The Cleveland Chapter of the NAACP is holding its annual Freedom Fund Dinner tonight at Hotel Cleveland (the former Cleveland Renaissance Hotel.) President Kayla Griffin said the sold-out event, with some 900 reservations, is the chapter’s largest dinner to date. The big turnout is certainly welcome because it’s the key fundraiser for the chapter, which has had financial ups and downs over the past decade. But the chapter, which is celebrating its 112th year, has found more solid footing in recent years. 

This year’s dinner will honor a variety of people, including community activist Bob Render, who most recently rallied Buckeye-Shaker residents around the closing of a Huntington Bank branch in the neighborhood; Ohio Supreme Court Justice Melody Stewart; Terri Eason, who heads equity initiatives for the Cleveland Foundation; and Tony Sias, the president and CEO of Karamu House. 

The keynote speaker is Jeff Johnson, a Baltimore-based communications consultant, author and television producer with several ties to Cleveland. He was an advisor to former Mayor Frank Jackson and is a senior advisor at Cleveland communications firm Dix & Eaton. 

Griffin told Signal Cleveland the dinner is a chance for the branch to share its community work. The chapter has been organizing around a large agenda that includes campaigning against flavored tobacco, tracking voter bills that could lead to disenfranchisement, and putting its voice behind laws prohibiting race-based hair discrimination.