After a youth read from the Emancipation Proclamation, the choir sang.
It was part of the Jubilee Day celebration at Pilgrim Rock Baptist Church marking freedom from slavery.
Then the Rev. Willie Paul, who gave the main address, said families were not taking advantage of their freedom.
“This generation is so sluggish that a young lady would rather fall in love with a pimp than a young man struggling to make ends meet. What are we doing with our freedom?” Dr. Paul told an audience of more than 100 people.
Dr. Paul, pastor of New Horizon Baptist Church, was the speaker for the NAACP’s annual Jubilee Day celebration Friday.
The Rev. Timothy Sykes, pastor of Pilgrim Rock Baptist, hosted the event sponsored by the Hamilton County Branch of the NAACP.
Jubilee Day commemorates Jan. 1, 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which eventually helped to free black slaves in the United States.
Dr. Paul encouraged people to not only listen to his speech, but allow it to change them. He read from Proverbs 6:6.
“Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!” he said.
A sluggard lives in idleness and gets nothing done, he said.
“It’s easy to look around and see what everybody else is doing wrong, but the question to ask is what about me,” Dr. Paul said. “We’ve got to teach this generation that blessings and things don’t just fall from the sky.”
More people have degrees now than before but lack wisdom, he said.
“If a young lady gets hit in the eye by her boyfriend, it doesn’t take a lot of sense to know you only have one eye left,” Dr. Paul said.
“It bothers me when young people say they are looking for a job, but at 11 a.m. Monday, you are still in the bed asleep,” he said.
Hamilton County Commissioner Gregory Beck said he is also focused on helping young people have a crime-free and successful future.
“I come here not just to give a proclamation, but to get a message out to young people,” Mr. Beck said. “Every Jewish boy by 8 years old knows the first five books of the Bible verbatim. That’s the history of the Jews. If you look at the County Register’s list, there are not Jews in jail. No Asians either. At one time (blacks) were like that. Lets get it back.”
What’s next
The NAACP is hosting orientation for its academic Olympics Competition called ACT-SO scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon Jan. 30. at the Center for Creative Arts on 1307 Dallas Road. For more information call 400-1040 or Cheryl Norris Sanders at 760-0691 or visit the Web site at http://www.chattanooganaacp.org