By Courtney Dentch
Stories of the battles in the war for African-American civil rights of the last century often revolve around the American South.
But while Rosa Parks was riding the bus and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was marching down the streets of Birmingham, Ala., the Jamaica Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was working hard in Queens, battling the Ku Klux Klan and desegregating movie theaters.
The Jamaica Branch celebrated its 75th anniversary Sunday night as members, elected officials and community residents gathered at the Roy Wilkins Family Center in Jamaica to honor the history of the branch and prepare for the fights to come.
“The NAACP helped us to define liberty and freedom, which this country is supposed to be founded on,” said Borough President Helen Marshall at the anniversary dinner. “But they’re not guaranteed. We have to work for them.”
The Jamaica Branch was founded in 1927 by Frank Turner, secretary to Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, and the first meeting was held at the Allen A.M.E. church, said Jean Phelps, the branch president. From the start, the group had much to do in southeast Queens, she said.
The Jamaica NAACP was instrumental in stopping Ku Klux Klan parades down Hillside Avenue, opening Queens General Hospital to black doctors and nurses, and pushing the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to provide business opportunities for black contractors and vendors, she said.
“For 75 years we have been in the community and we plan to be here a lot longer,” Phelps said.
The branch also established a school when black children weren’t allowed to attend public school, and started a day-care program that still runs today, she said.
“The NAACP gives children the opportunity and an equal opportunity to excel,” said City Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans). “They have the proper foundation to learn.”
Speakers at the dinner expressed gratitude to the founders as well as to the board members who kept the NAACP going strong through the years.
“They have been the foundation,” said Hazel Dukes, president of the New York State Conference of NAACP Branches. “You are standing today on these people’s shoulders in good times and bad. Thank God for those who have gone before us.”
The branch has fought in the courts and in the Legislature as well as on the streets to end racism and ensure that the black community has the same opportunities as everyone else, Dukes said.
“The NAACP has always played an important role,” added Dennis Walcott, deputy mayor for policy. “They made sure that our rights were maintained.”
Others, like W. Burghardt Turner, son of founder Frank Turner, compared the NAACP’s beginning to the Sept. 11 attacks.
“They’re talking about terrorism like it’s something new,” he said. “That was the birth of the NAACP. That’s what we’re fighting for. We’re fighting to end terrorism.”
To do that the NAACP must continue its work, Dukes said.
“We cannot rest on our laurels,” she said. “We have to be in pursuit of justice every day, every second and every hour. Racism is alive and well in this country and on foreign soil. You must keep working day and night.”
Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com, or by phone at 229-0300, Ext. 138.
