Having a black president and black elected officials in federal and local government doesn't mean the struggle for racial and economic equality has ended, a minister said Thursday night.
"Some of the same issues that even Dr. Martin Luther King spoke about we're still struggling with today," said Rev. Ernest Reid, the new pastor of Second Missionary Baptist Church. "We're still dealing with legal structures that prevent blacks from economic security, and we're still living with the militarization of police forces. We're dealing with the need for affordable health care in spite of having an affordable health care act."
Reid spoke to a sold-out crowd Thursday at the NAACP's 28th annual Ruby Hurley Image Awards banquet at the Chattanooga Convention Center. The event also marked 75 years that the NAACP has been in Chattanooga.
"This is a culminating moment in our history," said Eric Atkins, secretary of the local NAACP. "The chapter of Mr. [James] Mapp has ended and a new chapter has begun."
Bands played, youth sang and danced, and NAACP officials recognized several former leaders and politicians, including former State Rep. Tommie Brown, former Chattanooga Vice Mayor John Franklin and the late James Mapp, a long-time NAACP president who led a 26-year lawsuit against the city for school desegregation.
NAACP President Elenora Woods and senior NAACP leaders gave numerous awards recognizing the achievements of upcoming leaders, corporate officials and politicians.
"So many leaders have gone on. A new generation is taking the mantel," Atkins said.
Erlanger Healthy System received the Corporate Platinum Sponsor of the Year Award. Chattanooga News Chronicle CEO John Edwards III received the Ruby Hurley Humanitarian of the Year Award, and WNOO-AM talk show host Sam Terry got the President's Award.
Terry accepted the award in honor of his father who made a living with only an eighth-grade education.
And Edwards acknowledged his father, civil rights leader, the Rev. John Loyd Edwards Jr., who died in April 2014.
"A lot of people say give until it hurts. My father said give until it feels good. That's something I want to learn," he said
Reid left the audience with a call to action.
"My call is to every church, sorority, fraternity, business and organization to have a lifetime membership to the NAACP and for every individual to have a membership, and to have a membership for youth. We need to be at meetings to educate ourselves and to have allies in the business and political community. We need a broad spectrum of allies that we can call on to help us meet our objective."
Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman @timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.