The NAACP Freedom Fund began in 1953 (on a national level) as a ten-year program to intensify efforts to complete the job of emancipation.
Near the culmination of this effort, Medgar W. Evers, a heroic NAACP Mississippi Field Secretary, was killed by an assassins bullet. This prompted the NAACP Chairman Bishop Stephen Spottswood to pay tribute to this gallant warrior at the NAACP Convention in Chicago, Illinois in July 1963. He did so by proclaiming that the NAACP Fighting Fund for Freedom will continue until the job of emancipating our people is complete.
The annual fundraising dinner for the NAACP, named after Supreme Court Justice and litigator for the NAACP, the Honorable Thurgood Marshall, is an awards ceremony where the Spartanburg Branch pays tribute to those who have dedicated their time and energy in education, government, business, community service and more to the ideals, vision and mission of the NAACP.