NAACP official: "Black Lives Matter"

IF WHAT HAPPENED at the NAACP Convention last night is any indication, "Black Lives Matter" isn't just a young person's cry anymore.

It was said many a time by dignitaries including Mayor Nutter and Roslyn Brock, chairwoman of the NAACP's board of directors.

"How do we give life to the narrative that Black Lives Matter when we are doing the killing?" Brock asked during a speech at the large public mass meeting on the second night of the group's 106th Annual Convention.

"Let me be crystal clear," Brock added. "Black on black crime must end in our community as we imbue new life and meaning into the often-quoted hashtag, 'Black Lives Matter!' "

Mayor Nutter, who followed U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah at the start of the large meeting, also brought up assaults by blacks against other blacks even as he also invoked the phrase that has become a rallying cry for protests on police-community relations.

Some 8,000 delegates and others from all over the country are here this week for the confab at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

The convention kicked off with big news Saturday - the NAACP will no longer boycott the state of South Carolina as the state removed its Confederate flag from the state capitol.

The flag had come under scrutiny in recent weeks after a gunman killed nine in a historic black church in Charleston.

"In this raw, tender moment of reflection and introspection after Charleston, I am not asking you to move on and get back to normal," Brock continued. "The normal state of affairs in America is unacceptable. The status quo hurts us all."

Yesterday featured a long day of events, including a rousing brunch speech on women's empowerment from Marilyn Mosby, the state's attorney for Baltimore.

The convention's theme "Pursuing Liberty in the Face of Injustice" is pointed at issues including police-community relations, voting rights, fair housing and health-care equity.

Outside Hall B, several corporate and governmental sponsors, African-American-owned businesses and health-care professionals had information booths and a video of Joe Biden giving a speech on the Voting Rights Act played on a loop.

The major issue of the day was HIV and AIDS awareness as sponsored by "The Black Church & HIV: The Social Justice Imperative," an AIDS awareness campaign.

According to AIDSVu, a Web project of Emory University and partner with the initiative, about half of those infected with HIV or AIDS are black, and there are about 19,000 cases in Philadelphia, project manager Cory Woodyatt said.

Broken down by ZIP code, the virus is most prevalent locally in North and West Philadelphia, according to the project's site AIDSVu.org.