The calls for outside oversight came days after Sheriff Douglas Gillespie pleaded for patience from the public and promised a thorough internal investigation of the Monday morning slaying of Stanley Lavon Gibson.

Police said Gibson, 43, rammed his vehicle into police cruisers after officers were called late Sunday to a report of an attempted condominium break-in.

Frank Hawkins Jr., president of the Las Vegas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, noted that Gibson was black and pointed to what he called “an unprecedented number of questionable deaths” at the hands of Las Vegas police.

“There have now been 12 deaths at the hands of the police this year alone,” Hawkins said. “Local authorities have proven either unwilling or unable to address what appear to be either rogue or dangerously incompetent officers within the police department operating with impunity.”

The U.S. Department of Justice should investigate and make public its findings, Hawkins said.

ACLU chief Dane Claussen called the shooting “deeply troubling” and said it “fits into a long pattern of shootings of persons, many others of whom also were unarmed, who were not an immediate threat to anyone.”

Las Vegas police haven’t taken sufficient steps to limit shootings and aren’t properly investigating them, Claussen said.

Gibson’s friends and family members said he had a troubled personal history, was suffering from cancer he blamed on his Army service, had recently had his Veterans Affairs disability payments reduced, and was due for sentencing on an assault charge after an argument with a Veterans Affairs doctor.

Gibson’s wife, Rondha Gibson, has told reporters that her husband ran out of anxiety medication and was prone to paranoid delusions and anxiety, with fears that people were after him.

Neighbors’ videos show officers firing shots into the vehicle after it spun its wheels while wedged between police cruisers.

Las Vegas police on Wednesday identified the four patrol officers involved in the shooting as officer Jesus Arevalo, officer Malik Grego-Smith, Sgt. Michael Hnatuick and Lt. David Dockendorf. Each is on paid leave pending the internal investigation.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Gibson and his wife had moved into the condo earlier this month and he might have been confused about where he was when he confronted police.

Gibson’s Army discharge shows he separated from the service in 1992. He blamed his cancer to exposure during Operation Desert Storm to depleted uranium from armor-piercing shells used by M-1 tanks.

Department of Veterans Affairs medical records showed Gibson underwent five surgeries for a form of adenoid cancer that left his jaw disfigured and had spread to a lung.

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The civil rights organization argues in a report released Monday that the laws amount to a coordinated, comprehensive assault on minorities’ voting rights as their numbers in the population and at the ballot box have increased. NAACP President Ben Jealous says he met with assistant Attorney General Tom Perez over the weekend and personally gave Perez a copy of the report.

The NAACP says it will also send the report to other federal agencies, secretaries of state and attorneys general in the 50 states, congressional committees and the United Nations.

The organization says discipline data it reviewed in Marion County school districts indicate the schools with the largest African-American populations suspended Black students in twice the proportions one would expect based on population.

In addition, the group also found that the Back students were often disciplined for “attitude problems” like insubordination, while white students were typically only disciplined for specific offenses such as drug possession or vandalism. Although a 2004 state law prohibits disproportionate discipline, its mandate is discretionary and does not require any specific action from schools to stem the problem.

Read more at BET.com

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The campaign, “Stand For Freedom” was formally announced at Tuesday’s press conference, where speakers Al Sharpton, Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP, U.S. Representative Charles Rangel, and other coalition members denounced states that are considering law reforms that would put in place more stringent rules for voting and registration.

The coalition is comprised of civil rights and labor organizations, including the NAACP, National Action Network, United Federation of Teachers, National Urban League, New York Civil Liberties Union, and unions representing Asian, Latino and other minority groups.

In dozens of states, new rules to voting and registration are being presented by lawmakers, mostly Republican, that would eliminate same-day voting, and require official photo identification in order to cast a ballot. Other new laws, the coalition said, could also cut early voting and Sunday voting opportunities.

Sharpton and supporters argue that such voter law reforms hearken back to the Jim Crow laws–outlawed in 1965–which discouraged African Americans from registering to vote due to poll taxes and literacy test requirements.

Sharpton said, today’s minority voters are facing a distant cousin of the Jim Crow laws. “Generations before faced Jim Crow, we face James Crow,” Sharpton said metaphorically.

“The end of early voting and other measures is a blatant attempt to undermine the Voter Rights Act,” Sharpton said.

Proponents of this movement are concerned that new state voting laws will erode national voter turn out, and create a new wave of disenfranchisement for Americans–specifically minority groups, immigrants, seniors, working women and students.

“We are in the midst of the greatest coordinated legislative attack on voting rights since the dawn of Jim Crow,” said Jealous, NAACP national president. “Voter identification laws are nothing but reincarnated poll taxes and literacy tests, and ex-felon voting bans serve the same purpose today as when they were created in the wake of the 15th Amendment guaranteeing ex-slaves the vote–suppressing voting numbers among people of color.”

Sharpton said the new sweep of voter reform has much to do with the Republican and Tea parties’ attempt to defeat President Barack Obama in the 2012 Presidential Election. Blacks, Latinos and young voters were among the strongest voting base in Obama’s 2008 presidential victory, whom Sharpton and others argue will be most impacted by the proposed voting laws.

“They are willing to take away votes in order to take down the president,” Sharpton said.

Republican lawmakers have argued that voting and registration reform is necessary in order to prevent voter fraud, which came to the forefront in 2008 when Acorn, a group organizing minority and low-income communities, was accused of a fraudulent voter registration scheme.

Rep. Rangel, who represents New York’s 15th District in Harlem, compared the changes to state election laws to the “Ku Klux Klan without hoods.”

“This is not just for blacks, this is for the country,” Rangel said.

Rangel specifically addressed the new law proposal that would require an official photo identification in order to vote. He argued that such a requirement would prevent seniors and young voters, who do not have driver’s licenses, from voting.

“If you don’t have a car, why do you need identification?” Rangel queried.

Rangel encouraged young voters to get involved in the political process. “You’re not too young to take part,” he said.

According to a report recently released by the Brennan Center for Justice, at least 38 states are considering or have considered voter identification or proof of citizenship laws including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware. The battleground states, Ohio and Pennsylvania were among those actively moving forward on voter identification legislation.

While voters in some states can request free photo identifications from state motor vehicles departments, they must still pay to obtain documents, such as birth certificates, necessary to get identification. The Stand For Freedom coalition said such measures could discourage citizens from voting at an alarming number.

Tuesday’s conference served as a precursor for the coalition’s national day of protest, United Nations Human Rights Day, to take place on Dec. 10 outside the Koch Brothers offices, where supporters will rally to stop new voter and registration laws from being passed.

Benjamin Todd Jealous appeared on the steps of New York City Hall with the Rev. Al Sharpton, U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel and community and labor leaders to announce plans for nationwide protests on Dec. 10 and across the South in the following weeks, decrying what they described as a nationwide voter suppression effort.

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The rallies are “intended to get this conversation out of the thought leader class and down to the street corners, so folks understand that their rights are being attacked,” Jealous said, adding that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People had already raised millions of dollars to support its campaign.

He said his group has been urging the Department of Justice, which is considering the legality of proposed policies in Texas and South Carolina, to block the laws.

“This is the greatest assault on voting rights, happening right now, that we have seen …,” he said.

Kansas, Tennessee and Wisconsin are among the states that passed voter identification measures this year. Civil-rights advocates have argued the laws target low-income and minority voters by requiring specific types of photo ID to cast ballots, by reducing the number of early voting days and by instituting tougher laws on collecting registrations.

