ABOUT US
We are Lebanon County NAACP Branch 26AA in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. First established in fall 2020, we gained official branch status on February 20, 2021, and became a fully-fledged branch in August of that year.
At the current writing in January 2023, we are 91 members strong, with a committed general membership and four active standing committees: (1) Education, (2) Criminal Justice & Public Safety, (3) Voting Rights & Political Engagement, and (4) Legal Redress.
Our general membership meets at 7 pm on the first Thursday of each month. Most meetings are still on Zoom, but for 2023 we decided to hold four in-person meetings, on January 5, April 6, July 6, and October 5. Our standing committees, where much of the real work takes place, have their own meeting schedules. We also organize, sponsor, and lend our support to a variety of community events. Who are we and what do we stand for? Inquiries are warmly invited.
executive committee
On August 17, 2021 we held our first election, completing the chartering process and officially making ours a full & equal branch among the more than 2,200 NAACP branches around the country. In February 2022, the Executive Committee voted to expand its size to 13 members. Since then two at-large members have stepped down: MariaCristina Brabham and Cornell Wilson, who we thank copiously for their service.
First meeting of the Executive Committee, Sept. 2, 2021, in Annville, PA.
election of executive committee for 2023-2024
The NAACP By-Laws call for the election of Branch executive committee officers and at-large members on each even-numbered year. In compliance with those By-Laws, in autumn 2022 we went through a routine election for the first time. The following slate of candidates was elected to the Executive Committee for the 2023-2024 term:
Officers
President - Tony Fields, Sr.
Vice President - Joseph Romanoff
Secretary - Michael Schroeder
Assistant Secretary - Taelor Norwood
Treasurer - Alissa Perrotto
Assistant Treasurer - Flannery Amdahl
At Large Members
Ricky L. Bugg, Sr.
Lori Burrus
Scott Ney
John Rose
Patricia Steely
Maurice Williams, Sr.
Starting in January 2023, the Executive Committee will meet at 7 pm on the first Wednesday of each month.
history of THE naacp
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was established in 1909 and is the oldest, largest, and most prominent civil rights organization in the United States. It was formed in New York City by white and Black activists, partly in response to the ongoing violence against African Americans around the country. In the NAACP’s early decades, its anti-lynching campaign was central to its agenda. During the civil rights era in the 1950s and 1960s, the group won major legal victories that were essential in bringing an end to Jim Crow and extending the promise of genuine equality before the law to all people. Today, the NAACP has more than 2,200 branches and more than two million members nationwide.
In recent years, the NAACP has focused on such issues as inequality in jobs, education, health care, and the criminal justice system, as well as protecting voting rights. It also has pushed for the removal of Confederate flags and statues from public property.
To learn more about the NAACP's history, you are invited to read Patricia Sullivan's marvelous book, Lift Every Voice: The NAACP and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement (NY: The New Press, 2009), a preview of which is available on GoogleBooks. To learn more about the rules and procedures that govern the organization, you are invited to download and read its Constitution and Bylaws, both linked below. Also linked below is the NAACP's Civil Rights Reference Manual & Guide for Branch Legal Redress Committees.