We are definitely a better nation because of the tireless work of civil rights leader and activist and former NAACP leader for 10 years, Julian Bond. Bond passed away today. He was 75 years old.
Mr. Bond died in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., after a brief illness, the center said in a statement Sunday morning.
He was one of the original leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, while he was a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta.
He moved from the militancy of the student group to the top leadership of the establishmentarian N.A.A.C.P. Along the way, he was a writer, poet, television commentator, lecturer, college teacher, and persistent opponent of the stubborn remnants of white supremacy.
He also served for 20 years in the Georgia Legislature, mostly in conspicuous isolation from white colleagues who saw him as an interloper and a rabble-rouser.
Mr. Bond’s wit, cool personality and youthful face became familiar to millions of television viewers during the 1960s and 1970s. He attracted adjectives — dashing, handsome, urbane — the way some people attract money.
On the strength of his personality and quick intellect, he moved to the center of the civil rights action in Atlanta, the unofficial capital of the movement, at the height of the struggle for racial equality in the early 1960s.
Moving beyond demonstrations, he became a founder, with Morris Dees, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a legal advocacy organization in Montgomery, Ala. Mr. Bond was its president from 1971 to 1979 and remained on its board for the rest of his life.
The FBI is looking for a balding white man in his 40s who may be responsible for Tuesday’s bombing of an NAACP office building in Colorado Springs. The bombing happened on Tuesday before 11AM. According to FBI officials, a device was detonated against the wall of the building at 603 S. El Paso St.
A gas can had been placed next to the device but was not ignited by the explosion, officials said in a news release.
The explosion charred the exterior wall of the building, but no one was injured and no other damage was reported.
The FBI said it is looking for a person of interest, described as a balding white man in his 40s who may be driving a dirty, 2000 or older model white pickup truck with paneling, an open tailgate and a missing or covered license plate.
“Some neighbors came out and said they saw a Caucasian gentleman get into a white truck,” said Gene Southerland, who owns Mr. G’s Hair Design Studios, which shares the building with the NAACP office.
“It was such a beautiful day and everything, sunny. And in broad daylight, you hear this explosion. It’s frightening,” he said.
Southerland, a customer and a beautician were inside the business at the time of the explosion, which knocked down a few plastic bottles on a shelf in the northeast corner of the building, he said.
“I had a corrections officer in my chair, and he said it sounded like a shotgun blast,” Southerland said.
NAACP interim President and CEO Lorraine Miller has accepted the resignation of the Los Angeles chapter president after questions surfaced as to why his branch honored beleaguered L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver banned Sterling for life Tuesday after revelations surfaced regarding Sterling making numerous statements denigrating black Americans.
In a letter of resignation, L.A. chapter President Leon Jenkins wrote, “Please be advised that the legacy, history and reputation of the NAACP is more important to me than the presidency. In order to separate the Los Angeles NAACP and the NAACP from the negative exposure I have caused the NAACP, I respectfully resign my position as president of the Los Angeles NAACP.”
Jenkins has come under fire from the public in recent days after it was made public that the chapter honored Sterling with a lifetime achievement award in 2009 and planned to do so again this month. Published reports indicated that Sterling had donated $45,000 to the chapter since 2007.
Earlier in the week, Jenkins told a press conference that the donations came to “an insignificant amount” and the chapter planned to return the money.
The NAACP said in its statement Thursday that its national office in Baltimore is developing guidelines to assist branches in their award selection process.
The fight in North Carolina wages on into its 4th week. Ever since the people of this state elected a Republican Governor, a Republican House and a Republican Senate, the wheels have begun to fall off in the name of, “balancing budgets”. Gov. Pat McCrory and his Right Wing cronies have had backroom and midnight legislation passed without even a vote in some of his key moves. “If you meet with lobbyists secretly but refuse to meet with us publicly, you are violating the constitution,” said Rev. William Barber, North Carolina President of the NAACP.
McCrory’s GOP surrogates have made certain to pass other legislation including dismantling the Head Start program, making the Voter I.D. national argument a law, overturning Obamacare, decreasing Unemployment benefits from a maximum of $500 a week to $350 weekly and decreasing the length of Unemployment from 26-weeks to 13-weeks.