They say that blacks, Hispanics, senior citizens, people with disabilities and the poor are less likely to have the required photo IDs. And they argue others could be disenfranchised, such as voters who don’t carry ID with them, students whose school IDs are deemed unacceptable and women whose drivers’ licenses do not reflect their married names or new addresses.

Supporters of the laws say that they are necessary to eliminate voter fraud, no matter how rare it is. And some argue that without ID checks at the polls, there’s no way to track how many people may be casting illegal votes.

“I’m not sure how much fraud they think is acceptable,” said Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank. “The U.S. has a long history of voter fraud, and it could make the difference in a close election.”

The NAACP announcement came on a day that voters in Mississippi approved a proposed constitutional amendment to require that voters present government-issued identification at the polls. Voters in Maine repealed a law requiring them to enroll at least two days before an election, restoring a four-decade policy of allowing registrations as late as Election Day.

Last week, Democrats in the U.S. House asked secretaries of state in all 50 states to oppose voter identification laws.

The United Federation of Teachers, the health care workers’ union 1199SEIU, National Council of La Raza and the Asian-American Legal Defense Fund were among the groups represented at Tuesday’s news conference. George Gresham, the president of 1199SEIU, said that his organization would bus 10,000 of its members from around the state and the mid-Atlantic region to participate in the Dec. 10 protests.

Jealous is in support of a city council bill that would raise the minimum wage in New York to $10 an hour.

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The New York Daily News reports:

“New York City is the nation’s greatest city and also has the greatest level of income inequality,” Jealous told the Daily News Monday. If we re going to turn things around in this nation . . . and get to a place where a rising tide lifts all boats, then we ve got to stop New Yorkers from drowning and try to get more New Yorkers heads above water.

Jealous plans to headline a Nov. 21 rally to support a City Council bill that would require companies that get city subsidies to pay their workers at least $10 an hour plus benefits better pay than the state s minimum wage.

Read More At The New York Daily News

Civil Rights activist and former NAACP chairman Julian Bond, CNN anchor Don Lemon, and comedienne Wanda Sykes were three of the panelists who spoke before members.

In the town hall styled forum, Bond said that gay rights are civil rights, and that “sexual disposition parallels race.”

“We know sexual orientation is not a choice. We know homosexuality is not a mental illness. We know you can’t pray the gay away,” he said.

Lemon and Sykes, who are both openly gay and lesbian, spoke about the difficulty in embracing their sexuality in face of societal opposition.

“You just suppress everything and become this other person,” Sykes said. “You start living that life that you think that you’re supposed to do.”

Lemon, who divulged his sexuality after the release of his autobiographical book Transparent, said that there is much work to be done in the Black community.

The forum is one of many tactics the NAACP has executed to diversify its political and social agenda. On the heels of criticisms that the organization has lost its luster over the years, it has made conscious efforts to include agendas beyond race issues, incorporating the agendas of all minority groups —something some feel is more representative of the NAACP first convened in 1909.

SOURCE

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To do it, the group is going to reach out to black churches, fraternities and sororities as well as use sophisticated databases, social media and boost training of volunteers to include things like getting a contact for each voter they register.

“The days of the 45-minute workshop are over,” said Roger Vann, chief operating officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People at the group’s annual convention on Wednesday.

Preserving voting rights is a key theme at the convention, which is being held in downtown Los Angeles through Thursday.

“We must fight against any attempt to segregate, isolate and steal the black vote,” said the Rev. William Barber, president of the NAACP’s North Carolina conference.

Barber noted that after a record 92 percent black turnout in the 2008 presidential election, in 2010 15 million blacks did not vote, including 3 million who were registered.

Panelists at a session on building black political power painted a grim picture of how low income minority voters are being disenfranchised by new laws in many states.

Such laws require a state-issued photo ID in order to vote, a current address on IDs, restrictions on restoring voter rights to ex-felons and prohibiting early and Sunday voting.

“These laws were all passed with the intent of reducing the minority vote,” said David Bositis, senior research associate of the Joint Center of Political and Economic Studies in Washington D.C.

A voter ID law in Wisconsin will disenfranchise 71 percent of African-American men in Milwaukee, Barber noted.

Judith A. Browne-Dianis, of the Advancement Project in Washington D.C., said part of any voter drive must include getting people proper identification.

“We got to education our people how to get these IDs,” she said.

Browne-Dianis noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has already upheld the constitutionality of one of these ID laws, but other challenges on different legal grounds are being mounted.

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COLUMBIA, S.C. — The NAACP’s president is urging South Carolina’s Gov. Nikki Haley to remove the Confederate flag that flies near her Statehouse office.

NAACP protests led in 2000 to the flag being moved from atop the Statehouse dome and from House and Senate chambers to a monument outside the Statehouse.

But NAACP head Benjamin Jealous said at the group’s annual convention in Los Angeles on Monday that “one of the most perplexing examples of the contradictions of this moment in history is that Nikki Haley, South Carolina’s first governor of color, continues to fly the Confederate Flag in front of her state’s capitol.”

Haley is the first South Carolina governor whose parents immigrated from India. Haley spokesman Rob Godfrey said Tuesday the governor has no plans to revisit an issue resolved long ago.

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The resolution outlines key details of the war on drugs, which the organization notes are crucial failings; the U.S. spends $40 billion annually on the war, and low-level drug offenders — mostly of color — are often locked up.

“These flawed drug policies that have been mostly enforced in African-American communities must be stopped and replaced with evidenced-based practices that address the root causes of drug use and abuse in America,” said NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous.

Instead of sending offenders to prison, the resolution calls for the creation and expansion of rehabilitation and treatment programs, methadone clinics, and other treatment protocols that have been found effective.

Once the resolution is ratified by the board of directors in October, it will encourage more than 1200 active NAACP chapters to organize campaigns to advocate for the end to the war on drugs.

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Reuters reports:

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous said a wave of newly enacted photo-ID requirements stemmed from what he saw as “the worst and most racist elements” in conservative Tea Party groups that have immersed themselves in state politics since the 2010 elections.

He compared photo ID laws to poll taxes and other past restrictions — since struck down by the courts — designed to keep blacks from voting in the segregated Deep South. And he said the latest measures were part of a racial backlash against the 2008 election of President Barack Obama.

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The White House didn’t state the purpose of the meeting, but I’ll make a point to reach out to Ben and Marc to see if they have anything to say.  Without knowing the purpose of the conversation, one might be able to guess which issue will be on the table first.

Black unemployment in America is at approximately the same level it was for all Americans toward the end of the Great Depression.  At that time, when one out of every six Americans was out of work, the government felt a sense of urgency and public pressure to do something to help alleviate the suffering.  In contrast, the current federal government has not (to my knowledge) mentioned any plan to engage in targeted policy to manage vast racial inequality that continues to plague our society.  If we’d had the same level of inactivity on racial inequality in the past, slavery never would have come to an end.

This lack of action has both a cause and a consequence.  One cause of the complacency is that the Obama Administration seems to believe that it has nothing to prove to African Americans.  Unlike Bill Clinton, a man who had to continuously reiterate his loyalty to African Americans via progressive action, President Obama wears his “Black Loyalty Card” on his skin.  I am not sure if any other president in recent history could get away with saying that he would not address racial inequality and instead expect that a “rising tide will lift all boats.”  In other words, the Obama Administration has been allowed to use a racialized version of trickle down economics, presuming that helping the entire economy would somehow help black people too.

