David Broyles | The News
State Sen. Earline Parmon was the keynote speaker at the 48th Annual Freedom Fund Banquet Saturday night. The senator argued that the organization was relevant in the face of upcoming legislation which would segregate schools and shift tax burdens to the poor.
David Broyles | The News
The Surry County Chapter #5459 of the NAACP Annual Freedom Fund Banquet was event calling for action from members and featured musical entertainment and a catered meal. The group meets on the third Sunday of each month at Spencer Funeral Home Chapel at 6 p.m.
A recurring question of whether the NAACP is still relevant was answered with a resounding yes Saturday night in the L.H. Jones Auditorium during the 48th Annual Freedom Fund Banquet.
Master of Ceremony Ric Marshall opened the evening by reminding the audience the mission of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and discrimination.
Marshall called attention to ongoing demonstrations in Raleigh known as Moral Mondays where groups of North Carolinians dissatisfied with tax plans, education policies, health care proposals, welfare cuts, environmental deregulation and new voting policies have engaged in acts of civil disobedience such as singing and protesting. He said the Republican and Tea Party legislators have “set us back 50 years” and said the General Assembly is trying to segregate schools by using vouchers and funding changes which will cause the poor as well as African-Americans and Hispanics to suffer.
Branch President Faye Carter reminded the group that if it were not for the grace of God none would be here today and encouraged participants to sit back and enjoy the evening. Surry County NAACP Second Vice President Rodney Rosser next reminded the group of progress made in racial equality.
“One hundred years ago we all would not be sitting in the same room together,” said Rosser noting the diverse group in attendance. “It’s not over. It’s never ending. We need members from the NAACP to become more active, attend meetings and hear crucial information.
State Sen. Earline W. Parmon was direct and simple in describing how important the upcoming legislative battles would become.
“I’ve come to share with you in fellowship but also to remind you freedom ain’t free….somebody has paid,” began Parmon. “We are in times of controversy and moral decay in North Carolina. I came to remind you as a group and as individuals we are in crisis in the state of North Carolina.” Her next series of questions ended with asking if members had ever taken the time to explain to their children about the NAACP.
“We never thought we’d see school segregation returning at a pace we see today,” said Parmon. She then told the group harsh legislation being debated in regards to taxes, educational policies and non-health care program action in addition to restrictive voting guidelines would victimize the poor and disenfranchised and predicted new voter ID regulation would pass.
“We must not wait. We must prepare ourselves,” continued Parmon. “We must become silent about things that matter. I haven’t been arrested yet (for participating in Moral Mondays) but I’m not above it. The point is we’re at a point in North Carolina history where we can be arrested for singing or voting while there are not such restrictions on voting by mail. There is something wrong with that.”
Parmon characterized Republican initiatives in the legislature as the “power of the majority launching a smokescreen of wealth against the working class.” She reminded the group there used to be a middle class in America and said elected officials are not protecting citizens. She then explained how she had been involved with the civil rights movement in the 1960s only to find she is fighting the same war again.
“Why am I here still fighting for the same thing again after we dismantled Jim Crow Laws,” asked Parmon. She told the group the end result of redistricting in the state had diluted black voters influence because of the inability to get legislation to protect their rights passed. She ended by asking the audience members what they are prepared to do to stop a power grab in the state in 2014.
She said vouchers will not help poor children get a good education and said out of 485 private schools in the state 85 percent of their students were from wealthy families. She said that ongoing efforts in the General Assembly would tax prescription drugs and abolish tenure for teachers by 2015.
“It’s not the time to be silent. Where we may feel it’s going to be alright there is no do right in Raleigh. They say they have a mandate to cut cut cut and they are doing that to the least of us. What they do to the least of us most of us will feel it. Ask yourselves are we going forward or backward?”
Reach David Broyles at dbroyles @civitasmedia.com or 719-1952.
'Moral Mondays'?? Pah-lease.. What's IMMORAL about doing away with the state income tax(HELLO?), what's IMMORAL about giving parents options and THEM being the ones in control of their child's education(HELLO??), what's IMMORAL about turning down and fighting AGAINST one of the BIGGEST tax increases ever and not to mention takes away any control you may have about your own health care choices as you grow older(OBAMACARE), what's IMMORAL about getting somewhat of a 'grip' on the very programs that so many abuse and cost the tax payer BILLIONS, what's IMMORAL about educating folks that we would be alot better off if we WORSHIPPED the creator more so than the created(ie: EPA- MOTHER EARTH)and for gosh sakes, what the hell is IMMORAL about trying to secure each and every persons vote counts, and only counts ONCE and that it's legit??
We've(yes, I'm one proud REPUBLICAN promoting TEA Party principles)set you back 50years, trying to make African Americans and Hispanics suffer?? The VERY ONES you promote and back are the very ones whom carry out the accusations you bestow upon US.. I mean really, are there not ANY independent thinkers left, do you HONESTLY believe the goal of our current NCGA is to do all the above you just stated? Again, that's the most asinine jargon ever!!! Do ANY of y'all in attendance at this event ever sit back and think within yourself about these issues you bring up as concerns of yours???
