NAACP Founders’ Day celebrates past, sees hope in future

Celebrating 99 years of advancing the rights of blacks in the U.S., the 2008
NAACP Founders’ Day Celebration banquet took place this past Monday evening
at VCU’s Commonwealth Ballroom.

More than 50 people attended the event, which was hosted by the VCU chapter
of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

VCU’s NAACP focused on the importance of advocacy groups and knowing the
history of your culture. The chapter expressed the promising possibilities for Sen.
Barack Obama as he seeks the Democratic nomination for president.

Keynote speaker David Hicks, a former commonwealth’s attorney for Richmond,
said he was excited for Obama’s chance to win the presidency.

“We’re here to celebrate 99 years of history,” Hicks said. “Hopefully, the 100th
anniversary will take place a month after we have sworn in the first African-American
president in this country’s history.”

The banquet opened with “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which was adopted as the
“Black National Anthem” in 1919. The banquet’s theme stressed the importance
of knowing that racism not only existed in the past, but also in the present.

“If we do not understand our history, how on earth can we look to the future?”
Hicks said. “It’s time for a new generation and a new culture. This is a new era,
an exciting era. You are all living history right now.”

Jennifer Black, president of VCU’s NAACP chapter, explained the purpose of
the organization, which still endures after nearly 100 years of working toward
equality for blacks.

“I’m here to continue the work that began in 1909,” Black said. “There are still
some subtleties going on, subtleties that we might not have noticed in the ’60s
and ’70s, because of everything else that was going on. Until all of these are gone,
we still have work to do.”

A few of the banquet attendees discussed what would result if Obama were to
be elected.

“Electing Obama would be a big leap for America, period,” VCU freshman
Tamarra Wilkes said. “There is still racism here, and electing Obama would help
to break through some of those barriers that still exist.”

VCU freshman Edward Taylor agreed.

“Not only would it break that barrier, but, in the process, it would allow us to
look past that barrier, to other more important things,” he said.

Since Super Tuesday two weeks ago, Obama has won primaries in Nebraska,
Kansas, Louisiana and Washington, and most recently in Virginia, Maryland and
Washington, D.C.

Although minority presidential hopefuls Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson had
media coverage in the past for their attempts to run for the presidency, neither
had the level of support Obama possesses.

“This is a win for us,” said VCU freshman Kolby Keene. “(Obama’s) come this
far. He’s gone farther than (Jesse) Jackson. He has a very strong chance to win
it all.”

Jackson ran in both the 1984 and 1988 primaries as a Democrat, winning five
primaries in ’84 and 11 in ’88. Sharpton received a total of 27 delegates during
his bid in 2004, and he ran as a Democrat.

To date, Obama has 1,262 delegates. Clinton trails Obama with 1,213 delegates.
A majority of 2,025 delegate votes is needed to win the Democratic nomination.