Thousands attend 61st annual NAACP dinner

DETROIT (WJBK) - The NAACP's Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner boasted another outstanding turnout for the event in its 61st year.

Thousands of people from all over made their way to the COBO Center on Sunday evening for the dinner, award presentation and key speakers, including Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Detroit's chapter president Wendell Anthony said issues happening in Detroit and the State of Michigan will be top discussion.

"As we face in the City of Detroit, a public school system that deserves our care and immediate concern, that deserves to be properly financed and governed and power restored by the local community," he said at the event.

NAACP Member Shaka Senghor gave a personal testimony during the event, comparing Detroit schools with prison.

"I actually served 19 years in prison. I got released in 2010. One of the most shocking things I witnessed walking out of prison was walking into a school that was in worse condition than the prison I just left," Senghor said. "As we think about the idea of freedom and we see these young people, I think that we're only as free as our children are when they're able to play freely in their communities without having to worry about the gun violence, without having to worry about the blighted environments they have to walk through to get to school."