Attendees at NAACP banquet reminded that struggles are not over
The image on the front of the program for the 58th Human Rights Award Banquet sponsored by the Washington County NAACP showed a civil rights march that happened in Washington in 1964.
The keynote speaker at the event at DoubleTree Hotel-Meadow Lands Friday told those in attendance the struggle for full equality for African-Americans is not wholly a thing of the past.
The Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit branch of the NAACP and a member of the organization’s national board of directors, cited voter suppression efforts, gerrymandering and the recent arrests of two black patrons at a Starbucks coffeehouse in Philadelphia for trespassing when they were there to meet a friend, as evidence the NAACP’s efforts remain vital and necessary.
“Yes, all lives matter, but all lives are not treated the same,” Anthony said.
He added, however, that such revered black Americans as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Sojourner Truth endured greater trials, “but they didn’t stop.”
“The times that we are in are nothing compared to the times they lived in,” Anthony said. “We will not be pushed back. We will not be turned around.”
Before Anthony spoke, the group presented its Human Rights Award to Gwendolyn Gladden Simmons, a Monongahela resident and wife of the late federal Judge Paul Simmons. She has served as past president of Washington County Historical Society and Mon Valley United Way, and on the boards of California University of Pennsylvania, Washington County Community Foundation and Urban League of Pittsburgh.
The Community Service Award was given to Suzanne E. Kelley, one of the founders of the nonprofit organization Mystro’s Movement, which supports efforts to stop violent crime. Mystro’s Movement is named after Kelley’s brother-in-law, Vincent Kelley, who was killed by a robber at the South Strabane Township Giant Eagle store in June 2013. Kelley has participated in the Court Appointed Special Advocates program for abused and neglected children since 2016, and has also worked with the LeMoyne Community Center’s Summer mobile feeding unit.