Pat Barcas/staff photographer
DuPage County NAACP President Mario Lambert explains his organization serves many of the same functions as other political action groups saying, “We must get out and vote if we are to bring a change.”
By Pat Barcas
Staff writer
Thursday Feb. 27, 2014
Email Pat Barcas at pat@foxvalleylabornews.com
NAPERVILLE — The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) may be associated with imagery of civil rights struggles in the 1960s, but the organization has shifted priorities to include striving for equal civil rights for everyone, and is more relevant than ever.
Mario Lambert, president of the DuPage County Branch of the NAACP, said the organization is important even in DuPage County, where the population of people of color is low. Lambert spoke Feb. 27 at a meeting of the Naperville Township Democratic Organization.
He said the NAACP is not a partisan organization, and serves many of the same functions as other political action groups.
“Why is the NAACP in DuPage? We get people to the polls, which is important everywhere,” he said. “And we insure everyone has access to quality public education.”
On the original board of the NAACP, only one out of six people were African-American. The first black NAACP President was not elected until 1975, Lambert pointed out.
It is the oldest national civil rights organization in the country, formed in 1909, and is currently experiencing a shift — eliminating discrimination for all, and focusing on civic issues like youth advancement, education, health, criminal justice and economic development.
The One Nation Working Together initiative is about bringing people together: youth, women, the faith community, working class citizens, unionized workers, and the immigrant population. The NAACP is trying to build a new movement for people who care about a secure job, a safe home and a quality education. It’s for people who care about the state of the government, jobs and the economy.
Lambert said the movement starts with voting. There are a few unique challenges in DuPage, namely getting voters out at election time.
“People are fearful to stand with us, they think they will be labeled as radicals. That’s just not true,” Lambert said. “We must get out and vote if we are to bring change. Most of the things we believe in align with the goals of the people here tonight.”
National issues such as voter restrictions, zero tolerance rules in schools, and stand your ground laws are also on the NAACP’s radar.
“If it’s civil rights related, we go after it. But you have to pick and choose your battles. If it’s human rights, we often sit that out because it’s not our core pursuit,” said Lambert.