The NAACP Dane County Branch has only been in existence for a couple of years, but it’s clearly been a very active and much-needed branch here in the Madison area.
‘I’m really pleased. I’m happy that we have an active and engaged NAACP. I really am,” says Gwen Jones, communications chair for the Dane County NAACP. “And I’m happy that the community has been so accepting to us. We have a lot of issues here and there needs to be diverse voices in this community. The NAACP is just one voice, but because of its great national history, I think it is one that should be heard.”
NAACP has been going strong since 1909, when it was one of the earliest and most influential civil rights organization in the United States. The mission of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination.
The NAACP Dane County Branch will honor the great traditions of its organization when it hosts its 2016 Freedom Fund Dinner and Gala titled “Our Lives Matter, Our Votes Count” Oct. 28 at the Concourse Hotel in downtown Madison. “It’s the singular fundraiser for the NAACP of Dane County, so it is a pretty important event,” Jones tells Madison365. “It’s hugely important because, really, that’s where all of the operating funds come for the year.”
This will be the 3rd annual event for the Dane County NAACP branch which was chartered in May of 2014 with Jones as the original interim chairperson. The keynote speaker will be John W. Vaudreuil, the United States attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin. “We’re so happy to have John because our theme this year is ‘Our Lives Matter, Our Votes Count,’ and with him being a part of the United States Department of Justice, we thought he could bring forth a really good message,” Jones says. “He’s very excited about coming, too. I’ve heard John before and he’s always been great and considering what is happening across the nation, I think he’s a good person to bring forward the message.”
The Freedom Fund Banquet is also a great chance to reflect on all of the activities that the NAACP Dane County has been working on over the past year. So, what exactly has the NAACP Dane County been up to?
“One of the things that we’re really involved in right now is the Dane County Voter ID Coalition,” Jones says. “Voting is one the single thing that everybody can do — especially right now – that will make a tremendous difference in the world we live in.”
The NAACP is a non-partisan organization, so they do not take sides in politics. “But we do stress to people that voting is really important. People have died for that right,” Jones says. “Both of my parents were from the south and I grew up in a family where voting was a very big deal. In our house, you got out of the sickbed to go and vote.”
Jones says that she is old enough herself to remember segregated water fountains in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
“I was a little girl, true enough,” she smiles, “but I remember my grandmother telling me about the importance of voting. So, it is a huge deal and we don’t want our nation to go backward. We’re having enough trouble holding ground right now, we don’t need people just blowing [voting] off like it’s not a big deal.”
The NAACP is also involved in the Dignity at Work Coalition and are part of the “fight for $15.” “If not more,” Jones emphasizes, “because why in the world should people who are working hard every day not earn enough to take care of themselves and their families? That is ridiculous.”
Jones mentions that NAACP Dane County Branch President Greg Jones is serving as a co-facilitator on the United Way of Dane County Law Enforcement and Communities of Color Coalition that is looking into the policing in the Madison community. The NAACP Dane County is also active in the Dane County Equity and Inclusion Advisory Council.
“When we had issues on campus, we called a meeting with the [University of Wisconsin] Chancellor [Rebecca Blank] and her inner circle to express our concern about the treatment of students of color and all of the incidents on that campus,” Jones says. “That’s the flagship campus for the state of Wisconsin!”
The NAACP Dane County has also been a strong supporter of the Madison College South Madison Initiative, they’ve developed and presented at the Black Worker’s Forum, and they’ve implemented outreach initiatives for homeless veterans and their families.
NAACP Dane County chapter hosts the ACT-SO [Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics,] program, a major youth initiative that provides a forum through which youth of African descent demonstrate academic, artistic and scientific prowess and expertise, thereby gaining the same recognition often only reserved for entertainers and athletes.
“Because ACT-SO is so young in terms of this branch, the branch actually funds the whole thing,” Jones says. “That’s made possible by last year’s Freedom Fund Banquet!”
NAACP Dane County is also involved in political action, K-12 education, fair housing, criminal justice, economic development and more. All of this is done by an all-volunteer organization. There is no paid staff or paid executive director, it’s just community people giving up their time to really delve into the problems that exist in the city and beyond. “We’re truly grassroots, which is kinda cool,” Jones says. “We would like for more people to be active and engaged because the more people you have, the lighter the load. That’s one of the things that hopefully the Freedom Fund Banquet will help with. Aside from this being a fundraiser, this is really a huge membership outreach opportunity for the NAACP.
“More and more people are realizing that there are two Madisons,” Jones adds. “There’s one that we walk past every day and we never see it. That’s the one we are talking about. Madison has a lot of great things going on, but it really does depend on your annual income whether you can enjoy them and participate fully in them or not. For me, when I see all of these wonderful things going on in Madison, and I see people who can’t participate in them … that’s a problem. People have to be willing to, first, acknowledge that we have a problem and then step up to help fix the problem.”
A free NAACP membership comes with a ticket to the NAACP Dane County Freedom Fund Banquet, which usually gets about 225 attendees for the event.
“I will be happy with 200-225 attendees. I’d be ecstatic with 300 … and I’d be over the moon with 400,” Jones laughs. “The more people we have and the more people who are exposed to what we do, the more we can raise consciousness.”
Just to clarify a common misconception: You don’t have to be black to attend the Freedom Fund Banquet or join the NAACP. “My daughter was talking to one of her millennial friends about the banquet and she asked, ‘Can white people join the NAACP?’ I told her, ‘Everybody can join the NAACP.’ If you care about community, if you care about social justice, it’s for you,” Jones says. “It really just takes a person who cares about others because the work that we do is often for everybody – voter ID, fight for $15, voter registration, dignity at work, etc. We’ve got to come out of that race box a little bit and start thinking about this global problem we have. Because if I see a hungry kid, I don’t care what color that child is. We will get that child some food.”