Rev. Barber stated in an interview, “They have cut 30,000 children, Black and white, from the preschool rolls,”. He continued, “They are trying to restart the death penalty. And we have the highest number of people on death row who have been exonerated. They have ended Sunday voting and have rolled back early voting. When we looked at all this, we decided that we had to go to another level.” This is a systematic attack by McCrory and the Republican party of North Carolina but what they didn’t count on was the backlash that has ensued.
Thanks to Rev. Barber, national attention is being brought to the ‘unrest’ in Raleigh in which Blacks and Whites, young and old, clergy, students, professionals, blue collar and white collar workers have stood together at the Legislation Building in what has been deemed, “Moral Mondays”. As they sing Spirituals and chants during the protest, the police have handcuffed and ushered them off to prison. They’ve also stood and prayed as they get ready for the next wave of what they call “civil disobedience” toward change.
They are fighting decisions to make cuts to Medicaid, education, unemployment and voting rights. Together they lit candles. Each one representing groups affected by these cuts. That’s what has made this movement similar to the Civil Rights Movement when Dr. Martin Luther King became the center of “change”. You had All types of People in All walks of Life supporting what was seen throughout the country, throughout the world as the worst form of discrimination. We see again the same Movement with All People coming together against a group seemingly passing legislation to continue to keep the ‘Elitists’ for and above the lowly.
How can people achieve the smallest of dreams when they’ve been laid off of work and need assistance through unemployment to make ends meet? With a family of four or more, $350 week won’t do it. Or how about Medicare assistance? If the Republicans have their way, that assistance will be null and void, leaving thousands of elderly searching for financial and medical assistance elsewhere. Has the Republican Party come up with an alternative to offset these cost to the elderly? NO! The overwhelming viewpoint to the protesters is They don’t care. Haven’t we seen this before?
The Head Start program that has been a major benefit to single parents is under fire as well. The GOP is looking to disband it causing preschoolers to be left in the cold and the single parents searching for other means of educational options for their child/children. And everyone knows the pre-years are the most important for children to get a “Head Start” and be prepared for elementary school.
Now, with the Voter I.D. legislation about to become law as well, this State is just about ready to boil over with discontent for this Government. And as we head into week 4 of the “Moral Mondays” protest, it’s time for National Attention to be brought to North Carolina. B.E.T. interviewed Rev. Barber recently so it has begun. But now, Big Guns need to be brought in to solidify the movement.
Understand people, just because Rev. Barber has taken the lead in this protest, this is Not an NAACP movement. EVERYONE in North Carolina is being affected by the Republicans continued barrage of unfavorable legislation. Medicare cuts will affect the elderly whether you’re Black or White or Latino. The unemployment benefits will affect Everyone, Black or White or Latino. The Head Start Program affects mostly low income people, Black, White or Latino. The Voter I.D. law will affect Black, White or Latino. With sweeping legislation, the Republicans have come in and done exactly what the Nation is trying to do across the board, get richer, make their corporate buddies richer and keep the low income and disenfranchised beneath them without a chance of progressing.
Today marks the 14th anniversary of the killing of Guinea immigrant Amadou Diallo, who was fired on 41 times as he stood, unarmed, in the vestibule of his apartment building in the Bronx,NY. The four police officers responsible for the killing–Sean Carroll, 37, Edward McMellon, 27, Kenneth Boss, 28, and Richard Murphy, 27–were, incredibly, acquitted just a year later of all charges in the death. Rudolph W. Giuliani was our esteemed mayor at the time I recall…
Beyonce worked hard Super Bowl Night to make sure you forget that she lip synched (to her own voice tho’!) at President Obama’s Inauguration. With her old DC Girls–Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams–in tow the reunion was on…at least for about two songs, then it was all about the B!
The movie Warm Bodies, which came out this past Friday, looks cute. Sort of a Romeo/Juliet, star crossed lovers vibe with zombies. Finally a flick where someone has something nice to say about the undead!
The New York Police Department is experimenting with scanners that measure terahertz waves released by our bodies to search for a concealed weapon without the need of a pat down first. The new procedure will now be called: Scan, Stop & Search.
