FROM STAFF REPORTS
“Know the past … shape the future” was the call to action at Sunday’s Statesville Branch NAACP banquet.
But it was the present that weighed heavily on many in attendance at the 89th Anniversary Freedom Fund and Awards Banquet.
“I’ve been to so many funerals rather than graduations,” NAACP member Amari Grady, 25, said of the six friends he has lost in recent years to what he called “senseless” violence.
NAACP President Todd Scott charged the more than 300 in attendance to ask themselves, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” in the face of violence across the nation.
“This is not the same America of the past. Citizens have been shot for simply ringing a doorbell, or turning around in a driveway,” Scott said. “Jewish synagogues must have security every time their doors are open. We have seen so many school shootings of innocent children … yet our legislatures make it easier to get guns.”
Scott called for people to vote and hold elected officials accountable.
“We must do better, act better and above all be our brother’s keeper,” he said.
Statesville Mayor Costi Kutteh said these issues hit very close to home.
“Don’t think for a minute it’s not right here — it’s in Statesville. We have a great calling and mission,” Kutteh said.
‘We must seize our power’
The keynote speaker for the event was Cheri Beasley, the first Black chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. She did not mince words calling for action to prevent gun deaths.
“We need gun safety legislation because our babies are dying,” she said. “We shouldn’t settle for anything else.”
Beasley also called out attempts to ban books, the teaching of Black History and attacks on the LGBTQ community.
“They call it culture wars. Teachers are being demonized for teaching ‘Critical Race Theory.’ But it is code, it is doublespeak for teaching Black History,” she said. “Some folks don’t want all of American history to be taught.”
She also discussed efforts to suppress voting, including the gerrymandering of districts.
“The power is here in this room. Folks would not be working so hard to suppress the right to vote if it did not matter,” she said. “We must seize our power. We must vote. All of us. In every single election.
“We must act now. All hell is breaking loose,” she added. “These young folks are counting on us to get it right.”
Awards and presentations
♦ Scholarships were presented to: Adamma Anukwuem, Halee Thomas and Alana Blair-Barnes.
♦ Lifetime NAACP membership was awarded to Patricia Dobbins.
♦ The Woody Woodard “Stick and Stay” Award was presented to NAACP member Debra Moore for her voter registration efforts and commitment to the organization’s mission. Sunday marked 10 years since Woodard passed away, and a moment of silence was held in his memory.
♦The Wilson W. Lee “You Can Make a Difference” Award was presented to NAACP 2nd Vice President Doug Hendrix for exemplifying the same passion in the fight for justice that Rev. Lee showed during his lifetime.
You can do MUCH better by reducing your meetings and social events and registering and getting out the vote — especially in North Carolina where we ARE a swing state, but don’t bother to act like one.
All these organizations do is pat each other on the back for doing WHAT EXACTLY!! GIVING AWARDS TO EACH OTHER when the real people doing the work G4G, VIP, COCHRAN STREET CHURCH , FIFTH ST MINISTRIES, ICARE, YOLKFELLOW MINISTRIES, POLICE, SHERIFFS DEPTS who actually comes and helps the ppl who reside on the SOUTHSIDE rather than talk about us and call us POOR, because we are not POOR, WE have a roof over our heads, food in our refrigerator and clean clothes and homes with cars and many whom have retired and love living here amongst there brothers and sisters.
OUR YOUTH, OUR BABIES will continue to be MURDERED, if we don’t pay and hire qualified police officers and educators, put mental health counselors in every grade in every ethnicity/race in schools so that every child feels comfortable talking to someone that looks like them, this generation says that “suicide is normal”. PROGRAMS IN COMMUNITIES OF COLOR TO ELIMINATE GUNS & VIOLENCE AMONGST YOUTH (Southside, Statesville HS, Third Creek MS, Northview Academy).
(Request Proposal @ljackson2105@gmail.com)
As a parent of a student of WIHS graduating MAGNA CUM LAUDE and reading how the BOE members and it’s administration feels about OUR CHILDREN, I think that’s what EVERYONE SHOULD BE DIRECTING THEIR ATTENTION TOO!!!
“IT TAKES A COMMUNITY”
“WE CAN ONLY DO IT TOGETHER”
#iammybrotherssisterskeeper❤️
Thank you – public resources to elevate quality of living have long been denied to Black communities.