Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive nominee of the Democratic party, spoke at the 99th Annual Convention of the NAACP, held in the Duke Energy Center in Cincinnati, Ohio last night.
"If I have the privilege of serving as your next president, 100 years after the founding.jpg)
Julian Bond & Barack Obama
"That means removing the barriers of prejudice and misunderstanding that still exist in America. It means fighting to eliminate discrimination from every corner of our country. It means changing hearts and changing minds and making sure that every American is treated equally under the law."
The Illinois senator’s speech was a historic first: an African-American poised to be the presidential nominee of a major party addressing the nation’s oldest civil rights organization.
Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, will address the NAACP on Wednesday.
Obama further noted "we have more work to do" even after the gains made from the struggles of the older civil rights leaders. Americans must demand that government and business take more responsibility "to break the cycle of poverty and violence gripping this country," he said.
"But we also have to demand more from ourselves," he said. "Now, I know there’s some who’ve been saying I’ve been too tough talking about responsibility. But here at the NAACP, I’m here to report I’m not going to stop talking about it. Because no matter how many 10-point plans we propose, or how many government programs we launch none of it will make any difference if we don’t seize more responsibility in our own lives."
Taking responsibility, Obama said, means turning off televisions and putting away video games and providing direct guidance to children.
"Teaching our daughters to never allow images on television to tell them what they are worth; teaching our sons to treat women with respect, and to realize responsibility does not end at conception; that what makes them a man is not the ability to have a child but to raise one," he said. "That’s a message we need to send."
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Unlike the Rev. Jackson and others, I don’t see Obama talking down to Blacks. He is only saying it as it is.