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Baltimore Times
At National
Conference:
Despite Hardships,
Bond Predicts
'Grander Victories'
for the NAACP
by Hazel Trice Edney,
NNPA btimes.com from the Web, July 15, 2007
WASHINGTON, July 11 -- NAACP
Chairman Julian Bond, while pointing to the ills of America that he says have
been exacerbated by the administration of President George Bush, told the NAACP
annual convention this week that the organization must now prioritize its own
refueling and growth for ''grander victories'' over injustices.
“There is nothing more important for us to be doing right now than ending felony
disenfranchisement elsewhere and registering voters. If you don’t believe
one vote counts, look at the Supreme Court!” Bond told the audience of thousands
in prepared remarks at the 98th Annual NAACP Convention, themed ''Power Beyond
Measure'', in Detroit.
“But there are other things we must do too. We must make strengthening our
Branches and State Conferences a first priority, building membership where it is
low and insisting on activism where Branches are moribund. We must expand
our outreach to and collaboration with our coalition partners -– the time has
long passed when we were the only soldiers in this fight. We cannot and
should not go it alone.”
The Detroit convention hosted by the nation’s largest NAACP branch, comes on the
heels of a national appeal from Bond for the public to “show some love'' to the
NAACP by giving money.
Interim CEO Dennis Hayes, who stepped into leadership after former Verizon
executive Bruce Gordon stepped down abruptly, has announced that the
organization had to cut its Baltimore headquarters staff from 119 to 70 people.
He said the organization had used more than $10 million in reserves over the
past three years to cover shortfalls. Gordon cited disagreements with the
organization’s 64-member board as a reason for his resignation.
Despite financial woes, Bond, who kicked off the convention with his speech on
Monday, said the civil rights battles ahead underscore the continued need for
the NAACP.
“As we find ourselves re-fighting battles we thought we had already won, we are
reminded that the NAACP is as needed now as ever,” he said, citing surveys that
show increasing belief in the work of the NAACP.
“A 1993 leadership study by Brakeley, John Price Jones, Inc., showed 75 percent
of Blacks believed the NAACP the leader among groups with civil rights, social
justice and race relations agendas. An October 1995 US News and World
Report poll reported 90 percent of Blacks supported the NAACP. In an April
1998 poll conducted by the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, 81 percent of
Blacks reported a favorable opinion of the NAACP.”
Ultimately, he announced the results of a survey taken just two weeks ago:
“Conducted by the respected firm Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, this poll
confirms that our work is both valuable and valued. The NAACP has the
highest favorability of 17 organizations working in the civil rights arena.
The NAACP is viewed favorably by almost all Blacks -– 94 percent, including 70
percent who view it very favorably, and by three-quarters of the general public.
Fully 93 percent of Blacks surveyed believe the NAACP represents the interests
of the American-American community, and 67 percent believe this strongly.”
Financial difficulties being no stranger to the NAACP or other civil rights
organizations, Bond said its work must be unhindered even as it rebuilds.
Consistent with past years. Bond did not spare the Bush administration scorching
criticism. In recent years having described the political operations of
the Administration as like “the Taliban” and “snake oil”, Bond used the flowery
words of Thomas Jefferson to make his point:
“A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells
dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government
to its true principles.
It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring
the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt,” he quoted
Jefferson. “If the game runs sometimes against us at home, we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back
the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake.”
Cautious to avoid mention of political parties so to stay within Internal
Revenue Service guidelines, Bond was obviously making reference to the
presidential race, in which many voters –- Republican and Democrat –- have used
polls to express hope for change in the direction of the nation.
Meanwhile, as a part of its philosophy, “No permanent friends, no permanent
enemies, just permanent interests,'' the NAACP this week prepared to reward Rep.
John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), the reputed dean of the Congressional Black Caucus,
with the coveted Spingarn Medal, the highest honor that the NAACP bestows.
Conyers, a member of Congress for more than 35 years, earns consistent A’s on
the organization’s annual Legislative Report Card and now chairs the House
Judiciary Committee, which has the power to champion NAACP civil rights causes.
“Last fall’s midterm elections did not increase the number of Blacks in
Congress, which is 43, but it vastly increased their power, elevating more of
them to key positions than ever before in our nation’s history,” Bond told the
audience.
He expressed hope that, meanwhile, answers to a litany of major civil rights and
economic problems will come legislatively.
“Indeed, for most of us, the notion that race ought not be considered in
remedying racial discrimination is ludicrous,” he said. “Now the ludicrous
has become law.”
He was referring to the most recent blow to civil rights, the Supreme Court’s
recent 5-4 decision that tightened prohibitions on how school districts can use
race in assuring racial diversity in the classroom. Civil rights leaders
say the ruling eliminates some of the remedies legalized by Brown v. Board of
Education.
“The Bush Court, on the same day the bald eagle was removed from the endangered
species list, removed Black children from the law’s protection,” Bond said.
“The truth is, there are no non-racial remedies for racial discrimination.
In order to get beyond race, you have to go to race. To suggest racial
neutrality as a remedy for racial discrimination is sophistry of the highest
order.”
The answers are simple, said Bond. Among them, “no more Bush appointees to
the Supreme Court! No more appointees, period, who cannot see that there
is no constitutional equivalence between race-conscious efforts to segregate and
race-conscious efforts to integrate public schools.”
He said the second answer is to help school districts find solutions that will
fit within the permissible range of race-consciousness, expressed by Justice
Anthony Kennedy.
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