Thank you for inviting me to be with you this evening. It is an honor to bring welcome and greetings on behalf of the Leon County Board of County Commissioners. We thank you for choosing our community to host your statewide convention, and we hope you will enjoy your visit here.

It is with a great sense of pride that we welcome the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP to Leon County. The long and proud tradition of this organization is written in bold script in the history of our nation. As a former high school history teacher myself, I know what everyone else in this room knows: that for the past century the NAACP has helped this nation to at least begin to live up to the high ideals upon which it was founded.

But I want to be sure that all within the sound of my voice understand that I don’t speak of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP with a sense of nostalgia. The great historical events which have marked the opening years of this new century have reminded us that the noble aspirations that resound in our history are still unfulfilled in the world of today.

The presidential election of 2000, and the recount that followed, showed that there is still disparity in the way the votes of Americans are counted. The 2000 recount was a reminder that the Voting Rights Act of 1965, although a major turning point in the history of human freedom, was not the end of the struggle for enfranchisement and equal representation in America.

You’ll remember that election was not decided at the voting booth, but at the Supreme Court. As we meet here tonight, the Federal Government is moving through the process of selecting not one but two new Supreme Court justices, one of which will be the Chief Justice for many years to come.

If we do allow ourselves to indulge in a bit of nostalgia during these transitional days, let us remember the great Thurgood Marshal and his contributions to the American legal tradition. Marshal was a giant in the law and in American history. I think you’ll join me in my observation, as we watch the process of selecting two new justices, that they just don’t make’um like Thurgood Marshal anymore.

Most recently, we have seen the great tragedy of New Orleans, this year, serving as a vivid reminder that issues of poverty in America are still unresolved, and that the effects of more than three centuries of institutional racism as a contributing cause of poverty have yet to be addressed. Let our fervent prayer be that from the tragedy of New Orleans something good will emerge, and that it will be remembered as a turning point in the struggle to overcome the lingering damage to our national consciousness that the history of institutional racism has wrought on our collective national soul.

So please know as you continue the fight for what’s right, that we here in Leon County, Florida, stand with you. One of our greatest challenges here is in the area of healthcare. Leon County recently commissioned a study that showed higher that average infant mortality in our community, especially in traditionally black areas of our county. The people of this community responded with a publicly financed health care initiative -- providing healthcare to those most in need -- and began plans to open a women’s health clinic to serve this population.

But since these initiatives began, reactionary elements have succeeded in slashing the modest funding we were able to provide. We can at least be thankful they weren’t unsuccessful in killing the programs outright. But let this serve as a reminder that the struggle continues -- not just at the national and regional level -- but also city by city, county by county, community by community, all through this land.

So in conclusion I implore you -- let us never rest upon our accomplishments. Let us never be complacent. Let us never believe that the struggle for equality and justice ended in the 1960s. It didn’t, and I believe that it will be organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP, with it’s proud history and traditions, that will help all Americans to see more clearly the challenges we still face, today and in our future. When I look at the world and the great events of our time, I see more clearly the work that is yet to be done, and I see the indispensable the role of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP in our shared future.

As a life member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP, although I look upon this organization’s history with pride, I do believe that our greatest days are still to come. I thank you again for coming here, and may God bless and preserve the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP.