Pearl Freeman holds a photograph of her late husband Oscar Freeman, past president of the Cobb County NAACP. This year the 28th Annual Freedom Fund Banquet will be renamed in his honor.
The annual event, which includes a number of awards presented to local community members, begins with a reception at 6:30 p.m. Dinner will be served at 7:15 p.m., and the program and awards ceremony will commence at 8:15 p.m.
It will be the final time the fundraising event will be called the Freedom Fund Banquet. Beginning in 2010, it will be named the Oscar Freeman Fund Banquet to honor the late, past president of the NAACP’s Cobb branch, said Cobb NAACP President Deane Bonner. The official announcement will be made at the awards dinner.
“It was under Oscar Freeman that we started the awards banquet,” Bonner said.
Freeman’s widow, Pearl Freeman, said she’s honored that the branch renamed the annual banquet after her husband.
“I think it’s a tremendous honor,” she said. “My heart is made glad they remember the work he did in this community.”
A retired U.S. Air Force Reserve master sergeant, the Rev. Oscar Freeman Jr., died in March at age 69.
Freeman, a Marietta native, served as Cobb NAACP president from 1983 to 1986. During that time, he helped sponsor a march in Forsyth County against the Ku Klux Klan. Under his leadership, the branch formed its first youth and college chapters, opened its first office on Hunt Street in Marietta and organized the first major Freedom Fund Banquet to help sustain and operate the branch.
Prior to serving as president,
Freeman was the branch’s membership chairman from 1980 to 1982. He took membership from 37 members to over 400 in just two years.
His widow said he helped “resurrect” the Cobb NAACP.
“He literally went from door to door to get people to join,” Pearl said. “He’d come home and would be so happy to have gotten five, 10 or 20 people to join that day.”
Other members will be honored at the banquet as well, Bonner said. She said the pioneers of the branch who worked on behalf of the NAACP have been invited and will be recognized.
“With this being our 100th anniversary celebration, we have ventured back to the late-1930s and early-1940s,” Bonner said.
The theme for this year’s banquet is “Bold Dreams, Big Victories Celebrating a Century.”
Awards will be given for achievement in community service, religious affairs, youth activities, business, education and elder accomplishment. The awards promote the visibility of individuals, companies and youth and their work in Cobb.
“They’re appreciative awards for persons who have or continue to be a part of this branch, who have made us significant,” Bonner said. She said Cobb NAACP members consistently receive praise for their work at the NAACP’s state and national levels.
Past award winners include state Rep. Alisha Thomas-Morgan (D-Austell), former Cobb School Board Chairwoman Betty Gray, Lee Rhyant, vice president and general manager for Lockheed Martin in Marietta and Aechie Watson Young, a member of the Negro Baseball League Hall of Fame.
The NAACP was founded in 1909 in New York City. The Cobb branch was formed in the 1950s with the mission to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.
Tickets to the 28th annual Freedom Fund Banquet on Oct. 23 are $150 per person and $1,500 for a table. Seniors are given a special rate.
For more information, contact the NAACP Cobb branch at (770) 425-5757.
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Loving you always,
Pastor Christopher and Che' Walker