By PAT NEWMAN
Staff Writer

More than 200 supporters of the NAACP gathered Saturday night to “recognize the unsung heroes...” who have furthered the cause of civil rights and equal rights in Fayette County, according to branch president Dr. Edward J. Johnson.

The event marked the second annual Freedom Fund Banquet and fund-raiser conducted by the Fayette County arm of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, considered to be the largest and most influential civil rights organization in the country.

Five men and one woman were presented the NAACP's Image award following a brief but passionate keynote address by U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney, from Atlanta's 4th District.

Recognized for their contributions to the community were D. Howard W. Creecy Sr., pastor and founder of Olivet Baptist Church in Fayetteville; Robert Jordan Sr., Fayetteville native and owner of Jordan Sales and Salvage; Lee Haney, bodybuilder, fitness expert and founder of Harvest House, a retreat for children; Jimmy Holliday, president and CEO of Holliday Auto Rentals and one of the 100 Black Men of America; Denise Speller, a real estate broker with REMAX Results in Peachtree City; and the late William Leo Spikes Jr., a businessman and owner of two Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises in Fayette County.

Johnson introduced McKinney as a woman who “knows about community service and how to be on the battlefield of the Lord.” Calling her a visionary politician, Johnson credited her with pursuing programs to “help the disenfranchised.”

McKinney, Georgia's first African-American congresswoman, opened and closed her remarks with quotations from the late Robert F. Kennedy. She took her audience back to the late 1970s and painted a mental picture of how things were more than 20 years ago. “Life was teeming under every street light... in every urban area of America, there was hope in the midst of despair... In 1977, street life was all that was happening, but for one week in America, the street lights were deserted.”

She was referring to the week Alex Haley's mini-series “Roots” premiered on TV. “Almost magically, black Americans came to a day when we knew where we came from. We recaptured that feeling of community on those nights... Kunte Kinte's pride, represented the black man's pride.”

Coming back to the present, McKinney reminded her audience of the power of one and the need to make a change. “Ripples move into waves of change,” she said. Borrowing the message from one of the late Tupak Shakur's lyrics, McKinney said, “We need to change the way we think, the way we live... we need to learn to love together.”