The consequence of economic negligence of the black community has been staggering.  Black wealth at the start of the recession was a measly 1/10 that of white Americans.  Since that time, it has dropped to a shocking 1/50th, implying that nearly everything that black people have worked for over the last 30 years has disappeared into the wind.  Secondly, white unemployment has dropped during the recession (9.4% to 9.1%), while black unemployment has climbed dramatically (14.7% to 16.2%).  No matter what one thinks about Congress, The Obama Administration or anyone else, you can’t possibly argue that black people are better off now than they were three years ago – one must sadly say that a Republican president would have a tough time creating a worse economic situation.

President Obama can’t be blamed entirely for the political storm around him.  He must, however, be held accountable for how his administration has responded to the storm, for one must be careful about giving in to ignorance.  Fighting racial inequality requires courage and self-sacrifice, two attributes that are rarely present in the psyches of successful politicians.   At this point,  the black folks most likely to overlook the inactivity of the Obama Administration are likely the people who still have their jobs.   Of the remainder, there are those who’ve lost hope in the political process and have no interest in turning to the Republican party.  So, any resentment toward the Obama Administration is primarily a reflection of frustration with our broken political system itself – both lovers and haters of Obama are unified in their disappointment with the grim reality of elitist American politics.

I respect both Ben Jealous and Marc Morial immensely.  I sat on panels with them at the last two “Measuring the Movement” forums, hosted by Rev. Al Sharpton.  While Ben and I have bumped heads over the NAACP’s decision to take money from accused predatory lender Wells Fargo, I strongly suspect that his heart is in the right place.  Morial, being a seasoned political figure, has done a wonderful job of making calculated and intelligent decisions as he learns what it means for our nation to have its first black president.  Rather than positioning himself as an unconditional Obama cheerleader (or relentless critic), he has focused his energy on courageous advocacy for working class Americans.  Rev. Jesse Jackson has also done a good job of keeping a level head (although some still criticize him for the Fox News mixup back in 2008) – personally, I believe Rev. Jackson should be invited to the White House as well, along with Al Sharpton – no one should be frozen out or tempted to jockey for power; this divide-and-conquer tactic used by Washington politicians comes at a huge price for the African American community.

As Jealous and Morial stand with another black man in the nation’s most powerful office, I fully expect that all three of these men understand the gravity of the task which lies before them.  While President Obama’s astute political gamesmanship against reckless, myopic Republicans is certainly admirable, African Americans are still waiting for his administration to help them understand why he gave them a reason to show up to the polls in 2008.  He made extraordinary promises, so he received extraordinary support.   It’s nonsense to think that we have no right to ask for his time.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition.  To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.

BOND Action is a non-profit organization focused on community-based activism.

“Their a political pawn of the liberal-elite, white, racist Democratic Party and not really for the people,” Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, founder of BOND Action told TheGrio.

He hopes black Americans (he views the term “African-American” as a “dumb” title and unpatriotic) stop supporting the NAACP financially and with their manpower.

Read more at TheGrio.com

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“As CNN announced their new schedule, a glaring omission was present — no African Americans were hosts or anchors in their prime time lineup,” he said.

“The NAACP is deeply concerned with the lack of African-American journalists in prime time, both on cable and national network news shows.”

Jealous added, “We have come to expect this from the likes of Fox News, but not other networks.”

The LA Times Reports:

Shifts in CNN’s schedule included adding CNBC personality Erin Burnett. The network has declined comment on the NAACP criticism. Exclusion of African Americans is significant, Jealous said, because the prime-time slots are the most influential in daily news. Although CNN, Bloomberg News, CNBC, Fox News and MSNBC have shows scheduled every hour to discuss financial and world news, and occassionally have black commentators, not one show is headlined or anchored by an African American.

Read More AT LATimes.com

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Boykin-Town’s husband, Darryl Towns, is the state housing commissioner and former Brooklyn state assemblyman who voted to increase the cap on charter schools last year. The NAACP, where Boykin-Towns sits on the national board, recently filed a lawsuit that decreed city charter schools.

The Towns’ enrollment of their daughter at Brewster Academy in New Hampshire, poses as a revealing dissembling.

Boykin-Towns, however, defended their condemning decision stating, “I’d simply say that as a parent, the most important job you have is to provide the best opportunities possible for your children’s education and success,” Boykin-Towns said in an e-mail response.

The NY Post Reports:

“It’s beyond hypocritical; it’s crazy,” said Kathleen Kernizan, whose daughter is scheduled to attend Leadership Prep charter school in the Ocean Hill section of Brooklyn — whose proposed co-location in a building with a public school is being challenged by the NAACP.

“The NAACP is stopping my right to exercise my choice of what’s best for my daughter, and they’re fleeing the public-school system.”

Read More At NYPost.com

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At this year’s NAACP Leadership 500 Summit, young professionals from across the nation convened in Hollywood, FL to discuss the next steps in empowering a new frontline of civil rights and social justice advocates.

On Friday, the business session of our Summit began with a workshop on Digital Vision Boards led by Lindsey C. Holmes and Nicholas I. Wiggins, who trained participants on using 21^st century technology to assist with crafting personal and professional goals. Participants then entered into a lively discussion on social networking – its advantages and challenges- and ultimately how we, as young professionals can use social media to advance individual and collective agendas. In both sessions, the message was clear: Technology is important to movements, whether they are personal, professional, or collective, and we must equip ourselves with the tools to take full advantage of it.

Our conversation then moved to health with Donna Richardson who engaged participants in activities that reminded us of the necessity of being physically health conscious. Terrie Williams enhanced the conversation through a discussion of mental health and its importance.

In our afternoon roundtable discussions, participants learned, reflected and discussed issues of health, education, financial literacy, leadership, energy justice, and economic empowerment. The sessions were not simply standard workshops but truly lively discussions that asked participants to identify what the key issues are for our generation and how we begin to strategically address them.

There is a saying that, “History teaches everything including the future.” On Saturday, participants ate breakfast with Dr. Isabel Wilkerson – Pulitzer-prize winning author of The Warmth of Other Suns- and were able to reflect on our history and the journey of our families. We concluded our business session on Saturday with a town hall meeting where panelists – including Charles Ellison, Rev. Leah Daughtry, Lorraine Miller, and Hilary Shelton- discussed the next steps for young professionals politically as we approach the 2012 presidential elections.

Leadership 500 is unique because it brings together a young, diverse group of people, engages them in leadership development, and reminds us all of a commitment we must have to affirm America’s promise for all citizens.

The future is calling, and with your help, the NAACP will answer.

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“You are not a member of the NAACP and don’t understand that you are doing the business of slave masters,” Dukes explained to Ramos in an email sent June 1st. Ramos, whose daughter attends the Bronx Success Academy charter school, is now demanding for Dukes resignation. We called Dukes at her office to seek comment, and her assistant told us that she is out of the office today, adding, “There’s an article every day about something or other, and she’s not going to comment on every one of them.” But this article, with its loaded rhetoric, is special! Given Dukes’s prominent position in the organization, you’d think she’d at least tone it down a notch—”slave master” is not the preferred nomenclature; “Unpaid Labor Supervisor,” please.

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For the past year, I have had the extraordinary opportunity to carry the banner of the NAACP across this nation as an exemplar of the next generation of necessary leaders. This weekend, we gathered in Hollywood, FL for the 7^th Annual NAACP Leadership Summit. As civic, community and business representatives, we were there to evaluate and have critical discourse about our continuing role in the pursuit of civil rights and social justice. This vital group of individuals between 30 -50 years of age that assembled, were those who are positioned to  provide leadership, for such organizations as the NAACP, their places of employment, their community,  and indeed the nation.

