Addressing the 81st NAACP state conference, keynote speaker Leon Russell told an audience of about 300 people at Tangier in Akron that this year’s theme of Affirming America’s Promise reflects the original call of the NAACP to move the nation forward.Russell, the vice chairman of the organization’s national board of directors, spoke at the annual Freedom Fund Dinner. He said the NAACP has spent more than 102 years responding to the call for the nation to live up to the promises made in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.“The document speaks to the rights of citizens, but our nation has not always extended those rights to all those who, by right, should benefit,” he said. “Our vision is a nation free from prejudice, bigotry and discrimination. Our goal is a society that celebrates and extends the promises of the Constitution to all of its people without reservation or hesitation.”He talked about the recent efforts in Ohio to deny the American dream by threatening civil rights.“There is an effort to discourage people from getting out and voting right here, as well as an effort that would prevent workers the right to collective bargaining,” he said. He said when a program is under attack that was successful in getting people to vote, such as Sunday voting and early voting, it is an obvious violation of one’s civil rights.He said not only are voters’ rights threatened but also workers’ rights. Ohio legislation is trying to take away the ability of workers to bargain collectively and have a voice in how their workplace operates.“These are civil rights that the NAACP has worked for years to have in place and there is no going backward.” Russell said education rights are also a concern.“Some people would say if you look at schools today, schools are actually more segregated than they might have been when the Brown decision came down in 1954, just based on the whole retreat to neighborhood schools,” he said. “We have to make sure it’s the same high-quality education in all schools.“It’s hard to argue that charters and vouchers provide any better education than public schools, but what they do allow is to take resources away from public schools and shift those needed resources to other kinds of schools, which take away the ability to educate the masses.” He said the NAACP is working on programs that focus on education, the criminal justice system, economic development, civic engagement and health. “If we work on those five things and do them well, we will make a tremendous difference.”Russell said the NAACP is nonpartisan, but not nonpolitical.“We believe very much in civic engagement, being part of the policy-making decisions, not just the voting process, but to run for office and to be in a position that our votes can influence the election of the candidates of our choice.” On President Barack Obama, Russell said people have to recognize that he was elected president of the United States, not of Black America.“We have to remember that this economic crisis was created under the previous administration. President Obama came into office with the system already in chaos. The issue is, has there been real cooperation or collaboration across party lines to get anything done? And in my opinion, there has not been, because of race. It’s hard to get anything done when one party has already told you we will vote no on anything you bring to the table.“We have to demand the same accountablilty from all the people who represent us and to get over the fact that people have made the word compromise a dirty word.”Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com.