Posted on 05/01/2005 7:35:09 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Obama praises civil rights pioneers to 10,000 at Detroit NAACP
5/1/2005, 9:25 p.m. ET
By ADRIENNE SCHWISOW
The Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois praised the courage of America's civil rights pioneers Sunday and urged younger generations to exercise the same gutsiness in addressing the future of education.
"Sometimes, when I reflect on that movement, I wonder where they found that courage," the Democrat told about 10,000 people at an NAACP fundraiser. "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 Fight for Freedom Fund dinner. He thanked the group for the award but said he felt unworthy.
"I don't feel like I made history. I won an election, and there's much work to do," Obama said to huge applause.
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.
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 New York. He was elected to the Illinois senate in 1997 and is on leave from the University of Chicago, where he taught constitutional law.
Obama gained popularity during the 2004 election campaign for emphasizing a theme of one America and electrified the audience during his speech at the Democratic National Convention last summer.
He reminded donors at Sunday's dinner of the "discipline and inner dignity" of protesters of segregation and racism in the 1950s and '60s, and said parents, teachers, students, preachers, police officers and politicians must recapture that discipline to propel American children to better lives.
"Our grandparents used to tell us, if you were black you had to work twice as hard," he said to shouts of agreement. "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?"
"We've got some work to do in our own communities," he added.
Obama also scolded the Bush administration for tax cuts and an education policy that has created new achievement requirements but not fully funding measures to meet the standards. He urged the crowd to keep working for a "health care program for all Americans," and solvent social security system.
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.
I don't get some of these folks. Obama,Haile Berry,and Lani Guinere totally identify with being black but they are all 50% black and 50% white..
Are they ashamed of the ethnic identity of one of their parents?
Obama's father dumped him when he was a toddler and he was raised by his white mother.Why the identification with the black community?
I don't get it !!!
Affirmative action, I would guess---
Oh, and I love the line about Obama "scolding" the President for tax cuts.....
What a rotten president he is for letting us keep more of our money......just dang...
Is this a News piece of a stinkin Press Release?
Not Osama... Hic, Not Osama...
This could be our president in the not so far distant future, heads up!!!
He's a role model dontcha know. Get a girl pregnant, preferably white, abandon them and the child will grow up to be a commie senator in the most powerful country the world has ever known. I have a dream!
Maybe he should talk about Robert Byrd who filibustered LBJ's civil rights legislation.
Perhaps because he sees...self censored.
He's already made it clear how he feels about Byrd
http://www.suntimes.com/output/sweet/cst-nws-sweet11.html
of = or
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.