CLEARLAKE – The city of Clearlake has a new framed and signed photograph of President Barack Obama thanks to the efforts of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Local NAACP chapter President Aqeela El-Amin Bakheit presented the portrait photograph to Clearlake Mayor Judy Thein at the Clearlake City Council's Feb. 11 meeting.
Bakheit made the presentation in celebration of Black History Month.
She said the NAACP was founded on Feb. 12, 1909, in celebration of President Abraham Lincoln's birthday. The 60 people who banded together to create the organization were both black and white, she said.
Recounting the group's historical milestones and its impacts on society, Bakheit said the NAACP spoke against DW Griffith's film, “Birth of A Nation,” in 1915, and in 1918 President Woodrow Wilson spoke out against lynching. In 1947, President Harry Truman attended the NAACP's national convention.
In 1964 the NAACP was successful in helping to get rid of discriminatory housing practices, some of which are in danger of being restored today, said Bakheit.
That same year, three civil rights workers killed. “Many heroes, known and unknown, fought in the civil rights struggle,” she said.
Bakheit said Obama has “reinvigorated this country with his message of change,” and she challenged community members also to make changes starting in their own lives.
“I'm challenging you to challenge yourselves and never give up,” she said.
She said she started calling Congressman Mike Thompson's office early in 2009 to get the signed photograph of the president. Bakheit worked with Thompson's district representative, Brad Onorato, late last year and finally received it.
“I was determined to have this photograph so I could present it to the city council,” she said.
Bakheit asked that the photograph be hung in the council chambers as she presented it to Mayor Judy Thein.
Thein thanked the NAACP for the portrait.
“We are honored to receive this,” she said.
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