The NAACP Scholarship Banquet in Tifton, Georgia, “advanced” me profoundly last night but then again, they say the hardheaded never learned. In college, we were too radical to be involved with this organization. It was all about Public Enemy’s lyrics like “Mandela..cell dweller…Thatcher, you should tell her.” In retrospect, the grassroots chapters of the NAACP have brought us from a mighty long way.
Rodney King was at my table. Not that Rodney King but a 20-year-old fellow who won’t hesitate to tell you about the good works of his church. Both Rodney Kings spent a lot of time in the hospital but this R.K. is employed a Tift Regional Hospital. When I told him that my mother was there last year for several weeks and that he was luck because that camp is “full,” he looked at me as if too say “I am protected my check rather than being concerned with that stuff on the job.”
Young people from King’s church served the food at the banquet while other young people sang and praised dance. Two young students from the community received scholarships and words of wisdom from Georgia Supreme Court Justice Robert Benham. Justice Benham told the audience that they were in the wrong place if they wanted to hear negative information about the community because he would be speaking about positive experiences. While he spoke, a slide show of Black history flashed images from the March on Washington to Little Rock to Medgar Evers to Obama speaking to the NAACP. Justice Benham remained us that the NAACP has been fighting the good fight for years. In his official capacity, he has ruled for and against the organization’s positions but he appreciated their efforts.
Justice Benham was introduced by a long-time friend of his who isn’t Black and several of the honorees weren’t Black. I remembered that Whites have always been involved in the NAACP. I also remember that like any organization the NAACP has local chapters that are as different as leaves on a tree (that is what Helen Blocker Adams says about the Augusta Tea Party events.) President Rev. L. Chris Solomon and the Tifton NAACP chapter seems to emphasis community improvement and encouraging the youth.
Since I am often alone, I thought I mastered taking cellphone pictures of myself—I had to get one with the anti-lynching slide. When I when to take a photo with Justice Benham, who told me he married an Albany State University grad, a women asked me why would I take a picture of myself when she could have the professional photographer do it. Again, the hardheaded never learn that some things require the help of others; it’s called community.
One of the honorees was a county commissioner with a long history of cleaning up the community street by street. I met her a dozen years ago and told her husband and her congrats on their civil efforts. Morehouse student Ambrose King help organize a fine program. With old friends at NAACP events and the other contributor on this blog speaking at Tea Parties, community involvement is happening while I am sitting at his keyboard….blogging.