At this year’s summit, we sought to engage in conversations that will address such issues as access to adequate healthcare, employment, education, economic development and political empowerment. At the same time, opportunities were provided for participants to interact and continue to strengthen their networks and leadership skills, as we share in the common goals of achieving equity and justice for all citizens. It is our hope that our participants depart this Leadership 500 Summit, enlightened and inspired to join the NAACP in our journey to affirm America’s promise and ultimately, assume a position of leadership.

Please visit www.L500.org to watch our streamed general sessions, panel discussions, and roundtable discussions and visit www.thebrockreport.org to find some blog pieces written by many of the people who attended our summit this weekend.

.

The future is calling and with your help, the NAACP will answer!

Roslyn M. Brock

Chairman

NAACP National Board of Directors

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Hotels, motels and restaurants in the Myrtle Beach area have discriminated against African-Americans for years by refusing to open during Black Bike Week, the NAACP charges in a pair of federal lawsuits.

The civil rights group contrasts the behavior of defendants Molly Darcy’s on the Beach, a restaurant and bar, and the American Pancake and Omelet House, with their business practices during the annual Harley Davidson Spring Bike Rally, which is attended almost exclusively by white bikers.

Black Bike Week is the only time of year when most of the tourists visiting the popular beachfront destination are nonwhite, according to the NAACP.

“For the past few years, Molly Darcy’s on the Beach has refused to serve visitors of Black Bike Week by closing during its otherwise customary business hours,” the complaint states. The same is allegedly true of the American Pancake and Omelet House. [...]

Compounding the organization’s anger is that fights and skirmishes – including an armed confrontation between Myrtle Beach police and white biker gangs – have occurred during the Harley Week event, but not during Black Bike Week, yet businesses continue to cater to white bikers and refuse to serve black ones.

Read more at Courthouse News

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Thursday the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) announced year seven of Operation Bike Week Justice in Myrtle Beach. The organization will be monitoring during the weekend of Atlantic Beach Bike Bikefest to see if black bikers are treated the same as white bikers who were just in the Grand Strand for the Harley Davidson Bike Rally.

Operation Bike Week Justice began in 2005, two years after the organization sued the city for using a different traffic pattern on Ocean Boulevard during Black Bike Week, and for allegedly policing more harshly. The lawsuit also made discrimination claims against several businesses, which allegedly closed or changed hours to avoid the black bikers.

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But a majority of the NAACP members at the May 10 meeting disagreed. Reasons varied among the members. Several said they couldn’t get past perceptions that some tea partiers are racists.

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Groups organized to maintain memories of the Confederacy without the stain of human bondage have been pushing to have their traditions integrated into the mainstream. Of particular note are the activities of the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV), which lobbies extensively to protect the rights of drivers to display Confederate flags on license plates (that they sell for a profit). According to USA Today, nine states allow drivers to display the rebel flag, with SCV being largely behind this accomplishment. The organization is now seeking similar protection in Florida, Kentucky and Texas, furthering its cause. Talk about special rights.

Now SCV is one step closer to reaching its Florida goal. On March 30, in response to a law suit filed by the loyal southern sons, a Florida court ruled that the state cannot control what residents display on vanity plates. This paves the way for SCV to promote their bill for specifically ensuring protection for the contentious flag on cars.

Is this madness – or American fairness at its finest? Of course the NAACP has spoken out against these trends. But groups like SCV argue that times have changed along with the emotions behind this symbol. American cultural historian Tim Stanley makes an interesting argument on their behalf:

The debate has become tragically bound up with questions of race. Opponents of the displaying of the Stars and Bars on government property say that it symbolizes racial discrimination. The SCV reasonably counters that the meaning of symbols can change over time. In the mid 19th century, most Protestant Americans would have shuddered at the sight of the Irish harp. It represented the mass immigration of hordes of Catholics, which prudish WASPs associated with drunkenness, idleness, gambling and prostitution. Nowadays, the harp means Guinness, and it is hoisted joyously on St Patrick’s Day – a day on which all Americans discover some hidden Irish heritage, hit the pubs and drink as if they don’t want to live.

Likewise, the Stars and Bars now represents something much more than racial hierarchy. To most people who hoist it in their front yards, it stands for honor and tradition and the Old World chivalry of Gone With the Wind. They revel in its outrageous defense of vanishing values, its uncompromising statement against the decadence of modern life and the voluminous size of federal government. The Civil War is as potent to many white Southerners as the Blitz is to a Brit. Regardless of the historical reality, it is their finest hour. To take that away from them seems rather cruel.

Of course, there is an ugly side to Confederate heritage. The refusal to forget has become obstinacy in some quarters. In others it is a socially acceptable way to express “white pride”, that strange belief that there’s something exceptional about our pinky-grey race of pot-bellied Europeans.

Stanley, writing as a British “pinky-grey pot-bellied European,” cannot understand the pain with which the Confederate flag pierces our souls. From our perspective, that flag is the continuous thread that unites the period of the Civil War to modern expressions of race hate such as the Klan. Our very recent ancestors were routinely terrorized by neighbors under that banner while struggling under the hypocritical “freedom” of Jim Crow law served from the back doors and segregated water fountains of southern communities. The Stars and Bars emboldened the perpetrators of beatings and lynchings with vicious pride. This emblem is a potent sign in the south of today that if you are black, you are not welcome where it is flown.

So, the answer is no. No group has the right to re-paint American history in layers of fantasy that only serve to bolster a backwards-looking community’s fragile relationship with a complicated past. If people want to claim “free speech” in order to willfully white-wash a period of institutionalized rape, murder, slavery, psychological oppression, economic destruction (and more!) right up until the 1960s – they DO NOT have the right to use government-issued license plates as the canvas for this bizarre re-imagining. The history SCV wants to diminish are the deepest wounds rendered as eternal evidence of man’s inhumanity to man. And they want us to just forget it?

It’s highly alarming that so many Americans are electing mass denial as the means of coping with social difficulties of complex origins. In case people haven’t noticed, we seem to have a problem dealing with something called REALITY in this country when race and politics mix. This new movement is a rebirth of the birthers pain, the outcries of a disturbed citizenry wanting to remain infantile when it comes to letting go of dim recollections of an all-powerful past. The Sons of Confederate Veterans and groups like them are using any means necessary to avoid burning racial memories, while denying the conflicts they continue to spawn.

SCV needs to keep their fantasy role-playing at home, where they can engage in all the denial they want (and perhaps a little BDSM, slavery-inspired whipping), and out of the public sphere. This means keeping the confederate flag off license plates. It is a shame that this is already a protected “right” in nine states. I avoid the south for reasons just like this.

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Politic365 reports:

These bills “would require law enforcement officials in Florida to engage in racial profiling – an insidious practice all too familiar to racial and ethnic minorities in America today,” the NAACP stated in its letter before adding, “[it] is not only immoral, un-American and unconstitutional, but it is also counterproductive law enforcement as well. The government should be preventing police from investigating and detaining people based on color and accent, not mandating it.”

By joining with other organizations, including among others, the National Council of La Raza, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the League of United Latin American Citizens, the NAACP keeps alive the spirit of past civil rights leaders.

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OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma Republican Sally Kern apologized Thursday for statements she made against women and Black people during a debate on affirmative action.

NEWSOK reports:

“I want to humbly apologize for my statements last night about African-Americans and women,” Kern, R-Oklahoma City, said in a statement. “I believe that our government should not provide preference based on race or gender. I misspoke while trying to convey this point last night during debate.”

