Detroit — The Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit branch of the NAACP, said the civil rights organization is being besieged on all sides.
The contributions of Blacks to history are being whitewashed by the federal government at the same time limits to the group’s ability to vote, Anthony asserted Sunday just before the NAACP branch’s 71st annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner.
Such troubled times are exactly the reason the local organization holds the annual dinner, he said.
“Here we are, standing vigilant,” said Anthony. “We’re keeping the doors of democracy wide open.”
The dinner featured speeches by U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader; Letitia James, New York attorney general; and Ruby Bridges, a civil rights icon memorialized as a 6-year-old in a painting by Norman Rockwell. Held at Hunting Place, the event raised money for the NAACP branch.
James said she was alarmed by the attacks of immigrants, voting rights and economic opportunity chances for Blacks.
Most insidious, she said, was the assault on voting rights and what she called the chilling of civic engagement.
She told the audience they can’t allow themselves to be beaten down by all the challenges they face.
“We will not normalize these days and times,” she said. “We will not accept things as they are.”
James said the crowd needs to learn from the courage of those who fought in the early days of the civil rights movement.
She said the lesson of the early freedom fighters should never be forgotten.
“They were unapologetic. They were fearless,” she said. “Regardless of who’s in the White House, we are on the front lines.”
Ruby Bridges, a civil rights activist from New Orleans, received a lifetime achievement award during the dinner. Bridges became a civil rights icon when she integrated a New Orleans school as a 6-year-old and the moment was captured by the Rockwell painting.
Bridges dedicated the award to her parents. She said it was important to her mother that she obtain something her mom never had – an education.
“We are all standing on the hopes and dreams of someone that came before us,” she said.
Bridges said Blacks are facing many challenges these days but it was important to persevere. They need to do it for themselves and for their children, she said, motioning toward several people in the audience.
“We are not and have never been a hopeless people,” she said. “And we cannot start that today.”
Shortly after Jeffries became Democratic leader, a constituent asked how someone who once quoted rapper Notorious B.I.G. during impeachment proceedings managed to rise to such a high level.
Jeffries told him it took imagination.
And that’s how Blacks will win back the White House and some of the losses they’ve suffered in voting rights and social issues, he said. Imagination has always been the strength of the civil rights movement, he said.
Despite facing long odds in the 1960s, Blacks obtained gains by imagining a better future and then working to make it happen, said Jeffries.
“Harriet Tubman had imagination,” he said. “Rosa Parks had imagination. Shirley Chisholm had imagination.”
Despite losing the presidential race in 2024, Democrats can win the White House back by continuing to press on, he said.
A setback is just a setup for a comeback, he said to cheers.
“Press on for our children,” he said. “Press on for our seniors. Press on for middle class folks.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II and Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield were among political leaders who attended the dinner.
In his remarks before the dinner, Anthony said some people have been trying to write Blacks out of history since the 17th century.
The federal government has been accused lately of attempting to whitewash history by removing historic markers and exhibits about Black history, including those about civil rights, and limit what colleges can teach about such racial issues as critical race theory.
Groups representing park conservationists, historians and scientists filed a lawsuit in February seeking to prevent President Trump’s administration from scrubbing information from parks and monuments.
The lawsuit argues the U.S. Department of the Interior is removing the signs and exhibits from parks in violation of mandates from Congress.
A spokesperson for the Interior Department has said the policy it is challenging aims “to ensure parks tell the full and accurate story of American history.”
Anthony said the efforts will only galvanize the NAACP to work harder.
“You cannot stop what you didn’t create,” he said about the federal efforts.
He said Blacks will continue to make history, such as listening to the speeches being said at the annual dinner on Sunday night.
As for voting, Anthony accused the federal government of trying to reverse 60 years of progress in voting rights.
He accused the Justice Department of creating a blueprint for voter intimidation. He said requiring photo IDs to vote may prevent the elderly and low income from casting a ballot.
“They want to take us back to the old plantation,” said Anthony. “Well, we ain’t going back.”
The SAVE America Act is set to die in Congress, but 23 mostly Republican-led U.S. states have recently changed their voting procedures to mirror key aspects of President Trump’s sweeping package of voting restrictions in time for November’s midterm elections, a Reuters analysis shows.
The legislation includes requiring people registering to vote in a federal election to present documentary proof that they are U.S. citizens, such as a passport or a birth certificate. The documents must be presented in person. Voters would be required to provide a valid physical photo ID, such as a state driver’s license, or include a copy of the ID and the last three digits of their Social Security numbers with mail-in ballots.
The bill requires states to submit complete official voter registration lists to the Department of Homeland Security, allowing federal officials to verify the immigration status of people already registered to vote.
States from Wyoming to Georgia since 2024 have imposed new proof-of-citizenship requirements on Americans registering to vote and limited the types of photo ID accepted at the polls. In March, signed an executive order to tighten mail-in voting rules. The order is being challenged in court.
Trump has called U.S. voter fraud “massive” and said the legislation was an attempt to strengthen voter security.
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: NAACP besieged on all sides, Rev. Wendell Anthony says
Reporting by Francis X. Donnelly, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
