NAACP initiates ‘just the start’ of tackling issues

The Sampson County chapter of the NAACP held its inaugural meeting as part of what is hoped will be a new series of town hall forums, seeking to delve deeper into the issues plaguing the Black community and ways to tackle those problems.

The forum was held Monday night at First Baptist Church on 900 College St., Clinton, where multiple leaders among the Black community and NAACP members gathered for those discussions.

“I welcome you to this somewhat inaugural town hall meeting dealing with community issues and specifically issues that are impacting Blacks in Sampson County,” said Larry Sutton, NAACP president for the local chapter. “Tonight, we will find out more about who needs to be identified as our Black leaders so we know who to turn to about these issues.”

“There shouldn’t be any doubt about who we can depend on as our leaders and your being here indicates to me that we are the leaders we have been waiting for.”

As Sutton’s speech continued, he touched on the many historic strides Black Americans have made. One of those highlighted examples was this year being the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

Following his statements, Sutton opened up the forum for those in attendance to voice their thoughts and opinions on what they believed are the issues on which they should be focused.

There were quite a few that had a lot to say, but among all who spoke, there were a few topics broached often — voting, education, environmental concerns, community involvement and youth engagement.

Part of voicing opinions on the issues thought to be priority, one in the Black community was brainstorming ideas to remedy them.

Conversations were had on finding ways to make voting more appealing and debates between private school attendance and restructuring public schools. Dialogue on the negative health concerns being pushed on predominantly Black communities from environmental hazards like landfills was also prevalent.

There were similarly extensive exchanges on the need to be more active within the community and increasing their involvement in the NAACP and their goals. Not to forget the youth, the forum touched on everything from engaging them in the home, keeping them active to stave off gang violence, mentoring them and more.

Sutton called the near two-hour forum a strong starting point, showing there is a great deal of work to do as the series continues.

“We encourage you to also attend our meeting that we have every fourth Monday night here,” Sutton said. “It’s open to the public and anyone can come and have comment on these ongoing issues we’ve discussed. Tonight has been wonderful, but one thing’s for sure, we have a lot of work to do. If you think we touched on issues tonight, which we have, but this is just the start.”

“Again, tonight is the beginning, please continue to join us and have your voices heard.”

For a deeper look into the specifics covered at the inaugural town hall forum, check later this week in The Sampson Independent.