At 100, NAACP reviews its mission, priorities

[struggle4progress]

Organization's chairman says its job is still fighting racial discrimination
By Kelly Brewington | [e-mail]
February 12, 2009

For a century, the NAACP fought lynch mobs, demanded fairness in schoolhouses and cemented a movement of foot soldiers to wage battles large and small against the indignities of legal discrimination.

As the nation's oldest civil rights group celebrates its centennial, the circumstances might be different but the mission is the same, its president says.

"In black communities across the country, we still see too many young black men killed in the prime of their lives," NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Jealous said yesterday. "No longer is it men hanging from trees, it's men in body bags. Our children now can go to the same schools, but too often it's the same poorly resourced school."

And while the ultimate barrier has been shattered - a black man is president - there is still "a battle for the whole group to be treated fairly," Jealous said ...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-te.md.naacp12feb12,0,2987084.story