Philly NAACP confab lands Obama
In a racially charged time, president returns to the city of his famous 2008 speech to rally civil-rights group.
THE LAST time President Obama came to Philadelphia and spoke about racial issues, he made history.
In 12 days, the president returns to the city where he gave his campaign-saving speech in 2008, this time to deliver the keynote address to the 106th NAACP Annual Convention, taking place at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
The July 14 address will mark just the second time in his presidency that Obama will address a national NAACP confab - underscoring the way that a host of racially tinged issues such as inner-city policing and hate crimes such as last month's mass murder at a historic black church in Charleston have risen to the front of the national agenda.
"President Barack Obama, having spoken eloquently of grace to a grieving nation in a moment of crisis in Charleston, will now address the social and economic challenges of our time in the hometown of American freedom - Philadelphia," NAACP president and CEO Cornell William Brooks said in a prepared announcement.
Organizers say the NAACP convention - with its official theme of "Pursuing Liberty in the Face of Injustice" - is expected to draw thousands of African-American leaders and activists to Philadelphia from July 11-15.
The convention will have a strong political bent, focusing not just on some of the issues raised by the #BlackLivesMatter movement but also on voting rights, economic justice and health care.
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