Unity and Action
The Minneapolis NAACP held its annual Freedom Fund Dinner around the theme "Rooted in Justice, Rising in Power." Hosted by April Be Bryant and featuring performances by Ashley DuBose and Thandisizwe Jackson-Nisan, the event drew nearly 500 attendees. Chapter President Cynthia Wilson highlighted the dedication of volunteer advocates, while keynote speaker Angela Davis shared reflections on prison reform, identity politics, and the importance of youth leadership in modern justice movements.
Credit: Courtesy of Minneaplis NAACP
Nearly 500 people attended the Minneapolis NAACP’s annual Freedom Fund Dinner, the organization’s biggest fundraiser of the year. The room, full of community members from elders to teens, took in programming built around this year’s theme, “Rooted in Justice, Rising in Power.”
April Be Bryant hosted the event, which included musical performances from Ashley DuBose and spoken word from Thandisizwe Jackson-Nisan.
“We celebrate the work that has been accomplished, recognize the challenges that remain, and renew our commitment to justice, equality, opportunity and dignity for all,” said Cynthia Wilson, president of the local chapter.
Wilson emphasized that the work of the NAACP is hard but done because it matters.
“We are volunteers. We have jobs, families, responsibilities and lives beyond the NAACP. Yet we continue to give our time, energy, talents and resources because we believe in something bigger than ourselves. We believe our community deserves advocates who will show up, speak up and keep moving forward,” she said. “It matters to our children, families, to those who came before us and paved the way to the generations who will come after us. We may be volunteers, but we are not small in purpose.”
Beyond the community engagement, the dinner gave attendees a chance to meet an icon and hear her story, Wilson said. This year’s keynote speaker was Angela Davis, the longtime activist and author, who answered questions and shared her experience on topics ranging from collaboration to organizing to capitalism.
Resistance began at a young age for Davis, who grew up in Alabama attending a church that was bombed and sneaking with other children across the invisible line on their street separating white and Black residents.
“I never imagined, never in my wildest imagination did I imagine I would be a public figure, that I would be the one speaking into the microphone,” Davis said at the Sept. 12 dinner.
Much of the conversation centered on Davis’ work with the prison system.
“That movement made it possible not only to talk about what we call mass incarceration and to talk about the extent to which processes that were unleashed during slavery were still unfolding. It made it possible for people to get some relief from that shame.”
Davis said that when organizers first began working on prison reform, they never anticipated the global impact the movement would eventually have. They worked with the understanding that their efforts were meant to lay the groundwork for younger generations, knowing they might not live to see the full impact of their labor within their own lifetimes, she said.
Wilson highlighted the NAACP’s Criminal Justice Committee for its work inside prisons and the impact it has made.
Davis also spoke about the importance of working with people who support your mission regardless of race, and of supporting those struggling in other countries, including Palestine.
“The whole notion of being encapsulated in identities, being siloed in identities, is something that’s relatively recent, and it makes us believe that we can’t really do work outside of our own identity,” Davis said. “But I grew up seeing, not even really thinking about identities in that way, but thinking more about identities as being political. So it’s not who you are. It’s what you do.”
Turning to the present moment, Davis addressed a question on what older generations of activists must learn from today’s youth movements.
“We need intergenerational movements,” she said.
Young people are the ones who need to set agendas because they’re closer to the future the movement is working toward, but they need to know their history, which older generations can share, Davis said.
Wilson said Davis was chosen to speak to this year’s theme, and because of what the state has experienced with Operation Metro Surge.
“I believe she did a great job addressing issues that we’re currently facing and giving insight on how to keep moving in fear and to be courageous,” Wilson said.
Wilson said she hopes attendees left with a stronger realization that the community is better together. “The more we understand that, then change happens,” she said.
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