Other awards included: Charlene Gambino Petrelli of EQT, Corporate Partner of the Year award; Milton and Nancy Washington, Bishop Charles H. Foggie Lifetime Achievement award; Bishop Donald O. Clay of Petra Ministries, Judge Homer S. Brown award; and Marita Garrett of Wilkinsburg Council, Young Person of the Year award.
Dr. Anthony Hamlet, superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools, served as keynote speaker.
Dr. Duvall-Flynn told the Courier that the NAACP was firmly against “the reimposition of mandatory sentencing.” Also, the NAACP at the state level believes “there has to be more diversity in the appointment of judges in Pennsylvania. We also believe that there should not be any loaded weapons in any schools in this state.”
Dr. Duvall-Flynn said young people shouldn’t look at the NAACP as an organization that isn’t for them. “We work consistently to protect young children from being railroaded into court, where their lives virtually end if they have any sort of conviction or if they plead no contest,” she said.
“If a young kid gets accosted at school, and the police come for some reason…they have been criminalized and then they end up with, maybe, a public defender that doesn’t show up. And they end up with a court record, an arrest record or something that really stops them from having access to federal funding for education and all sorts of jobs they want to do.
“They’re so innocent. They don’t know, their parents don’t know,” Dr. Duvall-Flynn said. “And so the NAACP and local branches works to intervene in those kinds of situations and protects kids from that, and help the family understand.”
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