The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Memphis Branch announces Professor Melissa Harris-Perry and former Tennessee U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. as speakers at the Centennial Freedom Fund Luncheon Celebration. The luncheon themed, “Reflecting on the Past, Remaining Focused on the Future: 100 Years of Civil Rights and Human Rights Advocacy,” will take place on Saturday, June 24, 2017 at the Memphis Hilton at 11:30 a.m.
Professor Harris-Perry is the Maya Angelo Presidential Chair at Wake Forest University and the Executive Director of the Pro Humanitate Institute and founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Center. She hosted the award winning television show “Melissa Harris-Perry” on weekend mornings on MSNBC. Harris-Perry recently wrote an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times on “How to Save the N.A.A.C.P From Irrelevance”.
Congressman Ford is coming home to give the charge for the next 100 years of grassroots advocacy. Elected to Congress at the age of 26, Ford served on the House Budget, Education and Financial Services Committees. He now lives in New York with his wife and family and lectures part-time at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy and is a political analyst for MSNBC and CNBC.
“We are thrilled to have them both as speakers for our largest fundraiser for the year,” said Deidre Malone, President, NAACP Memphis Branch. “Melissa Harris-Perry and Harold Ford, Jr. are a combination Mid-Southerners will not want to miss.”
Gale Jones Carson is the Chair for the Centennial Celebration and Secretary for the Memphis Branch. “We have been focused on raising funds to support the local branch’s programs and have created a Centennial Celebration that pays tribute to the past, but is focused on our future,” said Carson.
“Our Co-Chairs FedEx Chief Diversity Officer Shannon Brown, Civil Rights Activist and Mediator Jocelyn D. Wurzburg and CN Railroad Executive Roquita Coleman-Williams are working hard to ensure the success of our event.”
Our major sponsors are FedEx, AutoZone, Durham Bus Services, Methodist Healthcare, Regional One Health, and Baptist Healthcare.
Tickets for the luncheon start at $100 and can be purchased at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/naacp-memphis-branch-centennial-freedom-fund-luncheon-celebration-2017-tickets-34254484084. For more information about the event contact the Memphis Branch NAACP at 901-521-1343 or visit their website at www.memphisnaacp.org.
About the NAACP Memphis Branch
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. The mission of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights for all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination. The Memphis Branch is the largest branch in the organization.