Remel Terry Appointed President Of NAACP Chicago Westside Branch
Remel Terry Appointed President Of NAACP Chicago Westside Branch
By Tia Carol Jones
Remel Terry has been appointed President of the NAACP Chicago Westside Branch. Terry was previously the Vice President of the Chicago Westside Branch. Terry has been involved with the NAACP Chicago Westside Branch for about 17 years, serving in various executive board roles.
Terry first got involved with the NAACP Chicago Westside Branch after being invited to an event the branch was hosting. At that event, she was introduced to the branch’s immediate past president Karl Brinson as the new political action chair. As a member, Terry began attending meetings and serving as the political action chair. Within a couple of months, she became the second vice president.
“Growth and development is critical in our communities,” Brinson said in a release. “I am passing this torch to Remel Terry with no doubt that she will lead the NAACP’s Westside Branch to the best of her ability.”
The NAACP was founded in 1909 as a civil rights and social justice organization, with the goal to “advocate, agitate, and litigate for the civil rights due to Black America.” Its aim is to ensure Black voices are heard and their demands are met. She said the branch continues to carry on the legacy of ensuring that Black people are equitably represented in all spaces and gaining opportunities and resources that are owed to Black people.
She said it can look like anything from having conversations with the Chicago Public Schools leadership and City Colleges of Chicago leadership to conversations with developers to ensure opportunities are made available to Black people.
Terry was sworn-in as President at the end of December of 2025. She said that because she has been in the NAACP Chicago Westside Branch for 17 years, she is comfortable and familiar with the work of the organization. She has been engaging with people who are part of the branch, as well as implementing her strategic vision for the branch. She said she also wants to make sure that people are committed to doing the work in the organization.
Terry’s vision for the branch includes building on past success and making room for new leaders in the organization. She said making room for new leaders is important to her because it was how she was able to ascend to her role as president. She said it was the result of an organization having a proper succession plan.
“I am just pleased and humbled that whatever he [Brinson] needed to see in me, he has seen that and was comfortable with handing this over, knowing that we would be successful and knowing that I would do well,” she said.
Terry said she wants to pass along that same kind of confidence in the ability of younger members to take up the responsibility to lead in the future. She said she also wants to engage more people who are serious about the collective economic vitality of Black people.
She said the collective economic vitality of Black people is important to consider when it comes to academic opportunities, community investment, business infrastructure and other issues. She said these issues need to be addressed in order to overcome things that Black people have faced for a long time. She said she wants to see people who want to see Black people in a different position than they have been, while moving Black people forward collectively.
The NAACP convention is set to take place in Chicago in July 2026 this year. Terry said the importance of having the convention in Chicago is a way to show how the NAACP Chicago Westside Branch has aided in the progress in the Black community in Chicago.
For more information about the NAACP Chicago Westside Branch, visit www.cwbnaacp.org.
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