NAACP State Convention held in Bowling Green for the first time in nearly three decades

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) -For the first time in about three decades, all Kentucky NAACP members, are being hosted in Bowling Green at Western Kentucky University.

The first in-person breakout sessions since 2019 will be held Friday and Saturday in the Downing Student Union building.

They will be talking about political action, environmental justice, civil rights, and ways to grow it within the NAACP branches in Kentucky.

The president of the Bowling Green organization, Ryan Dearbone, spoke about the goals of the NAACP and how they are always striving for justice to be served.

“The NAACP’s goal has always been about civil rights. It’s about gender equality, about social economic equality, about race equality and that’s what we strive to do no matter what the situation we strive to make sure justice is served. If it means we have to look into certain cases, certain situations to find out why justice isn’t being served, that’s what we’ll do. That’s the goal of the NAACP-it’s been that way for over 100 years- and it will continue to be that way,” Dearbone said.

They encourage people from the community to come out, show up and learn more about the NAACP’s initiative and what they are doing to tackle the issues at hand.

The president mentioned that they were all honored to be able to host all the branches of the Kentucky NAACP at the Downing Student Union on the college campus.

Dearbone says, “To have the state come here to Bowling Green to be able to show off our beautiful city, our beautiful campus, it’s a great thing for us as a branch to be able to host it and it’s an honor to be able to host it, but it’s also great to do this in our community especially being the first one coming out of the pandemic.”

Tonight, the State Street Baptist Church will be hosting a dinner for the organization, open to the public, and tomorrow night, there will be a gala at Martin’s Alumni Center.

Remaining tickets for the gala have already been sold, but the president mentioned that anyone and everyone wanting to learn more about the NAACP is welcome to join them in the breakout sessions on Saturday.

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