The Gloucester Branch of the NAACP celebrated 85 years of service to the community with an ice cream social Saturday at The First United Baptist Church.
The Gloucester NAACP was founded in 1939, with G. Nelson Carter Sr. serving as its first president. Carter bailed local civil rights pioneer Irene Morgan out of jail after she was arrested in Middlesex County, an incident that eventually led to the legal end of segregation in interstate transportation in the landmark 1946 U.S. Supreme Court decision of Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia.
Saturday’s celebration was opened by Gloucester NAACP president Pamela Griffin-Armstead. She welcomed and acknowledged all who were in attendance. Some of those included Middlesex NAACP president Dawn Moore; the Rev. E. Randolph Graham, pastor of the host church; the Rev. Ward Warren Jr. of First Baptist Church, Ordinary; the committee members of the Gloucester NAACP, and school board member Leonne Arsenovic.Griffin-Armistead thanked Short Lane Ice Cre...