By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
A regional organization representing 22 counties in eastern North Carolina drew a large number of area and state dignitaries to St. John Empowerment Center on Saturday.
The Eastern NC Civic Group’s annual banquet played host to a wide array of state and local officials, including Gov. Bev Perdue and N.C. Secretary of State Elaine Marshall.
Also on hand were state Sen. Don Davis, D-Greene; state Rep. Arthur Williams, D-Beaufort; and state Rep. Annie Mobley, D-Hertford.
County- and city-level officials also were represented, including outgoing Washington Mayor Judy Meier Jennette, who, in one of her last official acts as mayor, made opening remarks.
Though it appeared the banquet fell somewhat short of the approximately 400 attendees who were expected, most of the tables were filled as opening speeches began in the hall.
The civic group is comprised of representatives from across the east, according to Fred Yates, president.
The group’s purpose is “to address any and every discrepancy in the life of our citizens of eastern North Carolina,” Yates told the Daily News in an interview.
The issues members are concerned about include jobs, quality of life, coordinating with other units around the state and cooperating with the state NAACP, Yates said.
“We believe in holding the elected officials responsible for their actions, whether they be black, white, brown or blue,” he commented.
Next to Yates on the dais sat the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, president of the N.C. Conference of the NAACP. Barber was one of the day’s scheduled speakers.
One reason for holding the banquet was to salute 100 years of the nation’s oldest civil-rights organization, Yates said.
Yates said he is a life member of the NAACP, and he also serves as president of the Perquimans County branch. Yates is mayor of the Perquimans County town of Winfall.
He congratulated Bill Booth, Beaufort County branch president, and the local NAACP for hosting the event.
Democratic Beaufort County Commissioner Jerry Langley issued a welcome to those gathered in the center’s auditorium/dining hall.
After thanking the assembled for attending, Langley joked, “On a lighter note, spend all the money you can in Beaufort County while you are here. We could use all the revenue we can get.”
Davis introduced the governor, who spoke on a broad range of topics, including social-justice issues.
Perdue praised institutions like St. John for helping provide professional skills to people who need jobs.
Lauding churches and community colleges for their roles in training members of the work force, she said that 75 percent of all jobs in the state demand technical expertise.
“You can’t get there in the 21st century without knowing how to use a computer,” Perdue remarked.
Perdue said she “really believed” in the Racial Justice Act, which she signed into law on Aug. 11, according to online documents.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the act “allows a defendant facing a capital trial or an inmate sentenced to death to use evidence showing a pattern of racial disparity as a way of challenging racial justice in the death penalty.”
“A lot of people thought that we’d never pass this legislation,” Perdue said. “But we did. That was a great success, and my hats off to all of y’all.”
She said that the state must be sure that people who are in jail, especially those on death row, have been given fair trials.
Referring to the state’s abandoned eugenics program, she continued, “I found it unacceptable, and just pure-old, downright wrong and immoral, that in North Carolina’s history we actually sterilized some women because of who they were or where they came from or what color their skin was.”
Perdue said many members of the state House and Senate worked together, along with the NAACP, “And, when nobody thought in this kind of budget time, with the money hole we had and the challenges we had, that we could stay true to these women — I call them victims and their families — and we did put money into this year’s budget — a quarter of a million dollars to help close the book on this awful time in North Carolina’s history.”
The state budget contained money that was part of a push to set up a foundation for women sterilized under the program.
Making note of the NAACP’s centennial, Perdue said she faced barriers that her opponents did not experience in the 2008 race for the governor’s office.
“And the reason was, simply, because I was the first woman to be serious about this job and fight hard-core at it,” she said.
Perdue said she believed in the work the NAACP had done over the past 100 years.
“I believe in the purposes that we call our own and I trust the agenda of this organization, and have for years,” she said. “And again, we’re not always together on every item, but more often than not we share the same core values.”