[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 25 (Friday, February 13, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E215]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     NAACP ON ITS 106TH ANNIVERSARY

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. DONNA F. EDWARDS

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, February 13, 2015

  Ms. EDWARDS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the National 
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, better known as the 
NAACP, which is celebrating its 106th Birthday this week.
  Since its founding in 1909, the NAACP has been at the forefront of 
the fight to protect the civil rights of all Americans. The mission 
statement of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social, 
and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-
based discrimination in the United States. It has done so by advocating 
and influencing the passage of landmark legislation ranging from the 
Civil Rights Act to the Voting Rights Act, and monumental court 
decisions such as the holdings in Brown v. the Board of Education and 
Smith v. Allwright.
  Maryland's 4th Congressional District, made up of portions of Anne 
Arundel and Prince George's Counties, is the only majority minority 
suburban district in the country. So I can speak from personal 
experience to the accomplishments of the NAACP that have impacted my 
district and constituents.
  The NAACP has had a presence in Anne Arundel County since 1944 and 
has done much to advance the cause of civil rights for its residents. 
Just as was the case in many other counties across the nation, Anne 
Arundel County operated under Jim Crow laws until the latter half of 
the 20th century. Segregation was the law of the land and the County's 
African-American residents experienced racial discrimination in all 
aspects of their lives. The NAACP was central in the fight to combat 
these injustices and worked over the following decades to expand voter 
participation, legally challenge the segregated school system, and 
bring the equality of opportunity to Anne Arundel County.
  When Hester V. King founded the Prince George's County chapter of the 
NAACP in 1935, there were 60,000 people living in the county, 
approximately 10 percent of whom were African-American. But, as in many 
parts of Maryland, the population exploded in the decades after the 
Second World War. African-Americans made up a significant part of this 
population expansion, but found they continued to encounter racial 
discrimination and segregation. During this transitional period, the 
NAACP was involved in numerous civil rights issues in Prince George's 
County, from the legal challenges that led to the elimination of the 
dual school system to the creation of the Human Relations Commission 
just to name a few. Prince George's County is now the wealthiest 
African American-majority County in the United States. This success is 
thanks in no small part to the NAACP, which has always resolutely 
placed them in the vanguard of the struggle for equality.
  Yet despite all that has been accomplished over the years there is 
still much to be done. Racial profiling is a pervasive policy in both 
the workplace and in many police departments all over the country, 
unequal law enforcement on young black men, and threats to voter access 
shows that the work championed by the NAACP is as important today as it 
was 106 years ago at its founding. So while it is right that we look 
back and recognize all the progress that has been made under their 
leadership, we also must look to the future to what remains to be 
accomplished under the continued leadership of the NAACP.

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