Maryland Gov. Moore describes 'fierce urgency' at NAACP Detroit dinner – The Detroit News

Detroit — Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s mother told him that patience sometimes is a virtue, and sometimes it is a detriment.
When it comes to fighting for Black Americans and fighting against racist housing, financial and educational systems, patience is a detriment, he told a crowd in downtown Detroit on Sunday night.
“Racism isn’t only an act,” said Moore, Maryland’s first Black governor. “Racism is a system, and it’s a question of whether or not you are willing to take action to undo the damage of the past so we can build a brighter future for all and not for just some of us.”
Moore was the keynote speaker of the NAACP Detroit Branch’s annual Freedom Fund Dinner on Sunday at Huntington Place.
He offered a sweeping message to the crowd of thousands, starting with his childhood where he was raised by a single mother, to marching to the Maryland state House when he was inaugurated as governor in 2023. He invoked civil rights leaders such as Rosa Parks and Thurgood Marshall and said he was determined to push forward.
“We have got to act with the fierce urgency of now that Dr. (Martin Luther King Jr.) preached and we have got to act with the fierce urgency of now that Thurgood Marshall fought for until the day that he died,” Moore said.
The large Huntington Place hall where the Freedom Fund dinner took place was outfitted with a red carpet lined with cut-outs of civil rights figures and Black leaders such as Fannie Lou Hamer and Kamala Harris, as well as large printed copies of essays written by local students. Signs on the dinner tables carried messages such as “diversity is not a bad word” and “don’t agonize, organize.”
It was the NAACP Detroit Branch’s 70th Freedom Fund dinner. The branch said its annual event is the largest sit-down dinner of its kind in the world. This year’s theme is “The Power Is Within The People.”
This year’s Freedom Fund dinner came at a uniquely challenging time for the United States, Branch President Rev. Wendell Anthony said in an interview ahead of the event.
Anthony, who has led the branch for 30-plus years, said he has never known a more critical time to fight for civil and human rights during his tenure than now, since President Donald Trump’s administration and a Republican-led Congress move to dismantle equity programs, cut food and health care programs and threaten school funding — moves the Republican lawmakers have described as reforms.
“We still press on with all our might,” Anthony said Sunday. “Now is not the time to stand down, now is the time to step up… Freedom is on the line.”
State Sen. Sylvia Santana, D-Detroit, agreed. To her, that means doing more than voting. She said people should contact state and Congressional lawmakers, even those who don’t represent them, and push them toward policies that support their communities.
Congress’ attempts to cut the federal budget by making changes to Medicaid — including work requirements and co-pays — is a key struggle right now, Santana said.
The Congressional Budget Office projected the changes would mean 10.9 million more people go without health insurance, the Associated Press reported. More than 27% of Michigan residents are enrolled in Medicaid, according to the Michigan Health and Hospital Association.
“That’s your pharmacy benefits, access to dental care, community care services for our senior citizens,” Santana said. “It has a significant impact to the people we represent across the state.”
City Council President and mayoral candidate Mary Sheffield was among the local leaders who spoke Sunday.
“We all know that this is a critical time in our nation,” she said, “for the fight for civil and human rights is not behind us, but they are literally right before us.”
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan invoked the name of 4-year-old Samir Grubbs, who was fatally shot in Skinner Playfield near Denby High School on Detroit’s east side.
The child’s death is a story of deadly teen gun violence “we have heard way too many times,” said Duggan, who is running for governor as an independent.
“We have got to do better than that.”
Duggan encouraged the crowd to push state lawmakers to pass a proposal to put some of the state’s sales tax revenue toward a Public Safety and Violence Prevention Fund.
Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, a Democrat running for governor, credited the crowd for earning the status of “biggest, baddest NAACP in the country.” He encouraged those gathered to stand on the history of civil rights struggle with their hope for a better future to improve life for each other.
“It is up to us to make this moment matter,” he said. “It is up to us to make the right thing happen. It is up to us to demand justice, to expand rights, to lower costs, to extend freedoms, to feed the hungry, to house the homeless, to protect the vulnerable, to build power.”
ckthompson@detroitnews.com