President Obama will visit NYC to attend NAACP's Centennial

[HopeOverFear]

BY MICHAEL FRAZIER | [e-mail]
11:53 AM EDT, June 9, 2009

President Barack Obama will visit New York City next month as part of the NAACP's 100th anniversary celebration, the group said Tuesday.

The NAACP, which got its start in a New York City apartment in February 1909, celebrates its centennial next month from July 11 through July 16.

The six-day conference in New York will feature Obama, who will make his first official visit to the city as the leader of the free world.

"It's humbling to think of the progress made possible by ordinary folks who refused to settle for the world as it was and instead stood up and fought to remake the world as it should be," Obama said in a statement.

Obama and first lady Michelle Obama traveled to the city to catch a Broadway show for a "date night" promise he made to his wife during the campaign.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined NAACP president Ben Jealous at Cooper Union in Manhattan on Tuesday to announce Obama's visit and unveil a plaque honoring the organization. The plaque will hang in the great hall of Cooper Union.

Cooper Union was the site of the organization's first conference.

Obama is the keynote speaker on the final day of the conference. Other speakers include former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

Political officials scheduled to attend the event include Gov. David Paterson, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Harlem) and Bloomberg.

The conference, which is expected to attract more than 10,000 and generate $7.5 million, is a platform for the national organization to unveil several new programs and its legislative agenda for the upcoming year. The multiracial organization is the country's oldest and largest civil rights group.

The NAACP continues to advocate for civil rights, conduct voter mobilization and monitor equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.

"We gathered here in Cooper Union 100 years ago last month to launch a movement that would transform . . . the entire world," Jealous said.

[Princess Turandot]

1. That's terrific! I've been waiting for him to pay an official visit here...

I live close enough to CU to consider queuing up to just maybe get a glimpse of the POTUS.

In addition to the NAACP's historical connection to CU, it was where Mr. Lincoln effectively was catapulted into national prominence and his own date with destiny.

And dare I say, I hope he has a few minutes that week to pop in to see Dave Letterman, who since interviewing him during the election, seems to be in total awe of President Obama.

I've seen 2 presidents in my lifetime, Reagan in a motorcade before they went crazy about protecting their routes and, believe it or not, ex-Pres Nixon. I came within 8 feet of him walking uptown one day. (He was surrounded by a group of the largest fittest men that I've ever seen. He even stopped to talk to a few gawkers.) I'd like to replace those memories with a good one!