NAACP

Benjamin Todd Jealous

President and CEO

Benjamin Todd Jealous served as President of the Rosenberg Foundation- a private independent institution that supports advocacy efforts to make significant improvements in the lives of California’s working families and recent immigrants. He was the fourth person to hold the position since the Foundation was founded in 1935.

Mr. Jealous was Director of US Human Rights Program at Amnesty International. While there he led its efforts to pass federal legislation against prison rape, rebuild public consensus against racial profiling in the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks, and expose the widespread sentencing of children to life without the possibility of parole. He is the lead author of the 2004 report Threat and Humiliation: Racial Profiling, Domestic Security, and Human Rights in the United States, the release of which received coverage by major media outlets in most states and on six continents.

Formerly, Mr. Jealous served as Executive Director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)-a federation of more than 200 black community newspapers. While at the NNPA, he rebuilt its 90-year old national news service and spearheaded the creation of a proprietary software system that enabled dozens of local papers to begin publishing online. Read the rest of this entry →

Beware The Simplifiers
by Bill Moyers

Published on Sunday, May 4, 2008 by PBS.org

I once asked a reporter back from Vietnam, “Who’s telling the truth over there?” “Everyone, he said. “Everyone sees what’s happening through the lens of their own experience.” That’s how people see Jeremiah Wright. In my conversation with him on this broadcast a week ago and in his dramatic public appearances since, he revealed himself to be far more complex than the sound bites that propelled him onto the public stage. Over 2000 of you have written me about him, and your opinions vary widely. Some sting: “Jeremiah Wright is nothing more than a race-hustling, American hating radical,” one viewer wrote. A “nut case,” said another. Others were far more were sympathetic to him.

Many of you have asked for some rational explanation for Wright’s transition from reasonable conversation to shocking anger at the National Press Club. A psychologist might pull back some of the layers and see this complicated man more clearly, but I’m not a psychologist. Many black preachers I’ve known - scholarly, smart, and gentle in person - uncorked fire and brimstone in the pulpit. Of course I’ve known many white preachers like that, too.

Read the rest of this entry →

25 April 2008

By Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II
NC NAACP State Conference President

The NAACP is fiercely non-partisan. We do not endorse candidates. But for over 99 years, the NAACP has also been fiercely anti-racist. In 1898 White Supremacists who controlled the North Carolina Democratic Party at that time, published racist cartoons, lies, and half truths about Black people to plow the fields for a terrorist attack that killed scores of Black people and exiled Black and White leaders of the fragile political alliance that was forming. The cartoons, the attack ads of the day, stirred up hatred and violence that scared poor White voters out of the alliance, and disenfranchised Black voters for three generations of Jim Crow. Read the rest of this entry →

NAACP pushes for Commission on Health Equality
By: Adam Wittenberg

HARTFORD - Black children are nearly three times more likely to die as infants than whites in Connecticut according to a recent report, and health and wellness disparities between the races continue into later years.The state NAACP, which authored the study, gathered with religious leaders and lawmakers at the state Capitol Wednesday to advocate for health care reforms.

“How can the richest state in the U.S. be in the top 10″ in health care “for the majority population and be 26th in infant mortality for African American children?” asked James Rawlings, chairman of the NAACP’s health committee and executive director of community health at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

The health care system is broken, not only in terms of access but in the way minorities are treated when they seek care, said the Rev. Shelley D.B. Copeland, executive director of the Capital Region Conference of Churches.
©www.MyRecordJournal.com 2008

Published on Friday, April 4, 2008 by CommonDreams.org
40 Years Later, (The Late) Martin Luther King Still Silenced
by Jeff Cohen

Soon after Martin Luther King’s birthday became a federal holiday in 1986, I began prodding mainstream media to cover the dramatic story of King’s last year as he campaigned militantly against U.S. foreign and economic policy. Most of his last speeches were recorded. But year after year, corporate networks have refused to air the tapes.

Last night NBC Nightly anchor Brian Williams enthused over new color footage of King that adorned its coverage of the 40th anniversary of the assassination. The report focused on the last phase of King’s life. But the same old blinders were in place. Read the rest of this entry →

Today, on the 40^th anniversary of his assassination in Memphis, the NAACP honors the memory and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Forty years after his death, America has seen some progress in equality: educational opportunities have increased and workplaces and political leadership are more diverse. But when you consider these facts, it is very clear that we still have a long way to go.

• African Americans represent just 12% of the overall population, yet almost 30% of those arrested are African American. And once arrested, African Americans are three times more likely to be incarcerated than whites.
  
• The average net worth of white families is $70,000, compared to just $6,000 for African-American families.
  
• African-American women are 10% less likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer than white women, but 36% more likely to die of breast cancer than white women.

Dr. King’s involvement with the NAACP dates back to his work in Alabama in the 1950’s, and the NAACP honored Dr. King with its most prestigious prize, the Spingarn Award. We were proud to work side by side with Dr. King, and to carry on our work today on behalf of all people of color.

Dr. King pushed America to fulfill its promise of equal rights for all. Today we should all honor his life and legacy by recommitting ourselves to keeping the dream alive.

Sincerely,

Dennis Courtland Hayes
Interim President

April 4, 2008