Current Projects

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  • Freedom Fund

    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.


  • Juneteenth Celebration

    Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day, Freedom Day, is a holiday that commemorates the announcement of the freeing of enslaved descendants of Africans in America in 1865.

    Celebrated on June 19th, it is recognized as a state holiday or special day of observance in most states. The holiday is observed primarily through local celebrations. Traditionally, these celebrations include public readings, the singing traditional songs and other festivities conducted by African Americans.
    re is a common misconception among Americans that Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves with a stroke of his pen. Yet the Emancipation Proclamation, which went into effect on Jan. 1, 1863, did no such thing — or, at least, it didn’t do a very good job of it. Two and a half years later, on June 19, 1865, Union soldiers sailed into Galveston, Texas, announced the end of the Civil War, and read aloud a general order freeing the quarter-million …


Black and Blue: Interactions between Citizens and Police

Spartanburg, SC, November 11, 2005- Officer Clevon Boyd provided insight into the arrest process having been previously arrested and now a police officer. Among the many topics discussed were police brutality, law enforcement/citizen interaction, and the resistance/control continuum paradigm. Officer Corey Cole added that the community must understand the jigsaw puzzle of probable cause and reasonable suspicion that begins many interactions with law enforcement. We appreciate Officers Boyd and Cole giving so freely of their time. Kudos to the USC Upstate NAACP Chapter for another excellent program.