NAACP Bronx president Cleveland E. Beckett Jr. outlines voter drives, partnerships and August awards breakfast

Cleveland E. Beckett Jr., president of the NAACP Bronx branch, told Bronxet TV listeners that the branch has been concentrating on voter empowerment, community partnerships and workforce outreach as it prepares for an August awards breakfast and the NAACP national convention in Chicago.

Beckett, who said he has served as branch president since January 2023, described recent voter-registration efforts and summer programming aimed at turning registration into sustained civic participation. “We focused on over 20,000 registered voters here in the Bronx,” he said, adding the branch plans forums and digital programming to reach and engage those newly registered voters.

The branch is also emphasizing partnerships with community groups and organized labor, Beckett said, including involvement with unions and local sponsors that have supported past branch events. He named Adrian Council, publisher and co‑founder of Positive Community Magazine, and Nancy Hagens, president of the New York State Nurses Association, as confirmed honorees for the branch’s fourth annual leadership and empowerment breakfast in August. Beckett also named Reverend Dr. Johnny Ray Young Bloodood (transcript spelling) of a Queens church as a planned honoree for work on affordable housing.

On workforce initiatives, Beckett described the branch’s support for what he called the “Form University Bronx Green Job Center,” saying the branch is represented on some of that project’s working groups and hopes residents, particularly high-school and college students, will use the center’s training and hiring opportunities. “The NAACP is all about social justice and making sure that we not only have the mission, but we fight for those rights,” he said.

Beckett outlined specific outreach tactics — voter‑registration drives, visits to food pantries and speaking at churches — and stressed the importance of converting registration into knowledge about issues and engagement with elected officials. He credited earlier mentors, including Hazel Dukes, with his own NAACP involvement and framed the branch’s work as part of broader civic and policy conversations the national convention will address.

Contact details were provided on-air for those seeking more information, but the transcript records the addresses with unclear formatting (shown as 'Bronx Branch NAACPmail.com' and 'Bronx Branch NAACP presidentgmail.com'). The guest also suggested viewers connect through Bronxet TV and community partners for event details.

The interview concluded with the host thanking Beckett and noting the branch’s local programming and upcoming events. The branch’s next public events include summer outreach activities and the August leadership and empowerment breakfast; the NAACP national convention in Chicago was described as an additional venue where branches formalize policy resolutions.