On July 16, 2009, President Barack Obama delivered his Address to the NAACP Centennial Convention at the New York Hilton to participants attending “100 Years—Bold Dreams, Big Victories,” the 2009 annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He spoke for forty-five minutes to several thousand attendees. Obama used the one-hundred-year anniversary of the NAACP as an opportunity to review the history of the civil rights movement to date and to lay out what he saw as the next steps for fulfilling the organization’s mission. He described changes in law and public policy as the result of the efforts of individuals committed to the ideals of equal rights and justice, some whose contributions are well documented and others whose sacrifices are largely unknown.