The Rutland Area branch of the NAACP will host its third annual Freedom Fund Dinner on Saturday, September 18, 6:30pm to 8pm. Due to the pandemic, the program will be virtual this year, much of it recorded professionally at Castleton University. The organization is also soliciting local restaurants in Addison, Rutland, and Bennington counties to join the evening by providing attendees with take-out dinners in the spirit of a community meal.
The keynote speaker this year will be DiDi Delgado, a radical visionary and philanthropist, award-winning author and poet, experienced Anti-Racism educator, and a passionate advocate and activist.
The dinner will also honor state heroes who have made a commitment to action in our communities. These people have dedicated service to the advancement, education and prosperity of people of color in Vermont, and exemplify the meaning of action. In addition, two women will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award – Tabitha Moore, former president of the Rutland Area Branch of the NAACP, and Sha’an Mouliert, who has done an immeasurable amount of work in Racial Justice in her more than 30 years in Vermont.
Entertainment will include The Horsemen, a hip-hop group based in Chittenden County, and a drag performance by Shani, who has performed with Queen City Cabaret, Capital City Queens, Green Mountain Cabaret, and is a featured performer at Machine Nightclub in Boston MA.
More details, tickets, and sponsorship information available at www.naacprutland.org/ffd.
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 assassin’s 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.
Rutland Area Branch of the NAACP 