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94-year-old
Detroit
native
has been
awarded
the
Bronze
Star
Medal
for
heroic
service
and
meritorious
achievement
during
World
War II.
Lt. Col.
Alexander
Jefferson
was
presented
the
award by
U.S.
Sen.
Debbie
Stabenow
on
Sunday
at the
61st
Annual
Detroit
NAACP
Freedom
Fund
Dinner.
(Photo
by
Monica
Morgan/Tell
Us USA) |
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Hillary
Clinton
Delivers
No Holds
Barred
Speech
at NAACP
Freedom
Fund
Dinner
By Karen
Hudson
Samuels/Tell
Us
Detroit
DETROIT,
MI (Tell
Us Det)
-
Democratic
front
runner
Hillary
Clinton
delivered
a wide
ranging,
no-holds
barred
address
as the
keynote
speaker
of the
NAACP’s
61st
Annual
Freedom
Fund
Dinner
held
Sunday
night at
Cobo
Hall.
Clinton’s
speech
touched
on race,
issues
reverberating
throughout
Michigan
and the
high
stakes
race for
America’s
future
which
she laid
out as a
critical
choice
between,
“Unity
versus
division,
compassion
versus
selfishness
and love
versus
hate.”
Underlying
the
message
of
“critical
choice”
was a
call to
protect
the
legacy
of
President
Barack
Obama
from
attacks
by
Republican
front
runner
Donald
Trump,
who in
the past
has
questioned
whether
the
President
is an
American.
“We
can’t
let
Barack
Obama’s
legacy
fall
into
Donald
Trump’s
hands,”
Clinton
said.
“We
can’t
let all
the hard
work and
progress
we’ve
obtained
over the
last
seven-and-a-half
years be
torn
away.”
The
Democratic
presidential
candidate
spoke
candidly
to the
audience
of over
6.000 on
why
she’s
running,
“To
knock
down all
the
barriers
of
poverty
and
injustice
that are
holding
back
Americans
in our
democracy,
and to
build
ladders
of
opportunity
in their
place
that all
people
can
climb.”
To climb
that
ladder,
Clinton
said a
painful
reality,
that has
plague
America
in the
years
since
Rosa
Parks
and Dr.
Martin
Luther
King,
must be
faced.
“Race
still
plays a
significant
role in
determining
who gets
ahead in
America
and who
gets
left
behind.”
The
conversation
on race
is
important
because
Clinton
said
“For
many
white
Americans,
it’s
tempting
to
believe
that
systemic
racism
is
largely
behind
us”
adding
that
“Any
candidate
seeking
voter
support
must
address
the
issue”.
On the
local
level,
Clinton
talked
about
the
great
things
happening
in
Detroit
but
advised
not to
be too
satisfied.
The
resurgence
of
business
growth
in
downtown
and
midtown
is
creating
“a
palpable
feeling
of pride
and
progress”
said
Clinton
but
cautioned
that
“the
economic
revival
in some
Detroit
neighborhoods
needs to
be felt
in all
Detroit
neighborhoods”
an
acknowledgement
that
resonated
with the
audience.
The
rebound
of the
auto
industry
Clinton
has
proved
that
“America
made a
good an
investment
in
saving
auto
industry,
it gave
the UAW,
the
companies
and auto
workers
a chance
to show
that
Americans
can
compete
and win”
the
audience
erupted
in
applause.
On the
state of
Detroit
Public
Schools
Clinton
said “We
can't be
satisfied
until
all of
Detroit's
children
are
learning
in good
schools
with
good
teachers
in every
classroom,
and no
crumbling
ceilings
or mold
or rats
scurrying
across
the
floor".
On
Monday
teachers
in
Detroit
were
staging
a sick
out to
protest
the
prospect
of the
district
running
out of
money.
In
addressing
the
Flint
water
crisis
Clinton
seemed
to
invoke a
moral
compass
of
beliefs
and
values.
“Do we
believe
some
children
are less
worthy,
some
people
less
than
because
of their
race,
religion
,
income,
gender,
identify
or some
other
ugly
excuse”.
The
politics
said
Clinton
that
lead to
disregard
for the
lives of
Flint’s
children
and
families
must
never
happen
again,
anywhere.
The
annual
Freedom
Fund
Dinner
is an
opportunity
for the
NAACP to
recognize
outstanding
achievements
of local
and
national
leaders.
This
year the
James
Weldon
Johnson
Lifetime
Achievement
Award
was
given to
U.S.
Representative
James
Clyburn
a
nationally
renowned
voice
for
justice
who
President
Barack
Obamas
has said
is “One
of a
handful
people
who,
when
they
speak,
the
entire
Congress
listeners.”
Lt. Col.
Alexander
Jefferson,
a native
son and
original
member
of the
Tuskegee
Airman,
was
presented
the
Bronze
Star
Medal by
U.S.
Sen.
Debbie
Stabenow
for
heroic
service
and
meritorious
achievement
during
World
War II.
Detroit
author,
Shaka
Senghor
was the
2016
Great
Expectations
Awardee.
His
memoir
“Writing
My
Wrongs:
Life,
Death
and
Redemption
in an
American
Prison”
is a
powerful
story on
criminal
justice
system.
The
Honorable
Mary
Sheffield
was also
2016
Great
Expectations
Awardee
for her
service
to the
community
and who
was
recently
ordained
as
minister
and now
services
as a
co-pastor
of New
Destiny
Missionary
Baptist
Church
in
Detroit.
The
Freedom
Fund
dinner
theme of
“Let
America
be
America
Again”
takes
its
title
from a
poem by
noted
African
American
writer
Langston
Hughes.
In the
poem
Langston
speaks
to the
unfilled
promise
of
America’s
democracy
for him
as a
black
man.
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