Obama praises civil rights pioneers to 10,000 at Detroit NAACP

[paineinthearse]

http://us.news3.yimg.com/img.news.yahoo.com/util/anysize/345,http%3A%2F%2Fus.news2.yimg.com%2Fus.yimg.com%2Fp%2Fap%2F20050502%2Fcapt.mips10305020041.naacp_dinner_mips103.jpg
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., addresses the NAACP 50th Annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner in Detroit, Sunday, May 1, 2005. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw115174_20050501.htm

Obama praises civil rights pioneers to 10,000 at Detroit NAACP
May 1, 2005, 8:44 PM

DETROIT (AP) -- Democratic U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois praised the courage of America's civil rights pioneers Sunday and urged younger generations to find the same boldness in addressing the future of education. "Sometimes, when I reflect on that movement, I wonder where they found that courage," Obama told about 10,000 people at an NAACP fund raiser. "Fifty years from now, what kind of courage will our kids look back and see that came from us?"

The civil rights group presented the first-term senator with its lifetime achievement award at the 50th anniversary Detroit NAACP Freedom Fund dinner. The son of a white mother from Kansas and black father from Kenya, Obama became the third black U.S. senator since Reconstruction after beating Republican Alan Keyes in a landslide in November. Becoming a state senator in 1997, the former University of Chicago constitutional law professor has gained popularity in part by emphasizing a theme of one America.

The 42-year-old father of two grew up in Hawaii and Indonesia, attended Columbia and Harvard and has worked as a community activist in Chicago and in New York's Harlem. The Detroit chapter of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which has about 50,000 members, has been sponsoring the Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner since 1956. Civil rights lawyer and U.S. Supreme Court justice-to-be Thurgood Marshall was the dinner's first speaker. New York Sen. Hillary Clinton was the keynote speaker last year. The association was founded in 1909 to fight for social justice and the right to vote, and against discrimination and racism.

p.s. * was nowhere in sight.

[Rose Siding]

1. Here's more of what he said in another article

but just a little. No one seems to have gone overboard covering this event (so far) That first AP piece reads like a file bio.

snip>
He reminded donors of the "discipline and inner dignity" protesters of segregation and racism showed in the 1950s and '60s. He said parents, teachers and community leaders need to recapture that discipline.

"Our grandparents used to tell us, if you were black you had to work twice as hard," he said. "Can we honestly say that our students are working twice as hard as students in China, in India, in South Korea? Can we say our teachers are?"

http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/local/11539818.htm

[Miss Chybil]

2. "I wonder where they found that courage,"

Obama told about 10,000 people at an NAACP fund raiser. "Fifty years from now, what kind of courage will our kids look back and see that came from us?"

I wonder, too. It's not bad enough, yet. I'm sure when it gets bad enough, the people will do what people do best - rise to the occassion. Rise we will.