Nov. 4 – Annapolis MD) The Anne Arundel NAACP Branch will hold it’s 47th Annual Freedom Fund Awards Banquet dinner at the Double Tree Hotel in Annapolis, MD on Friday, November 18, 2022 at 7PM. Ten individuals will receive awards including incoming Governor of Maryland Wes Moore and Annapolis Alderwoman Rhonda Pindell-Charles. The keynote speaker will be the longest serving black member of the White House press corps, April Ryan. Tickets are available ($100) online at http://bit.ly/3T3eWMm.
Ryan’s latest book “Black Woman Will Save the World” came out last month and it reveals the clashes she endured with Donald Trump and his press secretaries during his presidency. She said on an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that the purpose of the press remains unchanged by the Trump administration’s hostile attitude to the mainstream media. She reports for TheGriot, a black TV and online network.
The theme for this year’s event “Your Vote Is Your Power”, will highlight the importance of why every vote counts and that voting does make a difference in the local community. The award winners come from varied backgrounds and include The President’s Award recipients: incoming Maryland Governor Wes Moore and incoming Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown. They are the 1st African Americans elected to both state wide offices.
Freedom Fund Award recipients are: Alderwoman Rhonda Pindell-Charles and Pastor John D. Watts. Marie C. Hollins Humanitarian Award recipients are: Gertrude Dailey and William Rowell. Business of the Year awards will go to Maryland Reentry Resource Center (MRRC) (Vanessa Bright) and Genergi Logistics, LLC (Gloria Dent). The Youth & College Division Awards will go to Siole Bailey (Key School) and Brenton Meade (Broadneck High).
April Ryan is an American reporter, author, and White House Correspondent for The Grio. From January 1997 to November 2020 Ryan served as a White House correspondent and Washington, D.C., bureau chief for American Urban Radio Networks. In 2017, she joined CNN as a political analyst.] In May 2017, the National Association of Black Journalists named Ryan as the “Journalist of the Year”. She has written four successful books and has a net worth of over three million dollars. Among the most memorable sections of the new book are her response to the White supremacist terrorist attack in Charlottesville and her own often caustic exchanges with Trump and his representatives during press conferences.