The Buffalo branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People celebrated 100 years of activism, along with the 150th anniversary of Juneteenth on Sunday night.
Buffalo’s NAACP leaders celebrated their survival in the early years of the organization, and now working in the era of a black president. Members and friends filled a ballroom in the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center, where Reverend James Lewis III was master of ceremonies.
Lewis said Juneteenth celebrated slaves in Texas learning of the end of the Civil War, and the start of their freedom.
“The message came down that the emancipation proclamation had been signed, nearly two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln, the president of the United states had put it forth. So it’s only important that we celebrate here with the NAACP who has been at the forefront of the national movement for people of color everywhere," said Lewis.
Speakers at the event say it has been 100 years, but the mission stays the same, for equality and freedom of all people, all races and all sexual orientations.
