As President, it is my great pleasure to welcome you on behalf of the Executive Committee and general membership of this proud branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP-Riverside Branch).

Often I am asked, “What is the NAACP? What does it stand for?” and “How can I support my branch more?” I believe these questions deserve honest answers. To this end, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. Founded in 1909, its mission is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.

I invite you to study this premier civil rights organization’s rich and storied history. I also ask you to consider becoming a Regular Member or a Life Member of this Branch, and to lend your voice and support to the fight for justice and freedom for all, regardless of race, creed or color.

NAACP needs folk like you who will stand tall and unrelenting in the face of hostility and who will in good times and in bad, stand for what they believe in and lend support to making freedom a reality for all, pushing for better opportunities for all members of our respective community.

I encourage each of you to always speak truth to power and to do something for freedom every day. Because as one writer put it, “we’re nothing unless we can hold this system of ours accountable, and the way we hold this system accountable is to vote and to take an active role in the solutions.” 

 I agree with that statement and I urge each of you to become a part of this movement, and as you do, may the spirit of those on whose shoulders we stand, live on in you as we set out to make our society a little better than you found it.

Yours in the Struggle,

Waudieur E. Rucker-Hughes
President, Riverside Branch NAACP