This is the triumphant theme of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People at its 100th-year convention in New York City July 11-16 — Reflections: Bold dreams — Big victories.

On July 10, approximately 75 Mississippi delegates boarded the Amtrak train in Meridian. Nine delegates from Natchez attended, and there was great excitement and anticipation on each face and in the air.

Others who were boarding the train wanted to know what was going on, and we shared the big news. It was a time of sad, but reverent, reflections for my wife, Alma, and I.

We remembered many of those African-Americans and liberal caucasians, who stood in the face of opposition and brutality at its worst in Mississippi and elsewhere across America, that helped tear down the barriers of segregation and racism.

My wife and I secured a sleeper-berth, and again we reflected on blacks riding in segregated coaches with no sleeper-berth accommodations.

The train ride was great, the service and hospitality were second to none. We traveled through Birmingham, Ala., Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Washington, D.C., and other notable cities.

Upon arrival in New York City, we were welcomed to the Marriott Hotel for our week’s stay. The Hilton Hotel across the street hosted most of the convention activities.

There were vendors and patrons from major companies from across the United States. There were approximately 5,500 delegates including college and youth divisions from across the country.

We were favored with panelists who survived the onslaught of segregation and racism to share thoughts on the state of the NAACP after 100 years of fighting for justice and civil rights — not only African-Americans, but all disenfranchised people.

Some notable participants were, Mrs. Dorothy Height, 94; the Rev. Jesse Jackson; past governor of the great state of Virginia; past mayor of Atlanta, Andrew Young; the Rev. Dr. Ben Hooks, Douglas Wilder, five of the Little Rock, Ark., nine who integrated the public school system there.

The experiences of these NAACP heroes were very heart wrenching. Some of them stood with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in that fatal night in Memphis, Tenn., in 1968.

There was a large number of white delegates. The message we were given to bring back home is, “Don’t let the fire for freedom die; don’t let the light of hope dim.”

Reach out to everybody, black and white, especially the youth and young adults to join the fight for freedom with the NAACP.

Our U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the NAACP conventioneers in clear crisp words to blacks and all youth: get your education, parents take control of your children.

President and CEO of the NAACP Ben T. Jealous gave a stirring address. He sent out a call to young black males — reach down, pull up your pants, respect your parents and elders, get an education and keep your eyes on the prize.

How resounding are the words of the poet James Weldon Johnson who penned “Lift every voice and sing.”

“Stony the road we trod; bitter the chastening rod, felt in the days when hope unborn had died yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet, come to the place for which our fathers sighed?”

People of Mississippi and America we must never, and again I say never, forget or turn your back on the NAACP.

The accomplishments of the NAACP should be revered as Custer’s last stand with the Sioux Indians of the American West; World War I and II to America and Europe and the Holocaust to the Jews.

I am thankful to God and The Natchez Democrat newspaper for this opportunity.

God bless America.

The Rev. Clifton Marvel is the first vice president of the Natchez branch of the NAACP.