NAACP President Elenora Woods wants folks to begin the new year thinking about what they can do to make a difference in their communities.
Coming together for a cause – or “unifying with a purpose” – is the theme of this year’s Chattanooga-Hamilton County NAACP’s annual Jubilee Celebration on Jan. 1. It’s also the mission of the organization’s work in 2020, Woods said.
“It’s been often said that our community, especially in Chattanooga, is divided and is especially divided between the haves and have nots,” Woods told the Times Free Press. “Going into 2020 the focus is unity with a purpose because together we can stand, together we fight, together we win and especially, together if we vote, and then we can make a difference in our community.”
The Jubilee Celebration commemorates Jan. 1, 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that changed the federal legal status of enslaved people from slave to free in designated areas of the South.
Though the day celebrates freedom, Woods said African-Americans and other minorities are still suffering.
“We are still enslaved in other ways,” she said.
Woods pointed to housing discrimination, crime and even divisions among minorities themselves. The NAACP and Woods have been actively speaking out against corruption in law enforcement this year and how she says black men and women are being disproportionally affected by crime.
Dr. Elenora Woods, president of the Chattanooga Hamilton County branch of the NAACP, talks Saturday at the NAACP 8th Annual Criminal Justice Seminar at the Choo Choo.IF YOU GO
What: NAACP annual Jubilee CelebrationWhen: Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020 at 11 a.m.Where: First Baptist Church at 506 E. 8th St., Chattanooga
On Dec. 16, the NAACP held a news conference to comment on a 26-year-old Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office deputy who has been at the center of a criminal investigation and several lawsuits involving traffic stops, during which he is accused of engaging in misconduct ranging from illegal drug searches and a roadside body cavity search to a forced baptism and the groping of female minors.
Deputy Daniel Wilkey was indicted this month on 44 criminal charges, including six counts of sexual battery, two counts of rape and nine counts of official oppression. Woods has called his alleged offenses “satanic rituals.”
NAACP leaders said they are in the process of discussing an action plan to hold Sheriff Jim Hammond accountable for his deputies’ actions.
“We still have to clean up the sheriff’s department and the Chattanooga Police Department,” Woods told the Times Free Press when commenting on some of the organization’s focuses for 2020.
After the Dec. 16 news conference, Hammond did not address the NAACP’s statements but issued a statement saying: “When addressing issues relative to employees and civil service, there is a process in place to which I must follow and that process has to be given time to work.”
Woods said the need to stand together against these offenses and to hold elected officials accountable inspires the theme for this year’s Jubilee and connects directly back to what the day commemorates.
“I believe that in celebrating the freedom of slavery, we can look back at how that was done – and it was done by uniting together,” she said. “If we apply those same principles, it starts with looking at the man in the mirror – each person has to look at themselves and ask, ‘What can we do as an individual?'”
Woods encouraged those who have let their membership expire or who want to join the NAACP for the first time to do so during the Jubilee, and she also encouraged churches to contribute to the organization’s work.
She said there will be opportunities to check your voter registration status or to register to vote at the event.
Local pastor Jay Trimble of Prospect Baptist Church will serve as keynote speaker at this year’s celebration.
The event will be held at 11 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2020, at First Baptist Church, 506 E. Eighth St.
Contact Meghan Mangrum at mmangrum@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6592. Follow her on Twitter @memangrum.