University of Virginia Library

Charlottesville To Host
State NAACP Convention

By Thom Faulders
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

With the proclamation of
NAACP Freedom Sunday and an
address by the executive director of
the organization, the 33rd annual
convention of the Virginia State
Conference of the National
Association for the Advancement
of Colored People will be held in
Charlottesville from October 18 to
20.

The convention will be separated
into two parts: the adult
conference with its headquarters at
the Howard Johnson's Motor
Lodge; and the youth convention
staying at the Downtowner Motor
Inn.

Registration

Registration for the delegates
from all over the state will begin at
9:30 Friday morning, October 18,
and will continue on into the day.
At 1:30 that afternoon two
workshops will begin. A discussion
on the Church and an
accompanying workshop on
membership and fund-raising will
unofficially start off the
convention. Both of the workshops
will be held at the headquarters in
the Howard Johnson Motor Lodge.

The official opening of the
conference will be Friday night at
7:30. There will be a mass meeting
at the First Baptist Church on West
Main Street. S. W. Tucker, chief
legal counsel for the state branch of
the NAACP, who recently
announced his candidacy for the
fourth district representative's seat
currently held by Watkins M.
Abbitt, as well as Ruth Harvey,
candidate for representative in the
fifth district, will address the
meeting.

Official Greetings

Official greeting from the
president of the local branch of the
NAACP, and from the cities of
Charlottesville and Richmond will
also be given at this gathering.
Music will be provided by the
Melodic Choir and a social hour will
follow the meeting at Howard
Johnson headquarters.

Saturday starts early for the
delegates with seminar meeting
beginning at 9:30 and continuing
until 4 that afternoon. The
seminars will discuss current
community problems in relation to
local branches of the NAACP
throughout the state.

The community problems
discussion will attempt to resolve
problems at both ends of the local
spectrum. "Areas of Action" will
cover the positive phase presenting
such topics as education, housing,
employment, political action,
antipoverty programs, and small
business administration.

"Areas of Reaction" spans such
subjects as police brutality, black
power, the Ku Klux Klan and the
John Birch Society. Another area
of discussion will center around
techniques of recruiting and
training for the NAACP.

At 6 p.m. Saturday night, the
Jackson Memorial Dinner and
Queens Pageant will be held in
Newcomb Hall ballroom. The
speaker at the evening meal will be
the Reverend I. DeQuincey
Newman, the field director of the
South Carolina Conference of the
NAACP.

Elections

Elections and other
administrative business will occupy
the Sunday morning sector for the
convention business at the Howard
Johnson headquarters.

The closing of the convention
will be commemorated with a
freedom rally at Cabell Hall on
Sunday, October 20. Roy Wilkins,
the executive director of the
NAACP, who spoke at the
University last April, will be the
featured speaker at the 2 p. m.
meeting.

Roy Wilkins

Mr. Wilkins, who last year
received the Freedom House award
from President Johnson, was
managing editor of a Negro
newspaper in Kansas City, Missouri,
until 1931, when he joined the
NAACP as assistant executive secretary.

He currently serves on the
governing bodies of numerous
human rights organizations and is a
member of the President's National
Advisory Commission on Civil
Disorders.

President Edgar F. Shannon will
welcome the convention to Cabell
Hall Auditorium on behalf of the
students and faculty of the
University. Keene Boyd, president
of the Charlottesville and
Albemarle County Chambers of
Commerce, and Ferguson Reed, the
only Negro member of the House
of Delegates, will address the
meeting.

The Saint Francis deSalles High
School choir and the Harris
Brothers Trio will provide musical
entertainment for the rally and all
student and faculty members of the
University community are cordially
invited to attend.

In connection with the
convention, Charlottesville's mayor,
G. A. Vogt, and Edgar N. Garnett,
chairman of the Albemarle Board
of Supervisors, are issuing a joint
proclamation declaring that
October 20 be NAACP Freedom
Day.