Photo Courtesy of Thomas L. Puryear East Orange resident Thomas L. Puryear serves as a panelist at the 113th NAACP National Convention in Atlantic City.
East Orange resident Thomas L. Puryear serves as a panelist at the 113th NAACP National Convention in Atlantic City.
ATLANTIC CITY, NJ — From July 14 to 20, the 113th NAACP National Convention was held in Atlantic City; the national convention was last held in New Jersey in 1968, when Lyndon B. Johnson was president. Out of caution due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NAACP had not had an in-person convention since 2019 in Detroit, Mich. Topics for discussion at the convention included voting and reproductive rights, student debt, segregation in schools, and police reform.
New Jersey State Conference Education Chairperson Thomas L. Puryear, of East Orange, was invited to be a panelist at the national convention.
“I was very surprised and honored to be invited to offer thoughts during the convention,” Puryear said prior to the convention. “The panel that I will participate on will be ‘Education: Beginning With the End in Mind: Addressing the Post-Pandemic Needs of Early Learners.’ To be a panelist at the national convention is an opportunity that is not taken lightly. It is an opportunity of a lifetime. Our children are our passports to the future. We must do all that is possible to make sure that they have the tools and resources to be effective and productive citizens in the global economy that they will inherit.”
About the Author
