New London NAACP honors trailblazers at annual dinner
New London — The New London Chapter of the NAACP honored five trailblazers — black men and women with a variety of community-based accomplishments — during its annual Freedom Fund Dinner on Thursday.
Honored at the event was State Rep. Ernest Hewett, D-New London, longtime local community activists Sara Chaney and Barbara Brown, former Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council Chairman Kenny Reels and New London business owner William Cornish.
Thursday’s event, attended by several hundred people, was held at the Port 'N Starboard restaurant at Ocean Beach Park and corresponds with events being held by NAACP chapters across the country.
New London NAACP Vice President Tamara Lanier said Chaney and Brown have a long history of mostly unsung accomplishments in the community and were instrumental in getting the NAACP in New London up and running.
“It wasn’t popular to be a member of the NAACP when they were working to grow membership in the '50s and '60,” Lanier said. “They did a lot of unselfish work that was rarely recognized.”
The branch is now in its 60th year.
The keynote speaker at Thursday's dinner was Allan Chaney — grandson of Sara Chaney — who was a basketball star at New London High School and went on to a promising college basketball career that was cut short by a heart condition.
Despite the setback, Chaney went on to earn a master’s degree in nonprofit management and to coach basketball at the University of Mount Olive in North Carolina.
Along with some dance and poetry, Science and Technology Magnet High School of Southeastern Connecticut student Tessa Rock read her award-winning essay, “How the Amistad story helps shape our understanding of human rights.”
New London NAACP President Jean Jordan started the evening by announcing the NAACP’s commitment to the victims of the deadly shooting in Orlando, Fla., where 49 people were gunned down at the Pulse nightclub.
“What happened in Orlando was a hate crime,” said Jordan, who drew comparisons to last year’s killing of nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C.
“The NAACP stands with our LGBTQ community both here in southeastern Connecticut and across the country. We do not believe there is any room in our community for that type of hatred,” Jordan said.
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