A Voice for the Community

For most of her life, Naomi Rainey has been involved with volunteer projects—the March of Dimes, American Cancer Society, the Salvation Army and city of Long Beach commissions, just to name a few.

But, if there has been one focus in her volunteer life, it has been her involvement with the NAACP— the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

For more than 41 years, she has been actively involved with the organization—a tenure that began in the Antelope Valley area of Los Angeles County where she grew up, becoming president of the local NAACP youth chapter at the tender age of 14.

Today, Rainey is in the middle of her third two-year volunteer term as president of the Long Beach Branch of the NAACP. For about five years, she has overseen this group comprised of about 600 members, “and it’s growing,” Rainey noted. “We are working on becoming a 1,000-member branch.”

The NCAAP’s mission is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and discrimination, and the Long Beach branch of the organization carries that mission into the community.

“In the community, the local branch of the NAACP advocates education, labor and industry and political education,” Rainey said. “We are non-partisan. We encourage people to become part of the process through leadership development, teaching them their rights as voters and also explaining issues and holding political forums so that constituents who are traditionally not active or involved get to learn about the process and understand the importance of being informed on the issues.

“The other area of advocacy we focus on is civil rights,” she added. “We monitor civil rights in the areas of education, housing, labor and industry through the guidelines that are established by law and by the NAACP.”

A natural byproduct of her leadership with the local NAACP chapter has been a continuing and enhanced relationship with her alma mater as the two organizations have worked together on a number of projects over the last several years. It is a relationship Rainey is very enthusiastic about, and as an alumna, she is proud that Cal State Long Beach is reaching out to the underserved populations her group also assists.

“The university has been fortunate to have leaders who believe—and not just on paper—and promote inclusion, access and involvement with the community,” she explained. “I mean, it is easy to just have things in place, but the things I am most proud of as an alumna is that the school has worked with the community to establish programs and procedures that address the areas that are areas of concern for the NAACP.

Rainey pointed to the university’s Educational Opportunity Program, a state-funded program that provides services to help students overcome obstacles that may prevent them from furthering their education and reaching their potential; and the Bridges to Baccalaureate program, which provides historically underrepresented community college students with research opportunities in the biomedical sciences and to facilitate a seamless transition into baccalaureate granting institutions.

“I started at CSULB in 1970, and as a civil rights activist on campus, students would come to me when they had any problems on campus,” recalled Rainey, who also noted that she was the first African American homecoming princess at CSULB. “The first president I was familiar with while I was at Cal State Long Beach was Steve Horn. He had a wonderful open-door policy, and it was wonderful having such a good relationship with him. Those leaders at the university were about equity and inclusion, and we’ve always been able to resolve issues.

“Later, as a principal and a teacher, I remember Cal State Long Beach welcoming students, including inner-city students, to the university through a program that would introduce them to a college campus, and it was important,” she continued. “Many underrepresented persons don’t know about college, and this university program, especially under President (Robert C.) Maxson, introduced them to a college environment. The campus also has University Ambassadors and President’s Scholars who devote volunteer hours in the community to introduce the university to young people. These are the same goals and objectives that the NAACP has in terms of its focus on education.”

— Rick Gloady