Senator Obama & NAACP

NAACP presented Senator Barack Obama its lifetime achievement award.

DETROIT - Sen. Barack Obama praised the courage of America's civil rights pioneers Sunday and urged younger generations to find the same boldness in addressing the future of education.

Sometimes, when I reflect on that movement, I wonder where they found that courage," the Democrat told about 10,000 people at an NAACP fundraiser. "Fifty years from now, what kind of courage will our kids look back and see that came from us?"

The civil rights group presented the first-term Illinois senator with its lifetime achievement award at the 50th anniversary Detroit NAACP Freedom Fund dinner. He thanked the group for the award but said he felt unworthy. [...]

Our grandparents used to tell us, if you were black you had to work twice as hard," he said. "Can we honestly say that our students are working twice as hard as students in China, in India, in South Korea? Can we say our teachers are?"

Obama also scolded the Bush administration for tax cuts and an education policy that has created new achievement requirements but not fully funded measures to meet the standards. He urged the crowd to keep working for a "health care program for all Americans" and a solvent social security system.

The Senator is thankful for the award, but there is a still a lot of work to do.

"I don't feel like I made history. I won an election, and there's much work to do," Obama said to huge applause.

Yes, Senator it will take a lot of work to undo the damage of President Bush and the Republican Congress. It start my electing more people like the Senator Obama.