The NAACP was established in 1909 and is America’s oldest and largest civil rights organization. It was founded in New York City by White and Black activists, particularly in response to the ongoing violence against Black Americans around the country.
The Winston County Branch of the NAACP, in accordance with the State and National NAACP, works to disrupt inequality, dismantle racism, and accelerate change in key areas including criminal justice, healthcare, education, climate, the economy, voter registration and Get-Out-The Vote.
The Winston County Branch of the NAACP will host its 40th Freedom Fund Banquet on Saturday, April 22, 2023, at 6:00 p.m. The banquet will be held at the Mount Olive Bethel Harmony District Association Building (MOBH), 521 Armstrong Street, Louisville, MS, 39339. The theme for this year’s banquet is “This is Power”. The speaker is Pastor Reginald Buckley of Jackson, MS and the 16th President of the General Missionary Baptist State Convention of Mississippi, Inc.
Reginald M. Buckley was born in Jackson, MS to the Rev. and Mrs. Horace L. Buckley. He is a product of Jackson Public Schools and completed his undergraduate education at Tougaloo College. A recipient of the Andrew W. Mellon fellowship, Pastor Buckley entered graduate school at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana in 1994 and completed the Master of Arts Degree in English Literature in 1996.
In 1998, he was called to serve as the senior pastor of Second Baptist Church of Danville, Illinois and ministered there for nine years. During his tenure there, he served as Secretary and 2nd Vice Moderator of the Wood River Baptist District Association, the oldest continuous Baptist district association in the nation. Pastor Buckley accepted the call to return to Jackson, MS and serve as the executive pastor of Cade Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in 2007. After serving for seven years, he assumed the role of Senior Pastor in January 2015. He has served as the Dean and the Executive Director of the Congress of Christian Education for the General Missionary Baptist State Convention of Mississippi and as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Mississippi Baptist Seminary. In July 2021, Pastor Buckley was elected as the 16th President of the General Missionary Baptist State Convention of Mississippi, Inc
A W.K. Kellogg Fellow and a member of the inaugural class of the Mississippi Black Leadership Institute, Buckley is committed to the causes of community development, social justice and equity. As executive director of the Cade Development Corporation, Pastor Buckley helped to lead in the development of an 81-unit senior citizen apartment complex which opened in 2012 in the Virden Addition community. Buckley has served on the board of directors for the Hinds County Economic Development Authority, the Mississippi Baptist Seminary and Bible College and currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the Program for Research on Faith, Justice and Health at the University of Houston and the Board of Directors for the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc. Buckley has also been inducted into the Tougaloo College Hall of Fame and is a recipient of the Tougaloo Meritorious Leadership award. A member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Pastor Buckley is married to Lecretia A. Buckley, Ph.D. and they are the parents of two children, Jonathan and Anna.