While I do find something to agree with Mrs. Carter on and that is, it has been by the grace of GODS sweet love that we've came where we are today but to do that, it also took a 'government' here on earth to impliment policies that allowed for that and your beloved Democrat party hasn't been apart of the 'earthly governance' that's done it, GEEZ, wake the 'hello' up!!!
1. The Republican Party was founded primarily to oppose slavery, and Republicans eventually abolished slavery. The Democratic Party fought them and tried to maintain and expand slavery.
2. Even during the Civil War era, the "Radical Republicans" were given that name because they wanted to not only end slavery but also to endow the freed slaves with full citizenship, equality, and rights.
3. The Ku Klux Klan was originally and primarily an arm of the Southern Democratic Party, and its mission was to terrorize freed slaves and Republicans who sympathized with them.
4. The historic Civil Rights Act of 1964 was supported by a higher percentage of Republicans than Democrats in both houses of Congress. In the House, 80 percent of the Republicans and 63 percent of the Democrats voted in favor. In the Senate, 82 percent of the Republicans and 69 percent of the Democrats voted for it.
5. It was Republican President Dwight Eisenhower who pushed to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent troops to Arkansas to desegregate schools. President Eisenhower also appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to the U.S. Supreme Court, which resulted in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ending school segregation.
Even MLK was REPUBLICAN, why?? because it was DEMOCRATS who were standing in the school house doors, turning skin-burning fire hoses on blacks and who was letting loose vicious dogs to attack!!
From its founding in 1854 as the anti-slavery party until today, the Republican Party has championed freedom and civil rights for blacks. The Democrat Party is as it always has been, the party of the four S’s: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism. These 'minorities' that you so get pleasure in pointing out to everyone as being 'disinfranchised', they all believe in traditional marriage, they're PRO-LIFE and they love their GOD.. I can assure you, the platform of the party YOU represent doesn't believe in ANY of that.. Are you staying with the party because 'your grandma and grandpa were democrats' or do you just not care about voting and promoting what's TRULY your values?
I can't believe Mrs. Parmon has the nerve to say, "that ongoing efforts in the General Assembly would tax prescription drugs"!!!! It's her faithful party and her colleagues voting for one of the biggest tax increases ever with the implimentation of OBAMACARE and all you can come up with is this?
The NAACP is one of the MOST devisive and polarizing organizations I've seen..It's funny, if you notice in this write up, Mrs. Parmon and Mr. Marshall are both here to 'REMIND' folks where we're 'supposedly' at.. If it was as detrimental as you state, honestly, do you think folks would need 'REMINDING"?? That's what you guys do, you constantly try and keep this asinine jargon in the forefront of your followers mind.. You have to 'WORK' at making them see this bull malarky as factual and it's JUST NOT so..It is the Jesse Jacksons, the Al Sharptons and the Maxine Waters whom for years has tried to make you think that they are fighters for all the 'equality' issues you listed above but yet, they are the ones whom at best, have promoted to build up political capital. Fixing the problems of minority communities is not their goal. They need the bad neighborhoods, the escalating crime, and the high unemployment so they can use these as political and economic clubs to extract votes and money from those very same 'minorities' you speak of..Sit back and think, really, what have they done for you? They are political opportunists. Their comments end up inflaming many in the minority communities and create resentment among whites. Do blacks benefit? Yes. Some of them do, just ask Jesse, Al and Maxine. While Sharpton, Jackson and Waters are making their money, minority communities across America are disintegrating. Welfare policies pushed by liberal do-gooders have created a perpetual dependent class – good for winning elections but bad for the overall health of minority families.
If there is any one person, groups of people trying to set anyone back 50 years, it is YOUR beloved Democrat Party Mrs. Parmon and Mr. Marshall.. Per your request of asking those in attendance to please explain to their children about the NAACP, YES please explain but do it in a truthful and factual manner..
It's CLEAR there is a distinct ideology difference between ME and this article, my 'ideology' has facts to prove the history, your 'ideology' has to be promoted by 'CONSTANT REMINDERS'of a perceptual that just isn't so.. Hey, y'alls words not mine!! :-)
Ask yourself, are we going FORWARD or backwards?
You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you.. so why are
the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?
You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin Luther King Day.
You have Black History Month. You have Cesar Chavez Day.
You have Yom Hashoah. You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi.
You have the NAACP. You have BET. If we had WET (White Entertainment
Television), we'd be racists. If we had a White Pride Day, you would
call us racists.
If we had White History Month, we'd be racists.
If we had any organization for only whites to 'advance' OUR lives,
we'd be racists.
We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of Commerce,
and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce. Wonder who pays
for that??
A white woman could not be in the Miss Black American pageant, but any
color can be in the Miss America pageant.
If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships...
You know we'd be racists.
There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US ... Yet
if there were 'White colleges', that would be a racist college.
In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your
race and rights. If we marched for our race and rights, you would call
us racists.
You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you're not
afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride, you call
us racists.
You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police
officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug dealer
running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a
racist.
I am proud...... But you call me a racist.
Why is it that only whites can be racists??