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'We are not done'

President of the N.C. NAACP addresses packed audience

John Setzler Jr.

The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, president of the North Carolina National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, delivers an address called The State of Civil Rights in N.C. to the audience of the 66th N.C. NAACP convention at the Hickory Metro Convention Center on Saturday.

By Richard Gould | Hickory Daily Record

Published: October 11, 2009

HICKORY - Progress has been made, but the NAACP still has work to do in North Carolina, said the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, president of the North Carolina National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

"Our work is not done. We will celebrate, but we will not stagnate," Barber said as he delivered an address called The State of Civil Rights in N.C. to a packed audience during the 66th N.C. NAACP convention at the Hickory Metro Convention Center on Saturday.

Barber gave an overview of the founding of the NAACP 100 years ago and traced the organization's history through the present.

As he discussed the current state of race relations, he listed a long string of examples of racially motivated threats, intimidation and violence that occurred across North Carolina during the last year.

"I could call every county in the state — I won't, but I could," he said. "There is still work to be done.

"Some want our 100th anniversary to be a going-out-of-business event, and the truth is — we would if we could," Barber said. "In order for us to stop now, we'd have to be blind, deaf and in need of defibrillation."