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Membership The Alexandria Branch of the NAACP was first chartered in 1934. The Branch's first Life Member of record was Mr. Jess E. Taylor, in 1954. (We have been unable to locate Mr. Taylor since the late 1960s and would appreciate leads on his whereabouts or fate.) The second Life Member, and the longest in this area, was attorney Edwin C. Brown, Sr., who is a past President and past Legal Counsel of this Branch. Attorney Brown, who attended our 50th Annual Life Membership and Awards Banquet, is now retried. The first church to begin and complete a Life Membership in Alexandria was Ebenezer Baptist Church. Several other individuals, churches, and organizations began Life Memberships during the years of the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and '60s, and by the end of 1968, we had seven fully paid Life members and ten Subscribers. A visit to the NAACP National Life Membership Office cn January 20, 1969, led to the appointment of the present Branch Life Membership Chair. On May 14, 1970, Kivie K. Kaplan, who by then had become the National President of the NAACP, came through Alexandria, and we held a reception in his honor at the Departmental Progressive Club. October 23-25, 1970, Alexandria was host to the first state convention of the Virginia State Conference of Branches, NAACP, ever held in northern Virginia. Those two events in 1970 gave strong impetus to our branch's Life Membership program. The first NAACP Life Membership was purchased for $500.00 in 1910, the year after our National Organization's founding. By 1953, only a few hundred Life Memberships had been purchased, because of the limited number of interested people who could afford the full price in a lump sum. Then Mr. Kaplan became chairman of the NAACP's National Life Membership Committee, and the annual payment plan was launched in 1954. This brought Life Membership within the means of many more people and groups. By the late 1960s, there were more than 60,000 fully paid and subscribing Life Members everywhere. In 1975, the Golden Heritage Life Membership (GHLM) program was inaugurated. Those who were already fully paid Life Members could become Golden Heritage Life Members through payment of an additional $1,000. Mr. Kaplan, who during his lifetime purchased 65 Life Memberships for members of his family, became the first Golden Heritage Life Member. He visited Alexandria on March 21, 1975, and plugged the new program. He died just six weeks later, on May 5. In Alexandria, Alfred Street Baptist Church was the first church to begin and complete a Golden Heritage Life Membership and to begin and complete second and third GHLMs. Dr. F. J. and Hon. "Del" Pepper were first to begin, and Mrs. Ellyn W. Chisley Carpenter the first to complete, individual GHLM's. Another impetus to NAACP Life Membership was our National Organization's "Mississippi Crisis" in1976. The local response to that challenge, as people realized that the NAACP's future was at stake, helped our branch to its second Kivie Kaplan Award for being the leading branch in Life Membership, among branches of its size category, in the United States. That 1976 award was to be the first of 10 consecutive annual such awards earned by the Alexandria Branch. Counting our first Kivie Kaplan Award for 1973, Sammy Davis, Jr., Awards in 1975 and 1986, and the Bill Cosby Award for 1994, we have earned national recognition 25 of the past 26 years. In 1984, the Virginia State Conference of NAACP began recognizing branches' Life Membership accomplishments. The Alexandria Branch was among the winners for that first year. In 1987-1990, 1994-95, 1997, and 1999, the Branch was first in the entire state. We have been proud of the breadth of our Life Membership. In the Church and Synagogue category, we have, thus far, Catholic, Jewish, Unitarian, and five denominations of Protestant congregations represented. St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Alexandria was the first Catholic church anywhere to become a fully paid Life Member. Mount Vernon Unitarian Church was the second of its denomination anywhere and first in Virginia. A number of the clergy and their families have also been Life Members. Individual Life Members are black, white, and Native American and of various religious and political persuasions. They are of all walks of life and reside all over the United States. They are distinguished in various ways, but all are distinguished by their Life Membership in the NAACP. Over the years, most of the Branch's officers and a majority of its executive committee members have been Life Members. This is significant in that NAACP Life Membership is voluntary and there is no means test for elected NAACP officials. We are pleased that all members of Alexandria's City Council, including our Mayor, are subscribing or fully paid Life Members, as are both of Alexandria's members of Virginia's House of Delegates, our State Senator, Commonwealth's Attorney, Clerk of Circuit Court, Sheriff, and Congressman. Members of Alexandria's elected School Board have been subscribing, too. In 1977, the Million Dollar Club was begun by our National Organization. Membership in this select body goes annually to those individuals who, between one NAACP national convention and the next, bring at least $1,000 into the NAACP through the sale or purchase of various combinations of Life Membership, premium membership, and Freedom Seals. The printed list of current and recent Million Dollar Club members in Alexandria and many others have played an important role in the Alexandria Branch's Life Membership success story. Two fully paid Life Memberships have been conferred by the Alexandria Branch on individuals who, by their efforts and example, contributed greatly to the accomplishment of the goals for which NAACP strives. Those Alexandrians were attorney Otto Tucker and Mrs. Annie B. Rose, both now deceased. Mrs. Rose, who was our city's most beloved citizen and our oldest Life Member, died in 1989 at the age of 94. Murphy Pepper became our first Junior Life Member 19 months before his birth. He became the first Teen Life Member when that category was added by our National Organization in 1984 and is now our youngest fully paid Regular Life Member. In 1996, Jewell Industries, Inc. became our first fully paid Corporate Life Member. In 1999-2000, we have added William D. Euille & Associates, Inc., Ebenezer Baptist Church, and Shiloh Baptist Church. Last year, the National Board promulgated a new set of Life Memberships and donation structures, whereby most previous categories acquired a new name and a rate increase of or of about 50%. Thus, the new Silver Life Membership at $750 corresponds to the older Regular Life Membership at $500. The new Gold Life at $1,500 corresponds to the old Golden Heritage at $1,000 and is available only to those who already hold a Silver Life. Etc. These changes reflect current economic reali-ties: the needs of the Organization, the cost of living, and the enhanced ability of many to support Life Membership. Still, the Silver Life Membership costs only 20.5 cents per day, compared with the old Regular Life Membership at 13.7 cents per day! We have been pleased to note that, so far, the increase have not daunted our supporters. Mrs. Madlene Cisco was our first fully paid Silver Life Member, in 1999, and our second, this year, is Beulah Baptist Church. Meanwhile, the subscribing Silver Life Membership has tripled, from 2 to 6. Since the late 1960's the total of all Life Members worldwide has risen by more than 100%, to well over 100,000 now. Meanwhile, Life Membership in the Alexandria Branch has multiplied over twenty-six-fold, to 449 as of this writing-270 fully paid and 179 subscribing. Despite the National Organization's difficulties in the early '90's, support for our Life Membership program remained strong-a tribute to this Branch's excellent leadership and its service to the community. Now that the National Organization has regained a sound footing, under the Chairmanships of Myrlie Evers-Williams and the Hon. Julian Bond, and the Presidency of Hon. Kweisi Mfume, that support is needed as much as ever, and it is there!! We know there are many, many more people who share the NAACP's ideals and goals. We invite you, the reader, to become a Life Member if you are not one already and to help us grow by speaking to your neighbor, co-worker, fellow parishioner, friend, attorney, or physician about your commitment. You could build on your own Life Membership by, for example, starting a Gold Life Membership. You could honor or remember a family member with NAACP Life Membership. We again thank all those who have promoted and contributed to our Life Membership program. We also thank all of the Branch's officers and executive committee members who have kept the NAACP functioning and its ideal alive. |