More

than 200 supporters of the NAACP gathered

Saturday night to "recognize the unsung

heroes..." who have furthered the cause of

civil rights and equal rights in Fayette County,

according to branch president Dr. Edward J.

Johnson.

The

event marked the second annual Freedom Fund

Banquet and fund-raiser conducted by the Fayette

County arm of the National Association for the

Advancement of Colored People, considered to be

the largest and most influential civil rights

organization in the country.

Five

men and one woman were presented the NAACP's

Image award following a brief but passionate

keynote address by U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney,

from Atlanta's 4th District.

Recognized

for their contributions to the community were D.

Howard W. Creecy Sr., pastor and founder of

Olivet Baptist Church in Fayetteville; Robert

Jordan Sr., Fayetteville native and owner of

Jordan Sales and Salvage; Lee Haney, bodybuilder,

fitness expert and founder of Harvest House, a

retreat for children; Jimmy Holliday, president

and CEO of Holliday Auto Rentals and one of the

100 Black Men of America; Denise Speller, a real

estate broker with REMAX Results in Peachtree

City; and the late William Leo Spikes Jr., a

businessman and owner of two Kentucky Fried

Chicken franchises in Fayette County.

Johnson

introduced McKinney as a woman who "knows

about community service and how to be on the

battlefield of the Lord." Calling her a

visionary politician, Johnson credited her with

pursuing programs to "help the

disenfranchised."

McKinney,

Georgia's first African-American congresswoman,

opened and closed her remarks with quotations

from the late Robert F. Kennedy. She took her

audience back to the late 1970s and painted a

mental picture of how things were more than 20

years ago. "Life was teeming under every

street light... in every urban area of America,

there was hope in the midst of despair... In

1977, street life was all that was happening, but

for one week in America, the street lights were

deserted."

She

was referring to the week Alex Haley's

mini-series "Roots" premiered on TV.

"Almost magically, black Americans came to a

day when we knew where we came from. We

recaptured that feeling of community on those

nights... Kunte Kinte's pride, represented the

black man's pride."

Coming

back to the present, McKinney reminded her

audience of the power of one and the need to make

a change. "Ripples move into waves of

change," she said. Borrowing the message

from one of the late Tupak Shakur's lyrics,

McKinney said, "We need to change the way we

think, the way we live... we need to learn to

love together."

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