DETROIT (AP) -- Calling him a man that has "challenged the nation" and "challenged our comfort zone," the Detroit branch of the NAACP announced Thursday it had selected the Rev. Jeremiah Wright as keynote speaker for its 53rd Annual Fight for Freedom Fund dinner.
The former minister of Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama will address the civil rights organization at the April 27 event, whose past speakers have included Obama, Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton.
Wright has been criticized for inflammatory remarks about everything from race relations to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He recently announced his retirement from Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ.
Obama has denounced the most inflammatory of Wright's comments, but says he shouldn't be judged solely on a handful of remarks. Obama expressed admiration and support for the pastor who officiated at his wedding, baptized his two daughters and inspired the title of his best-selling book, "The Audacity of Hope."
A fax was sent Thursday afternoon seeking comment from Wright by The Associated Press at the direction of the Rev. Joan Harrell, Trinity's minister of communications.
In response to the controversy generated by Wright's remarks, leaders of the national United Church of Christ and the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA have called for a nationwide "sacred conversation" about race. United Church of Christ leaders also have asked ministers in the church's 5,700 congregations, seminaries and other ministry settings to preach about race on May 18.
"Wright has challenged the nation, challenged our comfort zone and stimulated nationwide discussion on the issues of how we must move forward together as both a nation and a people," the NAACP chapter said in its announcement.
It's that spirit that spurred the Detroit's National Association for the Advancement of Colored People branch to select Wright to speak at the dinner that draws about 10,000 people.
The Rev. Wendell Anthony, the NAACP Detroit branch's president, called Wright an accomplished lecturer and religious leader whose appearance offered "an opportunity for us all to go to school, to learn what goes on within our communities that we may not understand."
Most Americans know Wright only from video excerpts of sermons in which he says God should damn the United States for its racism, accuses the government of spreading AIDS and suggests the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were retribution for the country's past wrongs.
In a speech last month that took the country's racial divide head-on, Obama -- the son of a white woman from Kansas and a Kenyan father -- said black anger persists over injustice in America, and whites shouldn't be surprised about the way it's expressed in sermons.
Anthony said Wright should not be judged by a 30-second sound bite but by the full thrust, content and context of his remarks. The Detroit address "will give people an opportunity for people to hear him for themselves," he said.
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