A consistent theme emerged as members of the Arlington NAACP brainstormed to determine 2026 policy priorities.
“Affordability is coming through every single group,” the organization’s president, the Rev. DeLishia Davis, said after reports from breakout sessions at the organization’s Monday meeting.
“Affordability across the board is a great stressor,” said Judith Knight, one of those participating in the independent breakout sessions during the online meeting.
The topic also made the top-three list of policy priorities in group sessions reported by members Tia Alfred and Kathleen McSweeney. Only in one of the four groups did affordability not rise to a top-three policy concern, being edged out by concerns about behavioral health, youth and criminal-justice issues.
Other topics that made the cut in various breakout sessions included voter suppression, immigration policy, rising eviction rates and resources for aging local residents.
The exercise was a way for members to provide input to NAACP leaders as they consider priority issues for the remainder of the year.
“The executive committee is hearing you,” Davis said.
Items that take priority will be used by the local chapter to advocate at the national and state levels.
“Our actions will make a difference in Arlington and beyond,” Davis said. “We must stand up, we must speak up. ‘Liberty and justice for all’ is not just a phrase we recite. We need to work together in our community to advocate.”
Alfred, the local NAACP’s first vice president, said that while housing and general affordability concerns occupied some of the discussion in her group, the conversation was “mostly about our youth.”
Getting more programming in county community centers is one way to provide local teens and preteens with creative outlets outside of school hours, she said.
Last year, the Arlington NAACP weighed in on a number of issues in its advocacy efforts, including housing discrimination, homelessness, Arlington’s form of government and the restoration of historic content to the Arlington National Cemetery website.
The organization also addressed the county government’s budget proposal last year.
The Arlington NAACP was founded in 1940. Davis assumed the presidency in January 2025 for a two-year term.
