NAACP: More Work Needed to Eradicate Racism

01.18.2010 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) Today at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake City, the Salt Lake branch of the NAACP celebrated the progress made toward racial equality, like the election of the first black President. Executive committee member Edward Lewis, Jr. believes institutionalized racism is still a problem, but he says it can be overcome.

“Well you have to reach out, you have to reach out beyond your comfortable level and invite people, associate with people, have a drink with a person or a glass of tea or coffee,” said Lewis. “Unless you associate with people you won’t get to know them. If you don’t take time to know them, you don’t have a personal relationship, and that’s what the world is all about.”

Colonel Yolanda Dennis-Lowman spoke about the courage of civil rights icon Rosa Parks. She said Parks sat down on a segregated Alabama bus in 1955 so that the next generation could stand up, including Dennis-Lowman herself, Commander of the Tooele Army Depot. She said it’s important to continue the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. and stand up and fight for equality.

“She sat so others could stand up,” said Dennis-Lowman. “The soul, I’m talking about the S-O-U-L of Rosa Parks, led to the wearing out of many soles, S-O-L-E-S, for justice.”

This is the second year that the state has postponed the beginning of the legislative session so it doesn’t coincide with Martin Luther King Day. Voters approved the constitutional amendment making this change in 2008.