NEW YORK — In his first speech before the nation’s oldest civil-rights organization since taking office, President Barack Obama paid tribute Thursday to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as it celebrated its centennial, delivering what the group’s chief executive called his most “forthright speech on racial disparities.”
In his return to the organization that helped pave the way for him to become the first African-American president, Obama spoke directly to the concerns that have plagued the NAACP as it grapples with relevancy in an age that has been described as post-racial.
“We know that even as our economic crisis batters Americans of all races, African-Americans are out of work more than just about anyone else,” the president said. “We know that even as spiraling health-care costs crush families of all races, African-Americans are more likely to suffer from a host of diseases but less likely to own health insurance than just about anyone else.
“We know that even as we imprison more people of all races than any nation in the world, an African-American child is roughly five times as likely as a white child to see the inside of a jail. And we know that even as the scourge of HIV/AIDS devastates nations abroad, particularly in Africa, it is devastating the African-American community here at home with disproportionate force.”
Obama used his 20-minute speech to rally a loyal constituency, to return to the theme of personal responsibility on which he has often focused before black audiences, and to discuss his desire to reform the nation’s public education system.
Obama has become both a crowning symbol of the achievements of the civil-rights movement and a hurdle to it. When the organization was founded in 1909, black Americans were routinely the victims of attacks by lynch mobs and were legally treated as second-class citizens.
As the NAACP turns 100, a black man leads the country and social commentators are debating whether an organization founded to win civil rights for African-Americans is still necessary.
NAACP president Benjamin Jealous, who at 36 is the youngest person ever to lead the organization, said Obama made clear that “the fight isn’t over yet.”
Obama thanked the association for working to “promote equality and eradicate prejudice among citizens of the United States” and indicated that he still thinks it is needed.
“Make no mistake: The pain of discrimination is still felt in America,” said Obama. “By African-American women paid less for doing the same work as colleagues of a different color and gender. By Latinos made to feel unwelcome in their own country. By Muslim Americans viewed with suspicion for simply kneeling down to pray. By our gay brothers and sisters, still taunted, still attacked, still denied their rights.”
