Long before the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, Lillian Adams organized a group to eat sack lunches in a 1930s Boston restaurant in protest of it not serving integrated groups.

The group’s members were not thrown out or arrested, but they were not served either.

Adams, a local civil rights activist, was recognized for her years of courage and dedication to human and civil rights at the NAACP’s 21st Annual Freedom Fund banquet Sunday evening.

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About 300 people attended the banquet in Ballroom D of the Student Center.

“The future of the NAACP looks very bright thanks to the efforts of people like Lillian Adams,” U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, D-Ill., said in her keynote address.

Adams joined the Boston chapter of the NAACP in 1935 and has worked most of her life as a volunteer.

“In 1935, the NAACP was seen as a radical organization by many people; it wasn’t politically correct to support human and civil rights,” said Edward Dorsey, third vice president of the Carbondale chapter of the NAACP. “She (Adams) had the character and determination to actively take a part in the movement.

“When you do what she did, you become a person who is seen by your neighbors and colleagues as a radical and a trouble-maker. But that did not stop her.”

Adams moved to Southern Illinois in 1941, along with her husband, Ed. Both were active in integrating restaurants, schools and housing in Carbondale as well as jobs at SIUC. Adams and her husband traveled to Mississippi in the 1960s to take part in the voter registration drives. They also were involved in the civil rights movement in Cairo, and Adams used her own money to post bail for many young people arrested during these movements.

“Lillian Adams had the courage to stand up for her convictions, in spite of the scorn from other people who did not support the movements,” Dorsey said.

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The NAACP formed in 1909 in New York City by a group of black and white citizens concerned with civil rights. The principal objectives of NAACP are to ensure the political, educational, social and economic quality of minority groups.

The annual Freedom Fund banquet is the primary fund-raiser for scholarships provided by the Carbondale chapter of the NAACP for students in the surrounding area. Business and government officials, churches, community organizations and individuals came together to attend the banquet.

“Through her courage, she paved the way for many people, like myself,” Dorsey said. “That is why she was honored.”