NAACP Installs Portia Prescott As New Colorado State Conference President

Denver CO

14 February, 2022

10:38 PM

Description

By Newsline staff, Colorado Newsline February 14, 2022 Portia Prescott became the new president of the NAACP Colorado Montana Wyoming State-Area Conference on Saturday during a virtual ceremony that included appearances by elected officials and the installation of officers and executive committee members. Prescott succeeds Rosemary Lytle as president. During a speech after she was sworn in, Prescott spoke about how important the NAACP had been to her life going back to childhood. She encouraged listeners to join the organization as members. "We need membership in Colorado," Prescott said. "We have a lot of legislative things that we need to tackle. We have a lot of inequalities across the state. It's across the state. It's not just in Denver or Aurora. It's Colorado Springs. It's Grand Junction. It's Montbello. So, I need us to become one big, giant state family." She cited health care, voting and criminal justice issues as priorities. Prescott is a managing partner of Jefferson Prescott Consulting, which works in the fields of politics, community outreach and engagement relations. The NAACP was founded more than a century ago with a central goal of securing for all people the rights guaranteed by the post-Civil War 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. Today it promotes grassroots activism for civil rights and social justice through more than 2,000 local units and 2 million activists across the country, according to the NAACP national website. The organization's state conferences — such as the Colorado Montana Wyoming State-Area Conference — provide overarching leadership for local units. The NAACP has branches in Denver, Boulder County, Aurora, Colorado Springs and elsewhere in the region. U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Lafayette) joined the Saturday ceremony. He congratulated Prescott, calling her "a dear friend, an entrepreneur, an activist, a committed and devoted person who's going to work so hard in the cause of civil rights and lead this wonderful conference." About Lytle, Neguse said, "Thank you to your wonderful president, who has served this conference and our state and the Black community so well for so many years." Denver Clerk and Recorder Paul López and state Rep. Naquetta Ricks, an Aurora Democrat, were among the other figures from Colorado politics and nonprofit advocacy who took part in the event. Dr. Dwinita Mosby Tyler, founder and chief catalyst of The Equity Project and The HR Shop, gave a keynote address. The ceremony took place on NAACP Founders Day — the organization was founded on Feb. 12, 1909. Here is the full slate of officials the state conference installed: Officers: President Portia Prescott, NAACP Aurora Branch First Vice President Annett James, NAACP Boulder County Branch Second Vice President Harvest Thomas, NAACP Denver Branch Treasurer Linda D. LeMieux, NAACP Colorado Springs Branch Secretary Shikima "Kym" Ray, NAACP Denver Branch Executive committee members at-large: Cherry-Rose Anderson, NAACP Boulder County Branch Adison Quin Petti, NAACP Colorado Springs Branch Sheila Davis, NAACP Boulder County Branch Julie White, NAACP Colorado Springs Branch Democracy functions only when people have access to reliable information about government and society. Colorado Newsline's mission is to be a trusted source of such information. Newsline is nonprofit, nonpartisan and independent, and it provides fair and accurate reporting on politics, policy and other stories of interest to Colorado readers