NAACP holds training in Hub
Program aims to develop young civil rights leaders
Dozens of young civil rights leaders are meeting in Boston this weekend as part of the National NAACP’s first NEXTGEN Young Professional Leadership Program — a training many young leaders say will be pivotal in engaging voters this November, addressing complex issues such as criminal justice and housing reform, and ensuring the future of the association.
“This program is extremely important because of the trying times we live in,” Leslie Redmond, president of the NAACP Minneapolis branch told the Herald. “Don’t complain. Activate. Hope is great but hope is not a strategy. It is training young leaders to be strategic about the decisions we are making.”
The leadership development program was launched in March in Washington, D.C., for young adults ages 21 to 35 from communities across the country to develop skills related to public speaking, community mobilization and Get Out the Vote campaigns, criminal and environmental justice and intergenerational relations. The second training was in July in San Antonio.
Boston was the final session with a kickoff reception at the University of Massachusetts Club with Mayor Martin J. Walsh and National Board Member Attorney Michael Curry on Friday. Trainings lasted all day yesterday at the Boston Hilton Logan Airport, which featured a panel discussion on policing and use of force with former Boston police Superintendent Lisa Holmes, Suffolk district attorney candidate Rachael Rollins and ACLU attorney Rahsaan Hall.
The program was part of an effort to recruit and train young leaders to take up issues at the heart of the 109-year-old civil rights organization.
“The National NAACP has boldly identified a challenge, which is to address that age cohort that disappears from the NAACP between youth and older adults ages,” said Curry, former Boston NAACP president. “They want to proclaim that Black Lives Matter, challenge the status quo, envision a more inclusive and equitable society and speak truth to power and have identified the NAACP as their organization most equipped to deliver that change.”
The program comes amid what many young leaders see as a divisive national climate full of civil rights setbacks. These leaders are aiming to reverse that course.
“It is to ensure the next generation of leaders within the NAACP has the skills and resources to lead so we can have a stronger network of activists across the country,” said Danielle Sydnor, president-elect of the Cleveland NAACP. “I’m confident we will see an impact in the next election. We have to mobilize people. We have to excite them so they feel a purpose in going to the polls.”