By Tashi McQueen,
AFRO Political Writer,
tmcqueen@afro.com
The Headquarters of the Baltimore Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was vandalized by a group of four unidentified persons on March 28.
The Baltimore NAACP held a press conference on March 30 to publicly announce the incident.
“It’s important for the public to know what we’ve experienced,” said Kobi Little, president of the NAACP of Baltimore. “The attack was certainly targeted and intentionally directed at the NAACP.”
Little said he was sitting at his desk after the chapter’s monthly meeting when a bottle was thrown against one of his building’s glass windows and then a piece of concrete was thrown at the front door window, busting the glass.
The ethnicity of the wrongdoers has not yet been determined.
“We’re not clear on the motivation for this attack,” continued Little. “If this attack was designed to cause us to be fearful, we tell the attackers were encouraged. We’re encouraged by our faith in our creator [God].”
Joshua Harris, the vice president of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP, confirmed there were no injuries.
The chapter president posted photos and a video of the damage to his Twitter.
The Baltimore NAACP has filed a report with the police and is investigating.
They are also calling on the community to be vigilant and support the NAACP, upholding it as a staple of the neighborhood that “fights for the community.”
“I don’t think we’ll prosecute anybody, but it’s a reminder that we must be vigilant. We have to teach our kids to love. We have to work together to build our community,” said Little.
Little addresses the next steps.
“We will upgrade the building and ensure our public events are safe,” said Little.
The Baltimore NAACP will continue to engage with and educate Baltimore youth.
“We’re in our Afro-Academic Cultural, Technical, Scientific Olympic (ACT-SO) time,” said Little. “We regularly invite young people to come to the branch for programming to learn about the history of the NAACP, and we’re in the process of continuing to recruit youth members and to establish youth councils across the city and we have a great working relationship with Morgan and Coppin.”
ACT-SO is a yearly program that invites high school students across the country to sharpen their skills from business to culinary arts.
Tashi McQueen is a Report For America Corps Member.
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