Greensburg-Jeannette NAACP passes torch of leadership to new generation

The torch of leadership at the Greensburg-Jeannette Branch of the NAACP has passed to a new generation.

Ruth Tolbert, 75, of Greensburg, who has been the president of the Greensburg-Jeannette NAACP for all but two years since 2000, opted not to run for re-election last year to another two-year term. Tolbert said it was important to have the next generation in place to take the reins of leadership.

“It’s OK. I didn’t want to serve until I was 100,” Tolbert joked about leaving the presidency this month.

Instead, Gabrielle Skillings, 28, of Greensburg, was elected to the presidency. Instead of running for another term, Tolbert successfully ran for first vice president of the Greensburg-Jeannette branch. Chartered in 1955, it is one of about 40 NAACP branches in Pennsylvania.

“I’m hoping to bring a fresh perspective, being younger. We want to be involved in civic engagement and support policies that prioritize the needs of Black people,” Skillings said.

She has been a member since her mother, Norma Skillings, signed her up at the tender age of 18 months to be in the organization’s youth council. She said both mother and her father, William Skillings, have been active in the NAACP and encouraged her as well.

Skillings said she is aware that whatever changes an organization may want to achieve, they won’t be instantaneous.

“You can’t make change happen overnight,” Skillings said

The mission of the NAACP remains to eliminate racism and to ensure the political education of people so there are equal rights for the minority group of citizens, Skillings said.

“It’s work in progress,” Skillings said.

Skillings, who previously was an assistant secretary with the branch, said one of her goals is to spread the word about the organization and engage with people. The organization has about 50 members.

“We need to make it known who we are,” Skillings said. That means having a social media presence, particularly to reach the younger generation.

At the other end of the generational spectrum, Tolbert was a youngster in the heyday of the Civil Rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s.

Tolbert said she can recall Martin Luther King’s famous and inspiring “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C. in 1963, in which he shared his dream of equality for his four children that one day they would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin.

“You have to do something. You can’t wait for someone to hand you stuff,” said Tolbert, a Latrobe native who moved to Derry and graduated from Derry Area High School.

Although the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965 to end discrimination in voting and the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, it has not ended unequal treatment.

“It’s that some people haven’t got the entire message,” Tolbert said. “People are still not being treated equally, even if they have all the education and credentials. It’s like they (opponents of equal rights) don’t want some people to be successful.”