DETROIT — Kid Rock is known as a champion for Detroit — proudly displaying the Motor City in music videos, jumping in when an area summer festival fell on hard times and using money from his “Made in Detroit” clothing line to help start a college fund for local music students.

His work as a regional booster behind the scenes and in front of the camera has garnered him many accolades, including a Spirit of Detroit award at his 40th birthday bash in January. So recognition from the local branch of the NAACP should come as no surprise — except that Kid Rock, a longtime aficionado of Southern rock, also is known for using the Confederate flag in his on-stage act.

The Rev. Wendell Anthony, branch president for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, stands by the group’s decision to give Kid Rock its Great Expectations Award during the civil rights organization’s annual Fight for Freedom Fund dinner, though to many, the Confederate flag remains a symbol of racism and oppression of blacks in the South. The NAACP in South Carolina has fought against a public display of the flag on statehouse grounds.

For Kid Rock, born Robert Ritchie and raised in a small rural community northeast of Detroit, it’s all part of his hard-partying, bad-boy stage persona. He declined to talk about it ahead of Sunday’s dinner, telling The Associated Press in a March interview that he would save his comments for the event, which typically attracts 10,000 people and is the Detroit NAACP chapter’s largest fundraiser.

“It’s a better audience and kind of a place to say how I feel about the whole thing, maybe to explain some things to some people,” Kid Rock said. “I think that will be a more appropriate place to speak my truth.”

One local gadfly, political consultant Adolph Mongo, said he will protest the dinner. He expects others to join him, though says there is no concerted effort.

“I’m going to be there voicing my displeasure,” Mongo said. “There is no organized effort. If you have to organize to get mad at the Confederate flag, then you have a problem.”

Anthony defended the group’s decision to give Kid Rock the award and said the Grammy-nominated musician isn’t a racist

“The NAACP in Detroit does not support no Confederate anything,” Anthony said, offering no apologies for Kid Rock and his performances that include the Confederate flag. “We don’t support the Confederacy, the Confederate flag, racism or any of those things. Neither do any of the folks we associate ourselves with.”

It may seem strange on the surface that one of the largest chapters of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization is bestowing an award on a man who for decades extolled the virtues of the party lifestyle and described himself in song as the “Pimp of the Nation.”

But Kid Rock has long been a supporter of his hometown and a multitude of local philanthropic pursuits.

He owns the “Made in Detroit” apparel line, which he bought in the early 1990s, and he recently established the Made in Detroit Endowed Scholarship through Wayne State University in Detroit to help offset tuition costs of students from throughout southeastern Michigan who are selected for their academic achievements and limited financial resources.

Wayne State spokeswoman Francine Wunder said she and Kid Rock talked about how “Wayne State students are literally and figuratively made in Detroit — becoming who they are in Detroit.”

Kid Rock and his family-run foundation also have supported the Detroit-based Karmanos Cancer Institute’s research and patient care. His donations have included cash gifts, guitars and even an invitation to dinner — to the highest bidder, said Nick Karmanos, vice president of development.

“I think one of the main reasons for his support is we’re in Detroit … where we’re at and the community we serve,” Karmanos said.

“He certainly doesn’t fit our typical profile, but he is as generous as many donors.”

Just last week, Kid Rock surprised students at Romeo High School, his alma mater, with a visit, during he which he dropped off a donation to the school’s music program. And in 2009, Kid Rock kicked in to help the cash-strapped Arts, Beats & Eats festival in suburban Detroit, having “Made in Detroit” sponsor a stage at the annual Pontiac event.

During a 40th birthday party celebration/concert in January at the city’s NFL stadium, no less a voice of Detroit than City Council President Charles Pugh presented Kid Rock with the Spirit of Detroit award. Pugh said nobody “better represents” the city’s heritage of being the nation’s “motor capital,” birthplace of Motown Records and reputation as a rock ‘n’ roll haven.

“Kid Rock wears Detroit from head-to-toe. He has been a Detroit booster,” Anthony said, noting that such efforts contributed to the performer being given the award. “Detroit needs boosters, people who can proclaim our fame in spite of these most difficult times.”

And It has been a difficult past few years for the Detroit NAACP chapter.

The organization owes back taxes on its properties, though Anthony said the organization has worked out a plan with the city and Wayne County.

Still, the dinner remains a big draw.

“Detroit, in its very, very serious economic times, can still draw more people at an event like this one,” Anthony said. “It’s a testimony to the people of Detroit.”

This year’s keynote will be given by civil rights pioneer John Lewis. Past keynote speakers include President Bill Clinton, then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., Obama’s former pastor.

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WORCESTER, Mass. — The NAACP’s newly revived Worcester chapter elected a 28-year-old openly gay black man as its president this month. In New Jersey, a branch of the organization outside Atlantic City chose a Honduran immigrant to lead it last year. And in Mississippi, the Jackson State University chapter recently turned to a 30-something white man.

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Founded more than a century ago to promote black equality, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is seeing remarkable diversity in its leadership ranks — the result of an aggressive effort over the past four or five years to boost NAACP membership and broaden the civil rights organization’s agenda to confront prejudice in its many forms.

“This is the new NAACP,” said Clark University political science professor Ravi Perry, the new chapter president in Worcester. “This is a human rights organization, and we have an obligation to fight discrimination at all levels.”

NAACP branches have been recruiting gays, immigrants and young people who grew up in a world far removed from the landmark 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education ruling that outlawed school segregation. Now, leadership positions that were once held only by blacks are being filled by members of other racial or ethnic groups.

The group does not keep track of numbers, but in recent years NAACP chapters in New Jersey, Connecticut and Georgia have elected Hispanics as president. A white man was picked to lead the chapter in Aiken, S.C. And two years ago, NAACP members in Hamtramck, Mich., a Detroit suburb, selected a Bangladeshi American to revive their long-dormant chapter.

“Some people mentioned that it wouldn’t be possible for me to be president,” said Victor Diaz, 32, a Dominican American who ran against an incumbent and was elected president of the Waterbury, Conn., branch in November. “But when I ran, I won 3 to 1.”

The push for diversity troubles some members of the NAACP’s old guard, who worry that problems in the black community may get short shrift. But some social scientists say the new diversity is merely a return to the group’s roots as a biracial organization.

In 1964, the NAACP’s membership peaked at 625,000 paid members. By the middle of the past decade, that had dropped to just under 300,000. Now it has reversed course and climbed to more than 525,000, in large part because of an increase in young members, group officials say. The NAACP said it does not keep track of the organization’s racial and ethnic breakdown.

Stefanie Brown, the NAACP’s 30-year-old national field director, said the under-25 crowd is the organization’s fastest-growing age group. In fact, the NAACP has slots on its 60-plus member board of directors reserved for people under 25. In addition, Brown said, young professionals under 40 are taking leadership roles — something that hadn’t happened until recently.

Some in the group say the diversity push weakens the NAACP’s identity. Jamarhl Crawford, editor of the Blackstonian, a Boston website that covers the city’s black population, said he fears it could “water down” the focus on problems in the black community.

“I think there’s going to be some loss there in terms of actual activism, actual protest” on behalf of blacks, said Crawford, a 40-year-old member of the NAACP’s Boston branch.

The diversity push was started a few years ago under then-NAACP chairman Julian Bond. Later, Benjamin Todd Jealous, who in 2008 became the group’s youngest leader at age 35, ramped up the effort and also urged the organization to take up gay rights.

“At our core, we want to end discrimination and have equality for all people,” Brown said.

