A trip to New York to be at the 100th Annual Convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People proved to be a true eye-opener for local member and Hamlet resident Gloria Mask.

Mask, a communications specialist for Richmond County’s NAACP Chapter, said there was a very positive and hopeful mood at the event.

“The theme was ‘Bold Dreams and Big Victories,’ and we’ve done quite a few things on various issues this year to fight injustice across the nation,” Mask said.

She recalled that the NAACP was begun in 1909, mostly by whites who were disgusted by the lynchings of black people in the South, but there are still battles remaining in the organization’s future.

“I think there is still something that the NAACP should still work towards, fighting injustice,” she said.

“Everybody talked about people taking responsibility for their actions, and for their assets and their homes,” Mask said. “There was also a great emphasis on black people raising their children to be responsible. It was a very positive message and feeling with everybody.”

She said the crowd of up to 6,000 was a bit imposing.

“That’s what I took away from the event - the magnitude of it,” Mask continued. “There were people there from everywhere, and the thing about it is that all those people paid their own way to get there ... You know those people really wanted to be there.

“It was also very positive to see the amount of youth that were at the event.”

The 100th annual NAACP event just happened to fall on the year President Barack Obama, the first man of color to be elected to the nation’s highest office, was inaugurated.

His Thursday night speech was a much anticipated address, as the entire nation grasped the fact that the social roles of minorities in the United States have forever been altered by the historic 2008 election.

The Associated Press reported Obama alluded to the fact the sacrifice of others led to his opportunity to become the first black president.

Acknowledging he was the beneficiary of these efforts, Obama pointed to historical figures like W.E.B. DuBois and Thurgood Marshall who cleared the way for him.

“Make no mistake: The pain of discrimination is still felt in America,” Obama told those in attendance.

His speech focused on the youth and education to achieve a more equitable society.

“You know what I’m talking about. There’s a reason the story of the civil rights movement was written in our schools. There’s a reason Thurgood Marshall took up the cause of Linda Brown. There’s a reason the Little Rock Nine defied a governor and a mob,” Obama said. “It’s because there is no stronger weapon against inequality and no better path to opportunity than an education that can unlock a child’s God-given potential.

“We have to say to our children, ‘Yes, if you’re African-American, the odds of growing up amid crime and gangs are higher. Yes, if you live in a poor neighborhood, you will face challenges that someone in a wealthy suburb does not.”

Dr. Allen Mask, the health correspondent for WRAL-TV 5 in Raleigh, is Mask’s son, and grew up in Hamlet.

He described Obama’s focus on the youth in his speech in a blog on the television station’s website.

“(Obama) spoke of tough love towards our children and emphasized while parents and civil right leaders are fighting for better education, we must expect our kids to read and perform,” Mask wrote. “He said the pathway to college has to include not only strong schools but also significant after school support for our children. He concluded by saying, ‘We can’t rest. We’ve got a lot of work to do. The American people are counting on us.’

“The audience thanked Obama with a rousing standing ovation. It was the culmination of a week of outstanding presentations focusing on the past 100 years of the NAACP with an eye towards the next 100 years.”

Mask said probably the second most important session was a round table that brought together the likes of former NAACP President Benjamin Hooks, former Clinton Administration Adviser Vernon Jordan, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young, U.S. Rep. John Conyers and Congressional Gold Medal winner and civil rights leader Dorothy Height on the stage at the same time.

“There was a seriousness of purpose that was palpable,” Mask said in an interview. “These are the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement ... It was just an extremely laudatory crowd, and I think that says a lot about the stature and the importance of the NAACP. A lot of people say it is antiquated, or somehow not important anymore, it is still important.”