Kamala Harris: Fighting for Liberty at NAACP Awards

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Greed, bitterness and hatred will not dictate the future of America.

BY Angelina Velasquez / 2.23.2025

Greed, bitterness and hatred will not dictate the future of America. That timely and sobering message of the never-ending fight for civil rights and preservation of our democracy took center stage at the 56th annual NAACP Image Awards, as former Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the Chairman’s Award on Saturday (Feb. 22).

The occasion marked the public servant’s first major appearance since losing the 2024 presidential race to Donald Trump. Harris accepted the prestigious prize after being introduced by Leon W. Russell, the chair of the organization’s board of directors, and a reel of her career highlights played before the crowd gathered at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in California.

In her speech, she first began by leaning on the words of NAACP founding member W.E.B. Du Bois, who said, “‘It is today that our best work can be done and not some future day or future year.’ And this sense of urgency is what we must have today,” she said, alluding to the reign of political terror that many have characterized as Trump’s administration. In the four weeks since he assumed office, the Republican president has signed executive orders reversing federal DEI initiatives, greenlit massive deportation efforts and triggered fear of an impending dictatorship at the end of his second term.

But Harris, reflecting on the NAACP’s mission and the shoulders of activists who have come before us, reminded viewers and the audience that this “golden age” of politics does not have to be a permanent defeat. “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. The price of liberty. To stay alert. To seek the truth. And to actively participate in the fight for America’s future,” said the former California attorney general. “Some look at this moment and rightly feel the weight of history. Some see the flames on our horizons, the rising waters in our cities, the shadows gathering over our democracy and ask, ‘What do we do now?’ But we know exactly what to do, because we have done it before, and we will do it again,” Harris continued.

Mobilizing, advocacy and education remain pivotal resources in the arsenal that Black Americans have used to forge paths to citizenship, the right to vote, the right to obtain an education, homeownership and more; especially when the odds seem impossible to overcome. “Our power has never come from having an easy path. Our strength flows from our faith, faith in God, faith in each other and our refusal to surrender to cynicism and destruction. Not because it is easy, but because it is necessary,” she continued.

Moreover, the Democratic political figure proclaimed that, “While we have no illusions about what we are up against in this chapter in our American story, this chapter will be written not simply by whoever occupies the Oval Office, nor by the wealthiest among us. The American story will be written by you, written by us, by we the people.”