While the White House assures us that the 2014 withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan is still the game plan, The Pentagon, the place where all the real war decisions are made, wants to maintain a strategic partnership with the region. You know–for training and advisory purposes. Clearly, these men have no idea of the concept of “pulling out”. Boys, even if you’re partially in it…you still up in it!
The NAACP is fighting back on NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s attempt to limit the size of sodas sold by stores in the city. The prestigious organization says its unfair targeting towards smaller mom & pop shops who sell the stuff by the drum to neighborhood kids while big food chains like Burger King and 7/11 will still be allowed to sell colossal-sized drinks to customers. Still Bloomberg wants to know:
“…how they can look themselves in a mirror knowing they are hurting, deliberately, the life expectancy and the quality of life for the people that they’re supposed to serve.”
Scratching my head on that one too. I think a better fight would be to get gym back in the schools. Remember P.E.? That class used to be a requirement to get promoted to the next grade. Give our fat-ass kids a ball, a nice shiny wooden floor and an hour to run around in each school day. Obesity problem, solved!
In the meantime, influenced by First Lady Michelle Obama’s campaign against child obesity, mom Rose Cameron, CEO of WAT-AAH! is aiming to make water “cool” and contemporary to kids by using pure, unadulterated bottled water in a funky-fresh package. Way to think out the box momma!
The individual mandate in RomneyCare requires that all capable Massachusetts residents buy Healthcare. The individual mandate in ObamaCare requires that all capable Americans buy Healthcare.
How then, can Romney call those in favor of ObamaCare freeloaders, but apparently considers those on RomneyCare as diligently doing their civic duties?
After his speech to the NAACP, Romney said this to a group of supporters;
By the way, I had the privilege of speaking today at the NAACP convention in Houston and I gave them the same speech I am giving you. I don’t give different speeches to different audiences alright. I gave them the same speech. When I mentioned I am going to get rid of Obamacare, they weren’t happy, I didn’t get the same response. That’s OK, I want people to know what I stand for and if I don’t stand for what they want, go vote for someone else, that’s just fine. But I hope people understand this, your friends who like Obamacare, you remind them of this, if they want more stuff from government tell them to go vote for the other guy — more free stuff. But don’t forget nothing is really free.
Mitt Flip Romney took a trip today, apparently got lost and found himself in-front of an unfamiliar audience, the NAACP – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Okay, maybe he didn’t get lost and we all know his trip was planned, but the audience was still unfamiliar to Mr. Romney and his awkward speech and frequent booing from the audience highlighted this unfamiliarity.
One part of Romney’s speech to the group that is getting a lot of play right now was when Romney told the audience, “I’m going to eliminate every nonessential expensive program I can find. That includes Obamacare, ” – the President’s signature policy that has growing support among the American people and the poor and middle class in general.
But what was strange and what got a lot of attention was not so much the booing, it was Romney’s expression as the booing was happening. As if relishing the moment, Romney stood on the stage with a sly smile on his face for an extended period, nodding his head ever so slightly as if to say, “yes, boo me. Boo me!”
The whole scene looked as if it was a message for another audience, like his Republican base maybe. It seemed as if Mitt Romney wanted his Republican supporters to see him as a man who is serious about “repealing Obamacare,” – a law they have voted to repeal 33 times since it was sworn into law in 2010. It seemed as if Romney wanted his base to know that he was willing to go in-front of an audience who supports the law and tell them he will repeal it.
Other areas of his speech got chuckles and giggles mixed with some more boos from the audience. One of those areas was when Romney told the audience that he would be a better president for them than President Obama is.
No, we are not saying that President Barack Obama (he is black you know) is the only candidate to represent the black community. The black community has voted religiously for white politicians for decades. What caused the chuckles in the audience I believe, was Romney’s words – reminiscent of other things Romney has said, like “I love American cars,” and “the trees are the right height here” while talking to a Detroit audience. Or when he said, “I am learning to say y’all and I like grits, and things,” while talking to a Mississippi audience earlier this year.
This particular NAACP audience knew that Romney was being Romney, so they giggled, they chuckled and some even booed. This audience knew Romney was pandering to them for votes.
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