Baltimore celebrates 100 years of NAACP with special events

Centennial Events

Events celebrating the centennial anniversary of the NAACP are listed below. Please visit Baltimore.org/events for details on Baltimore's celebration of Black History Month.

Saturday, April 4, 2009
Baltimore City Branch Prayer Luncheon

NAACP Baltimore City Branch Centennial Life Members Luncheon | Martin's West, address | Open to the public; admission is $50.00. This event will salute members of the Baltimore City NAACP Branch that are fully paid and subscribing Life Members and recruit those in attendance to become Life Members. Additionally, the branch was initially founded on April 4, so there will be a brief branch birthday salute. Additionally, very special recognition will be given to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for this was the date of Dr. King's assassination. The Greater Baltimore Medical Center is the sponsor for the Life Members Luncheon. For more information contact: Dr. Josephine Ball-Sevils at 410/664-2489.

Saturday, April 18, 2009
Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the NAACP

Anniversary Commemoration | 10:00 a.m. — 2:30 p.m. | Frederick Douglass - Isaac Myers Maritime Park and Museum, 1417 Thames Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21231. Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the NAACP: "The Early Struggles for Civil Rights in Baltimore: Lessons Learned from the Past." A keynote address will be given by Dean Kurt L. Schmoke, Howard University School of Law. Contact 410.685.0295 x 252 for more information.

Sunday, May 3, 2009
Reading and Performance: The Green Book

Time: 2:00-4:00 p.m. - JMM & NAACP members/BHU Students: $5.00; General Public: $10.00

Baltimore-born playwright, Calvin Ramsey will direct a reading from his play, The Green Book, based on a travel guide that was published from 1936-1963, listing roadside accommodations that served African Americans. The play illustrates the complications and complexity of African American life during the Jim Crow era and this reading highlights an encounter of a Black ad salesman with a Holocaust survivor. This program will take place at Baltimore Hebrew University, 5800 Park Heights Avenue. This program is co-sponsored by the Baltimore Chapter of the NAACP, and Baltimore Hebrew University. For tickets and more information, please contact idackmanalon@jewishmuseummd.org or 410.732.6402 x 214.

Sunday, May 17, 2009
Lecture by Rabbi Emeritus Murray Saltzman

Lecture and Discussion: "Civil Rights: America's Vacillating Reaction to Conscience" | 2:00 p.m. | Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, 7401 Park Heights Avenue, Baltimore, | Open to public: FREE. Rabbi Emeritus Murray Saltzman will reflect on his personal experiences during the transition period from Jim Crow Laws to full equality in Maryland. Rabbi Saltzman served as spiritual leader of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation and received a presidential appointment in 1975 to serve as commissioner on the United States Commission on Civil Rights. He has served on various commissions and committees of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Union of America Hebrew Rabbis, and black-Jewish interfaith dialogues around the nation. For more information, please contact Idack Manalon at idackmanalon@jewishmuseummd.org or 410/732.6402, x 214.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009
"Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" — a School Singing in Celebration of James Weldon Johnson's Birthday

Lift every voice and sing,
'Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on 'til victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast'ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
'Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.