapid fire speech, ticking off many of the issues that NAACP members and Black America deal with daily, appeared to pour from the president, who for the past seven months has been largely mired in economic and international affairs. He meshed his mantra of "change" with the historic civil rights progress of the NAACP.

"They also knew that here, in America, change would have to come from the people. It would come from people protesting lynchings, rallying against violence, all those women who decided to walk instead of taking the bus, even though they were tired after a long day of doing somebody else's laundry, looking after somebody else's children. . It would come from men and women of every age and faith, and every race and region - taking Greyhounds on Freedom Rides; sitting down at Greensboro lunch counters; registering voters in rural Mississippi, knowing they would be harassed, knowing they would be beaten, knowing that some of them might never return."

And he illustrated how that work of years ago has led to Black America's affluence and leadership in Fortune 500 companies, in Congress and in the White House.

These words of thanks were familiar. In March, President Obama and First Lady Michelle gave a similar thanks to the publishers of the National Newspaper Publishers Association at a White House reception honoring his historic win as well as the role of the Black Press in his success.

In his speech to the NAACP, the President - a civil rights lawyer who, as a U. S. Senator, consistently got the grade of "A" on the NAACP civil rights report card - also made it clear that the struggle is not nearly over.

"Even as we celebrate the remarkable achievements of the past 100 years; even as we inherit extraordinary progress that cannot be denied; even as we marvel at the courage and determination of so many plain folk - we know that too many barriers still remain," he said. ". African Americans are out of work more than just about anybody else ... African Americans are more likely to suffer from a host of diseases but less likely to own health insurance than just about anybody else. . An African-American child is roughly five times as likely as a White child to see the inside of a prison. We know that even as the scourge of HIV/AIDS devastates nations abroad, particularly in Africa, it is devastating the African-American community here at home with disproportionate force."

The President talked about the pain of discrimination making mention of Latinos feeling unwelcome in "their own country," Muslim Americans being viewed with suspicion, and the gay community being denied rights.

"Prejudice has no place in the United States of America," he said. "That's what the NAACP stands for. That's what the NAACP will continue to fight for as long as it takes."

With all the focus on civil rights, it was actually the issue of racial inequities in education that got the biggest ride in the President's speech before the oldest civil rights organization.

When one shout of "Amen!" rose from the audience above all others, the president concluded like a preacher, "Got an ''Amen corner'' back there . every child . every child in this country [deserves] the best education the world has to offer from cradle through a career.