So, picture this: It’s February 12, 1909. Some very smart, very fed-up Black folks, along with a few white allies who actually gave a damn, got together and said, “You know what? This country is real good at making things hard for Black people. Maybe we should do something about that.” And just like that—the NAACP was born.
Now, you gotta understand, this was before hashtags, before viral videos, before you could pull out your phone and record a cop doing something shady. This was back when justice moved at the speed of a telegram. But they still got to work. They fought against lynching. They took segregation to court. They made sure Black folks could vote without some guy at the polling station asking them to recite the entire Constitution backwards while juggling flaming torches. They were out here making America live up to its own damn promises.
And yet, here we are in 2024—115 years later—still dealing with some of the same nonsense.
Book Bans and the Attack on Education
So, you know how we used to have book burnings, right? People in the past would just light up books they didn’t like. Well, today, we’re evolving. We don’t burn books anymore. We just quietly yank them off shelves and pretend they never existed.
You ever notice it’s always Black books that get banned first? Books about racism? Gone. Books about civil rights? Outta here. Books about why books keep getting banned? Banned! The NAACP is looking at this like, “So, let me get this straight. You spent 400 years trying to stop Black folks from reading, and now that we finally got good at it, you wanna take the books away again?”
Environmental Racism: Where Your Zip Code Determines Your Life Expectancy
Let’s talk about the environment. Did you know that if you’re Black, you’re way more likely to live next to a landfill, a factory that belches toxic smoke, or a body of water that looks like water but is legally classified as a “chemical stew”?
It’s so bad that the NAACP had to step in and say, “Uh, excuse us, but can we not have entire Black neighborhoods built on top of industrial waste?” You would think this would be common sense, but nope. It’s like America went, “We can’t segregate your schools anymore, but we can make sure your air and water kill you faster.”
Voting Rights: When They Move the Goalposts, Then Take the Goal Away
You ever try to play a game with someone who keeps changing the rules? That’s what voting feels like for Black people in America. The NAACP has spent decades making sure we can vote without having to jump through flaming hoops, and yet, here comes 2024, and we’re still playing whack-a-mole with voter suppression.
Take Mississippi, for example. They tried to create a new state court system just for Jackson—a city that happens to be mostly Black. And the NAACP had to step in and say, “We see what you’re doing. We read history books. This ain’t our first rodeo.” They fought it, got some safeguards in place, and then let the lawsuit go. But let’s be real—this won’t be the last time they gotta do this. It never is.
The Black Vote and the Plot Twist No One Saw Coming
And now, let’s talk about something nobody wants to talk about: the fact that over a quarter of young Black men might be voting for Trump.
What?
Look, I get it. Some people are tired of politics as usual. Some people just wanna see the whole thing burn down. But imagine explaining to Harriet Tubman that, after all this struggle, a chunk of Black men are out here saying, “You know who really gets me? That billionaire with a golden toilet who won’t stop getting indicted.”
The NAACP saw that poll and had to take a deep breath. Like, “Alright. We got work to do. Again.”
115 Years Later, and the Work Ain’t Done
So here’s the thing. The NAACP has been fighting the same fight for over a century. They’ve won some big battles, but the war ain’t over. And if history has taught us anything, it’s that the moment you stop fighting, somebody is gonna roll the clock back like it’s a Best Of Jim Crow compilation album.
So happy anniversary, NAACP. Take a deep breath, stretch out, and get ready—because apparently, we gotta keep running this same damn race.
