Nick Lampson: “I rise today to extend congratulations to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, sometimes…”

“I rise today to extend congratulations to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, sometimes known as the NAACP, as it celebrates its 90th anniversary on this Friday. The NAACP is the oldest, largest, and strongest civil rights organization in the United States. On February 12, 1909, on the 100th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, 60 prominent black and white citizens issued the call for a national conference in New York City to renew the struggle for civil and political liberty. Participants at the conference agreed to work toward the abolition of forced segregation, promotion of equal education and civil rights under the protection of law, and an end to race violence. In 1911 that organization was incorporated as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Today the NAACP is a network of more than 2,200 branches covering all 50 States, the District of Columbia, Japan, Germany, and its membership exceeds a half million people. Born in response to racial violence, the association's first major campaign was the effort to get the anti-lynching laws on the books in the United States.”