In a reflection of how it has broadened its agenda, the NAACP came out against California’s Proposition 8, the ballot measure banning gay marriage. Last year, it spoke out against Arizona’s anti-immigration law. It also strongly supported the federal DREAM Act, a proposal to give illegal immigrant students a pathway to citizenship through college or military service.

Perry, the openly gay chapter president, said: “I’m just one example of younger individuals who find a home in the NAACP for issues that they might represent.”

Patricia Sullivan, a history professor at the University of South Carolina and author of “Lift Every Voice: The NAACP and the Making of the Civil Rights Movement,” called the new push for diversity thrilling and said: “It’s really reflecting what the NAACP has represented historically and what its vision has been.”

Founded in 1909 partly in response to race riots in Springfield, Ill., NAACP begin as a coalition of black and Jewish activists with whites serving in leadership position in many chapters, and it was only later that it became a predominantly black organization. Sullivan also noted that the NAACP spoke out against the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Tatcho Mindiola, director of the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Houston, said that while some Hispanics were NAACP members during the civil right years, their election to leadership roles is a new phenomenon. Mindiola said the NAACP has won over some Hispanics because of recent positions it has taken on issues important to Latinos.

“The group has shown it is fighting for civil rights for all minorities,” said David Alcantara, 52, president of the Pleasantville-Mainland chapter in New Jersey. “And it’s time that all minorities support the NAACP.”

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Halle Berry won the outstanding actress prize “Frankie & Alice,” and also shared a heartfelt acceptance speech about achieving her childhood dream.

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“If it were not for the NAACP,” Berry said during her acceptance speech, “a little girl … dared to dream what was impossible, what people said a little black girl could not do” and become an actress.

Read full list of winners and more at BaltimoreSun.com

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AllHipHop News reports:

“On one side these are young black men that are great business men, but on the other end it is like the tobacco business,” said Rev. Lucious Smith, pastor of Pasadena Friendship Baptist Church. “In the end you get cancer.”

Coates, who heads up the Enough is Enough Campaign for Corporate Responsibility in Entertainment, said the battle with the NAACP is not about Hip-Hop music.

Rev. Coates said he is not against Hip-Hop, but he said the NAACP could do a better job picking out artists who have a more positive message than the 2011 nominees.

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The Miami Herald reports:

Meanwhile, the ACLU presented a letter Tuesday to the city’s Civilian Investigative Panel, listing dates and names of the men killed by police between July 2010 and February 2011 and one killed by a Miami-Dade police officer. They said the number of shootings is disproportionate when compared to larger cities such as New York City, in which the population is 20 times larger than in Miami. New York City had just eight police-involved shootings in 2010.

“The people in our community deserve to know that every unit of government that has a role with regard to these issues is fulfilling its responsibility to address these urgent matters,” said the letter signed by ACLU Executive Director Howard Simon, Curry, ACLU Attorney John DeLeon and past NAACP President Brad Brown. The letter goes on to say, “There is now a crisis in the Miami Police Department and it is resulting in the death of black men.”

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Gov. Paul LePage declined invitations to attend a dinner in Portland on Sunday night and a breakfast in Orono on Monday because of prior commitments.

The NAACP’s state director said the group felt it was being neglected by the new governor, a Republican elected in November with tea party support.

When asked by a reporter Friday to respond, LePage said: “Tell them to kiss my butt.”

LePage made news last fall on the campaign trail when he told a group of fishermen that if he were elected, “you’re going to be seeing a lot of me on the front page, saying ‘Governor LePage tells Obama to go to hell.’”

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The NAACP Image Awards honor accomplishments of people of color in the fields of television, music, literature and film, as well as individuals who promote social justice through creative endeavors. Kudos will be handed out Friday, March 4, at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills and will be broadcast live on Fox.

The Nominees Are:

TELEVISION

Comedy Series
“30 Rock” (NBC)
“Are We There Yet?” (TBS)
“Glee” (FOX)
“Modern Family” (ABC)
“Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” (TBS)

Actor in a Comedy Series
David Mann – “Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns” (TBS)
Dulé Hill – “Psych” (USA)
LaVan Davis – “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” (TBS)
Phil Morris – “Love That Girl!” (TV One)
Terry Crews – “Are We There Yet?” (TBS)

Actress in a Comedy Series
Cassi Davis – “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” (TBS)
Essence Atkins – “Are We There Yet?” (TBS)
Salli Richardson-Whitfield – “Eureka” (Syfy)
Tatyana Ali – “Love That Girl!” (TV One)
Vanessa Williams – “Desperate Housewives” (ABC)

Television Movie, Miniseries or Dramatic Special
“America: The Story of Us (Part 4)” (History)
“Filling the Gap” (PBS)
“Luther” (BBC America)
“Sins of the Mother” (Lifetime Movie Network)
“The Wronged Man” (Lifetime Movie Network)

Actor in a Television Movie, Miniseries or Dramatic Special
Benito Martinez – “Lies in Plain Sight” (Lifetime Movie Network)
Idris Elba – “Luther” (BBC America)
Jon Seda – “The Pacific” (HBO)
Mahershalalhashbaz Ali – “The Wronged Man” (Lifetime Movie Network)
Michael Jai White – “One Angry Juror” (Lifetime Movie Network)

Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
Jill Scott – “Sins of the Mother” (Lifetime Movie Network)
Lucy Liu – “Marry Me” (Lifetime Movie Network)
Rosie Perez – “Lies in Plain Sight” (Lifetime Movie Network)
Tamera Mowry – “Double Wedding” (Lifetime Movie Network)
Tia Mowry – “Double Wedding” (Lifetime Movie Network)

RECORDING

New Artist
B.o.B (Rebel Rock/Grand Hustle/Atlantic)
Bruno Mars (Elektra Records)
Jason Derulo (Warner Bros. Records)
Nicki Minaj (Young Money/Cash Money/Universal Motown)
Willow (Roc Nation/Columbia Records)

Male Artist
Cee Lo Green (Elektra Records)
Jay-Z (Roc Nation/Def Jam)
Kanye West (Island Def Jam Music Group)
Ne-Yo (Island Def Jam Music Group)
Usher (Laface/Jive Records)

Female Artist
Chrisette Michele (Island Def Jam Music Group)
Corinne Bailey Rae (Capitol Records)
Mary J. Blige (Geffen Records/Matriarch)
Rihanna (Island Def Jam Music Group)
Sade (Epic Records)

Song
“Bittersweet” – Fantasia (J Records)
“Fistful of Tears” – Maxwell (Columbia Records)
“Forget You” – Cee-Lo Green (Elektra Records)
“Soldier of Love” – Sade (Epic Records)
“Un-thinkable (I’m Ready)” – Alicia Keys (J Records)

Album
“My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” – Kanye West (Island Def Jam Music Group)
“Now and Then” – Smokey Robinson (Saguaro Road/Cracker Barrel/Robso Records)
“Raymond vs. Raymond” – Usher (Laface/Jive Records)
“Soldier of Love” – Sade (Epic Records)
“Wake Up!” – John Legend and The Roots (Columbia Records)

LITERATURE

Literary Work -Fiction
“A Taste of Honey” – Jabari Asim (Broadway Books)
“Getting to Happy” – Terry McMillan (Penguin Group)
“Glorious” – Bernice L. McFadden (Akashic Books)
“Till You Hear From Me” – Pearl Cleage (Ballantine Books/One World)
“Wench” – Dolen Perkins-Valdez (Amistad)

