Sen. Chuck Schumer last night credited the nation’s oldest and largest civil-rights group with paving the way for the first black president.
“When you started 100 years ago, there was virtually no progress on race, either in the North or in the South,” Schumer told the NAACP convention at the New York Hilton.
“Without the NAACP, Barack Obama would not be president of the United States, Eric Holder would not be attorney general of the United States, Colin Powell wouldn’t have been secretary of state and head of the armed forces, David Paterson wouldn’t have been governor of New York.”
Mayor Bloomberg touted the city’s accomplishments in public education when he addressed the group, which is marking its centennial.
He noted that the achievement gap between black fourth-graders and white youngsters on math tests has been cut by more than half since he established mayoral control of the public-school system in 2002.
“Improving our schools and ensuring that everyone gets the education they need . . . is hands-down the greatest civil-rights challenge of our times,” he said.
Earlier, at a welcoming reception at CCNY, Paterson, New York’s first black governor, said, “Without the NACCP, this would not be possible.”