[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 16206]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             75TH ANNIVERSARY OF LONG BEACH BRANCH OF NAACP

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ALAN S. LOWENTHAL

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 20, 2015

  Mr. LOWENTHAL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the Long Beach 
Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored 
People, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this week. Since its 
founding in 1940, 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 for 
and influencing the passage of numerous pieces of landmark legislation 
including the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. It has also 
been a forceful voice behind numerous court decisions that have set our 
nation's course on civil rights.
  The NAACP has had a presence in Long Beach, CA since 1940 and has 
done much to advance the cause of civil rights for the city's 
residents. Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Los Angeles County was 
similar to many segregated counties throughout the nation and African-
American residents in the county 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 Long Beach. Today, the Long 
Beach Branch of the NAACP sponsors many award winning programs and 
projects, such as the Community Impact Program, which promotes academic 
excellence, social responsibility, leadership, and community service. 
Since its founding, the Long Beach Branch has been recognized over 20 
times with the prestigious Thalheimer Awards, the National NAACP's top 
award given to branches for outstanding achievements. The Long Beach 
Branch NAACP has also been recognized as one of the best NAACP branches 
in California. 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.
  Despite all that has been accomplished over the years, the mission 
and goals of the NAACP remains an ongoing journey. Racial profiling 
remains a pervasive policy in both the workplace and in many police 
departments all over the country; inequities in the criminal justice 
system continue to overwhelmingly impact African Americans; and, 
threats to voter access continue to gain traction in certain areas of 
the country. These injustices show that the NAACP's work is just as 
important today as it was when the Long Beach Branch NAACP was founded 
75 years ago. While our recognition of past progress made under the 
leadership of the NAACP is critical and necessary, we also must look to 
the future and rededicate ourselves as Americans to the fulfillment of 
their goals of a truly equal and just society for all Americans.

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