Literary Work -Non-Fiction
“Brainwashed: Challenging the Myth of Black Inferiority” – Tom Burrell (SmileyBooks)
“Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts of Women in SNCC” – Editors: Faith S. Holsaert, Judy Richardson, Martha Prescod Norman Noonan, Betty Garman Robinson, Jean Smith Young, Dorothy M. Zellner (University of Illinois Press)
“Surviving and Thriving 365 Days in Black Economic History” – Dr. Julianne Malveaux (Last Word Productions, Inc.)
“The History of White People” – Nell Irvin Painter (W.W. Norton & Company)
“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” – Michelle Alexander (The New Press)

MOTION PICTURE

Motion Picture
“For Colored Girls” (Lionsgate/34th Street Films)
“Just Wright” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
“The Book of Eli” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
“The Kids Are All Right” (Focus Features)
“Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too?” (Lionsgate)

Actor in a Motion Picture
Anthony Mackie – “Night Catches Us” (Magnolia Pictures)
Common – “Just Wright” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Denzel Washington – “The Book of Eli” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Jaden Smith – “The Karate Kid” (Columbia Pictures)
Morgan Freeman – “Red” (Summit Entertainment)

Actress in a Motion Picture
Halle Berry – “Frankie & Alice” (Freestyle Releasing)
Janet Jackson – “Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too?” (Lionsgate)
Kerry Washington – “Night Catches Us” (Magnolia Pictures)
Queen Latifah – “Just Wright” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Zo’ Saldana – “The Losers” (Warner Bros. Pictures)

DOCUMENTARY

Documentary (Theatrical or Television)
“For Love of Liberty: The Story of America’s Black Patriots” (PBS)
“Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel” (Metaphor Films)
“If God is Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise” (HBO)
“Waiting for “Superman” (Paramount Vantage)
“William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe” (POV)

WRITING

Writing in a Comedy Series
Aaron McGruder – “The Boondocks” -The Fund-Raiser (Cartoon Network)
Daniel Chun – “The Office” -Nepotism (NBC)
Kenny Smith – “Pair of Kings” -Where the Wild Kings Are (Disney XD)
Myra J. – “Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns” -Meet the Racist (TBS)
Vali Chandrasekaran – “30 Rock” -Khonani (NBC)

DIRECTING

Directing in a Comedy Series
Joe Morton – “Eureka” -Stoned (Syfy)
Justin Lin – “Community” -Modern Warfare (NBC)
Ken Whittingham – “30 Rock” -Anna Howard Shaw Day (NBC)
Kevin Rodney Sullivan – “Modern Family” -Game Changer (ABC)
Michael Schultz – “Chuck” -Chuck vs. “The Couch Lock” (NBC)

Read more at Variety.com

Reports are coming out of Georgia that prison guards have retaliated with violence in response to the Georgia Prison strike that took place last month. According to Georgia State NAACP President Edward Dubose, inmates have been beaten with hammers and other foreign objects allegedly in retaliation for their participation in the strike. President Dubose says that one inmate has been beaten beyond recognition and another has suffered significant brain damage.

“They said they [officers] were hitting inmates with hammers,” Williams told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “They [guards] said an inmate was trying to escape.”

The Department of Corrections has remained stoic and silent on the matter, even to the point of denying that a prison strike ever took place. But advocates for inmate human rights have argued all along that the conditions in Georgia prisons are simply unacceptable.

“Family members are frantic and mothers are crying and anguished after learning their loved ones have been badly injured. We cannot allow those cries to go unanswered,” said President Dubose. “Since the start of the December 9 peaceful work stoppage and appeal for reform and respect for human rights, some inmates have been targeted and others have simply disappeared. We are urging the Department of Corrections and Governor-Elect Nathan Deal to act now to halt these unjust practices and treat these men like human beings.”

In the course of the strike, the inmates demanded access to education, better healthcare, fair parole decisions, the right to a fair wage for their work (which is currently unpaid), job training programs and an escape from cruel and unusual punishment. Although inmates are not paid for their labor, many of them are charged for routine healthcare and phone calls to their families. Some have argued that it is inconsistent for someone who is unpaid for their work to be expected to pay for prison services. In a conversation I had with President Dubose, he mentioned that there are reports of inmates even being forced to shine shoes for guards and give them haircuts, which he connects to a form of slavery.

Read entire article at BlackVoices.com

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Judson Phillips, head of Tea Party Nation, recently released his picks for 2010′s “top five liberal hate groups.” Among them is the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a selection that is unlikely to smooth the rocky relationship that has developed between the two organizations over the past year.

“To the NAACP, anyone to the right of Karl Marx is a racist,” Phillips writes in a post on his website.

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Nashville, Tenn. — Nashville’s NAACP wants to have a sit down meeting with the mayor and police chief about what they call a “chronic problem” with recruiting and promoting black officers.

“Whatever it is they are doing is not working,” said Walter Searcy of the Nashville NAACP.

Nashville NAACP legal chairman Walter Searcy said while the Metro Police Department has made strides in improving diversity on the force, they haven’t done enough.

He points to the most recent data showing that out of the 1,338 sworn officers, 183 are black.

“Less than 13 percent of those are African-American when the adult population of Metro Nashville is north of 25 percent,” said Searcy.

The civil rights group plans to meet with Mayor Karl Dean and Police Chief Steve Anderson to talk about what they consider a problem with recruiting and promoting black officers.

Read entire article at Officer.com

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The request to the U.S. Department of Education made by the Texas NAACP and Texas League of United Latin American Citizens on Monday contended that the curriculum changes passed in May “were made with the intention to discriminate” and would have a “stigmatizing impact” on African-American and Latino students.

“The State of Texas is failing to provide many of its minority students with equal educational opportunities,” documents sent to the federal department said.

The request, signed by Gary Bledsoe, president of the state NAACP, and Joey D. Cardenas Jr., state director of Texas LULAC, asked that implementation of the curriculum changes and new standardized tests be stopped for being racially or ethnically offensive or historically inaccurate.

Besides the curriculum complaint, they accused the state, the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Board of Education of “miseducation” of minority students, disparate discipline for minority students, using accountability standards to impose sanctions on schools with high numbers of minority students and rules leading to underrepresentation of minorities in gifted and talented school programs.

Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Suzanne Marchman said the complaint was being reviewed but had no immediate comment Monday. Gail Lowe, chair of the education board, said she was aware of the filing “but I don’t know the specific nature of any allegations or problems they allege.”

Capping a contentious meeting in May and after months of discussions, the Republican-dominated Texas State Board of Education, voting along party lines, adopted a social studies and history curriculum that amended or watered down the teaching of the civil rights movement, religious freedoms, America’s relationship with the United Nations and hundreds of other items. Supporters said the revisions were intended to correct decisions by a previous board a decade earlier.

“This is like in your face, like showing the ultimate in disrespect,” Bledsoe said. “To suggest the positive aspects of slavery or to exalt Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy is just an abomination. I mean no disrespect to people who may have had ancestors who were part of that, but it is what it is.”

The ideological decisions by the school board contribute to what 4.8 million Texas students learn about political events and figures over the next decade. The request by the civil rights groups argued those decisions may have influence beyond the state boundaries because Texas, as one of the nation’s largest textbook purchasers, influences publishers whose textbooks are sold elsewhere.

Texas Curriculum Changes Prompt Civil Rights Groups To Seek Review Of Public Schools In Lone Star State

MICHAEL GRACZYK | 12/20/10 07:22 PM | AP
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HOUSTON — Two civil rights organizations are seeking a federal review of public school education in Texas, accusing state school administrators of violating federal civil rights laws after curriculum changes approved earlier this year by the Texas Board of Education.

