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Recently, I wanted to give the new staff some historical perspective on community organizing. I dug up a newspaper clipping from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, a column called "Neighborhoods" a regular feature of reporter Tom Andrzejewski. The headline of the June 20, 1976 Sunday column read "Everyday America Attends D.C. Parley."

The column reminded me not only of the ever-changing events at NPA, but also of our determination to always bring victories back to our neighborhoods.

26 years ago: The conference was held at Georgetown University. It was a humid 90 degrees. Everyone who arrived hot and sticky from the long bus ride discovered after they had taken a shower to cool off, that the University did not provide towels!

Now: This past NPA conference featured four hotels with the usual room and service problems.

1976: I was a street organizer working on the redlining and reinvestment issues with Cleveland's Buckeye Woodland Community Congress, which had produced 100 people to NPA on my issue and the FHA and crime issues. It was my second NPA conference.

Fast-forward to 2001: "This is the first time in over 15 years that 2 buses have gone from Cleveland to NPA," said Inez Killingsworth chair of the East Side Organizing Project (ESOP), in the local Cleveland paper. "Cleveland is sending a strong message to our nation's leaders, that they must work for community banking; reinvestment; quality education and other issues."

From the old "Neighborhoods" column: "In the lobby of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) . . . 1,000 persons of various ages, occupations and deportments squeezed between a phalanx of security guards and the glass doors. Some of them sat on the floor, others stood and chanted various slogans and sang songs. They waited ... in the stuffy lobby until HUD officials came out to bargain with them ...there was no question that such bureaucrats as Carla A. Hills, HUD secretary were prime targets...a rallying cry was 'FHA - Fire Hills Ass.'"

26 years later: At the recent jam-packed Sunday plenary session, Gale Cincotta read a letter addressed to her as NPA Chairperson from the new HUD Secretary Mel Martinez , who pledged his cooperation with NPA on FHA reform. Martinez wrote: "I also want you to know that I am committed to working with you to meet our common objectives."

Back in the past: Andrzejewski writes, "In the Washington Hilton, 300 participants strung a web of red crepe paper streamers, their way of 'redlining' the American Bankers Association convention there. Police were called, and one plainclothes policeman said to a sergeant, "These aren't peaceful people." Neither observation was accurate.

Most of the protestors would have condemned the campus disruption of the 1960s and instead stressed peace and control. Some men wore leisure suits, the women wore pantsuits and dresses. They looked like family people on vacation. Hairstyles were mostly short. There were as many blacks as whites. There were even children and one blind woman . . . and . . they were angry."

30th NPA conference: What did "everyday" America look like this year?

The biggest difference was the diversity of people. For example the delegation from Chicago's Albany Park Neighborhood Council included African Americans, white ethnics along with recent emigrants from Vietnam, Guatemala, Columbia, Pakistan and Mexico. Another difference was a huge delegation of farmers from the rural areas of Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota and Illinois, who were there with urban neighborhood leaders fighting the U.S. Department of Agriculture on family farm and food stamp issues. There were also several hundred teenagers, who came from neighborhood youth organizing projects all over the country, adding new voices and a renewed energy to the conference.

This was my 22nd NPA and to me it was and still is the biggest, toughest, most diverse coalition in America that has won and will continue to win on issues. NPA energizes neighborhood community organizing and will follow up on our wins from the 30th conference just as we did from year one. NPA is the main reason that keeps me doing the work of community organizing.