On Sunday at the Chapel Hill Hargraves Community Center, members of the community gathered in the hopes of raising interest and awareness in its youth about the impact they can have on current social, political and educational issues.
The NAACP Youth and College Division was created in 1934 and has over 700 established chapters across the nation with more than 25,000 members.
The goal of the organization is to present an opportunity for the younger members of the community to have a voice in issues of social justice and to disseminate the mission of the NAACP at a local level.
The Rev. Robert Campbell, president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP, attended the event to show his support for the youth council.
“The youth council is an opportunity to indoctrinate young people into leadership roles,” Campbell said.
“Our long term goal is to teach our young ambassadors the structure of the organization of the NAACP. We hope to instruct them on how to govern themselves, and help them to foster and grow their ideas.”
The rally included music, food and a raffle, along with guest speakers who spoke to youth and parents in attendance, and several performances by spoken word poets.
Among the speakers was Moral Monday leader the Rev. William J. Barber’s son William A. Barber III, a UNC law student and the North Carolina NAACP Youth and College Division officer.