The request to the U.S. Department of Education made by the Texas NAACP and Texas League of United Latin American Citizens on Monday contended that the curriculum changes passed in May “were made with the intention to discriminate” and would have a “stigmatizing impact” on African-American and Latino students.

“The State of Texas is failing to provide many of its minority students with equal educational opportunities,” documents sent to the federal department said.

The request, signed by Gary Bledsoe, president of the state NAACP, and Joey D. Cardenas Jr., state director of Texas LULAC, asked that implementation of the curriculum changes and new standardized tests be stopped for being racially or ethnically offensive or historically inaccurate.

Besides the curriculum complaint, they accused the state, the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Board of Education of “miseducation” of minority students, disparate discipline for minority students, using accountability standards to impose sanctions on schools with high numbers of minority students and rules leading to underrepresentation of minorities in gifted and talented school programs.

Texas Education Agency spokeswoman Suzanne Marchman said the complaint was being reviewed but had no immediate comment Monday. Gail Lowe, chair of the education board, said she was aware of the filing “but I don’t know the specific nature of any allegations or problems they allege.”

Capping a contentious meeting in May and after months of discussions, the Republican-dominated Texas State Board of Education, voting along party lines, adopted a social studies and history curriculum that amended or watered down the teaching of the civil rights movement, religious freedoms, America’s relationship with the United Nations and hundreds of other items. Supporters said the revisions were intended to correct decisions by a previous board a decade earlier.

“This is like in your face, like showing the ultimate in disrespect,” Bledsoe said. “To suggest the positive aspects of slavery or to exalt Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy is just an abomination. I mean no disrespect to people who may have had ancestors who were part of that, but it is what it is.”

The ideological decisions by the school board contribute to what 4.8 million Texas students learn about political events and figures over the next decade. The request by the civil rights groups argued those decisions may have influence beyond the state boundaries because Texas, as one of the nation’s largest textbook purchasers, influences publishers whose textbooks are sold elsewhere.
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“It is our contention that the (school board) curriculum changes were made with the intention to discriminate,” Bledsoe and Cardenas said in their filing to the federal department’s Office for Civil Rights in Washington, and the board’s action “has violated or will violate” the Civil Rights Act and the Constitution.

“It’s not a lawsuit but it is kind of a potential legal proceeding,” Bledsoe said of the request in an interview. “We’ve asked them to do a proactive review . to do a more in-depth review in reference to the concerns we’ve raised, and in the course of that review we’re asking that if we’re vindicated that some of the things we get would be stopping them from implementing these standards.”

Their request for a federal review also pointed to “high stakes” state assessment tests “that do not adequately test for all relevant and important educational information,” contending the standardized tests given to students “disproportionately fail minority students and ultimately are important factors in causing large numbers of minority students to drop out of Texas public schools.”

In addition, they contended disciplinary actions against minority students compared to white students “are grossly disproportionate and unjustified.”

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Derrick Johnson, NAACP state president, said he’s watched Teasley grow as a leader and described him as committed.

“And this is a great opportunity for people to see that our organization is not about one race. Many people forget that white people helped organize the NAACP (in 1909),” Johnson told The Clarion-Ledger. “But I think Michael’s acceptance within the organization shows we practice what we preach — that no person should be discriminated against because of race.”

Teasley, a divorced father who is a political science major at JSU, said two defining moments led him to this point.

When he was 8, he remembers his father stopping at Teasley’s grandparents’ house. They invited them in for supper, but his father declined.

“And I knew why,” Teasley said. “I had a black friend named Leonard in the car with me. My grandparents were very much into segregation and didn’t allow black people into their home. We didn’t stay and eat because they would’ve never accepted Leonard. That sparked something inside of me.”

Soon after entering Jackson State in 2007, he was invited to an NAACP campus meeting. Teasley joined and agreed to participate in voter registration that week at JSU’s home football game as the presidential election between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama approached.

Teasley said he helped an elderly man selling T-shirts to register to vote. The man couldn’t read or write.

“The day President Obama won, the man called me. He said, ‘Voting is something I’ve always wanted to do.’ He was ecstatic that he had helped put Obama in office,” Teasley said. “That is when I decided I was going to be fully committed to the NAACP and not worry about stigmas or what anybody was saying, including my family.”

Teasley served as 2nd vice president in 2008-09 and 2009-10 before being elected by the 60-plus- member chapter last spring as president for the 2010-11 term.

As chapter president, Teasley said has plans to address issues such as delayed student refund checks and the quality of food in the campus cafeteria. He also wants to increase the chapter’s membership.

On a larger scale, Teasley is forming a movement to change the state flag, which incorporates the Confederate battle flag.

“It’s offensive to a lot of people,” he said. “It has to go.”

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South Carolina — The NAACP will be protesting the 150th anniversary secession ball in Charleston, South Carolina. State reports:

NAACP members and supporters plan to hold a peaceful march in downtown Charleston the day of the ball, on Dec. 20, followed by a meeting and question-and-answer session focusing on slavery. Participants will watch segments of “Birth of a Nation,” a 1915 silent film that portrayed Ku Klux Klan members as heroes.

Nearby at Charleston’s Gaillard Municipal Auditorium, ball attendees, who will pay $100 a ticket, will don formal, period dress, eat and dance the Virginia Reel as a band plays “Dixie.” The evening’s highlight will be a play reenacting the signing of South Carolina’s Ordinance of Secession 150 years ago, which severed the state’s ties with the Union and paved the way for the Civil War.

“This is nothing more than a celebration of slavery,” Randolph said of the event.

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Greenwood — USA Today is reporting on an incident called a suicide by authorities, that the NAACP thinks may actually be a lynching.

The county sheriff says that a 26-year-old black man, Frederick Jermaine Carter,  found hanged from an oak tree in Greenwood, Miss., apparently committed suicide, but the president of the local NAACP challenges that explanation and says the group will monitor developments in the case.

State Rep. Willie Perkins, a Democrat from Greenwood and president of the Leflore County branch of the NAACP, says that group also “will keep a high scrutiny and watch on any investigative report regarding what was the cause of death.”

“There are a lot of concerns there, No. 1 that this individual could not have (hanged) himself without the assistance of someone, if it’s being declared a suicide,” he says. “Why would someone from Sunflower County come to North Greenwood, the predominantly white housing area of Greenwood? Why would someone that far away come and hang themselves in North Greenwood by a river? That does not pass the smell test to me.”

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The result of this study contravenes many of the Tea Parties’ self-invented myths, particularly their supposedly sole concentration on budget deficits, taxes and the power of the federal government, Instead, this report found Tea Party ranks to be permeated with concerns about race and national identity and other so-called social issues.

Ben Jealous, the President of the NAACP defended the report on a call with reporters:

We have no problem with the Tea Party expressing its views in the great debates in our great democracy. We do, however, have a problem when prominent Tea Party members who have direct ties to organizations like the Council of Conservative Citizens, are allowed to use Tea Party events to recruit people for those white supremacist groups. … And most importantly, we have a problem when the majority of the Tea Parties stand silent and doesn’t loudly condemn that sort of behavior.

The report also has a section on troubling Tea Partiers, including Clay Douglas, a Tea Party member from Arizona who is an Anti-New World Order conspiracy theorist. who promotes militias and antisemitism, Roan Garcia-Quintana a Tea Party member from South Carolina who is also a member of a white supremacist group and Karen Pack, a Texas Tea Party member who is linked with the Klu Klux Klan.

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