Delegate Report: 117th National Convention NAACP
August 10, 2026
Chicago, Illinois
Convention Dates: July 18-22, 2026
The National Convention was held at McCormick Place West Building. The theme of the Convention was “We The People”. I attended the Continuing Legal Education (CLE) held on July 19. This was an all-day educational forum for lawyers, Legal Redress Chairs, Political Action Chairs, Civic Engagement Chairs along with those who simply interested in the various topics discussed during the day long session. Nearly 300 people attended the CLE session.
There were six topics discussed:
a) Plantations to Pollution presented by the Southern Environmental Law Center and the Heirs’ Property Practitioners Network;
b) Democracy Must Prevail: Legal Strategies to Protect Voting Rights Post Callais;
c) We The People: A critical look at the efforts to silence, erase and exclude Black Americans and people of Color from our constitutional promises;
d) On the Frontlines: State Attorneys General Fighting for Accountability and Justice moderated by NAACP General Counsel, Kristen Clarke with Attorney General of Illinois, Kwame Raoul, Attorney General of Minnesota, Keith Ellison and Attorney General of Washington, Nicholas Brown as panelists;
e) Supreme Court Review; and f) Resisting Authoritarianism, fighting corruption and beating back attempts to erase our history.
The central focus of the convention was mobilizing civic engagement ahead of the midterm elections, with NAACP leaders and elected officials emphasizing voting rights, democracy protection, and community power. President and CEO Derrick Johnson in his keynote address to the delegates described the convention as a call to action, stating in part that “all roads lead to November “. He urged all delegates, observers and guests to recognize our individual role in defending democracy.
The business of the NAACP took place on Tuesday, July 21 when resolutions were discussed and voted upon. To put this in perspective, more than 250 resolutions were submitted by Branches, State Conferences and President and CEO Derrick Johnson. Of the 250 plus resolutions, 92 were approved by the Resolution Committee and thereby presented to the delegates for approval. The resolutions focused on voting rights protection, education equity, criminal justice reform, environmental justice, economic equity and community health. There were two controversial issues raised during resolution decision making. One centered around suppling Israel with weapons. Israel was the only nation identified in an amendment to one particular resolution. The amendment failed. The second controversial amendment was to delete “and brown” out of a resolution concerning increasing the number of educators i.e. Black and brown. This amendment also failed.
The resolutions passed by the delegates at the convention will be presented to the National Board of Directors at its October meeting for official approval by the Association.
Of note, at the convention, a Democracy Summit was held. Essentially, the purpose of the Summit was map out the civic engagement plan for getting out the vote in 2026. The NAACP has committed 20 million dollars towards this campaign. There are targeted local, congressional and statewide races that this campaign will focus upon. At the convention, Florida was not one of the states where funds were targeted for. Since the convention, there has been some indication that local races in Orange, Miami-Dade and Hillsborough Counties may result in funding coming to the Branches.
A unique aspect of the convention is THE HUB. It is a public space highlighting Black owned businesses, technology innovation, financial literacy (Self-Help Credit Union was there) wellness, mental health, arts, and entrepreneurship. The NAACP Store was located in THE HUB.
The ACT-SO competition was a part of convention as always. It was announced at the convention that conventions will be every other year. The next convention will be in 2028 and possibly in Orlando. ACT-SO will occur every year. The Association will hold legislative sessions in the odd years where resolutions will be adopted as policy of the NAACP.