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The events of the past month have offered signs of great hope for our beloved Association to reinvigorate the national movement for civil rights and social justice as we move towards the fall elections.

They also provided me with a hard-earned reminder of how we must proceed together if we are going to maximize our chances for success.

Three weeks ago, I dedicated my address at our national convention to making the case for One Nation – a massive march on Washington for jobs, justice, and education on 10-2-10 – exactly one month before the national elections. This march will reunite the forces of progress (civil rights, human rights, labor, small business, faith-based, and student organizations), reinvigorate our troops at a critical moment in history, and add volume to our collective demand for massive job creation, good schools and just treatment for all.

In that address, I chose to challenge the national Tea Party leaders to stop explicitly racist extremists from gaining increased influence over our nation’s political discourse through involvement in their rapidly growing movement. The comments were inspired by a resolution presented by members of our Missouri State Conference. They are, as I am, concerned that silence in the face of such extremism only allows the possibilities for hate and the violence it produces to grow. The resolution was passed unanimously by more than 2000 delegates.

Our challenge to Tea Party leaders provoked a series of public responses that were covered widely by the media. First, Tea Party leaders denied our claims were valid. Then they pushed out a false spin that we were calling the Tea Party itself racist. Then, because we were steadfast in the face of their resistance, Tea Party leaders launched an intensive internal conversation about racist elements in their ranks. Thanks to your overwhelming support for the call for civility and responsible stewardship of their movement, they expelled Mark Williams – a Tea Party leader who had a history of making racist remarks – and the faction he had helped lead (which is a good start).

Our call also provoked a wave of threats against volunteer NAACP leaders and staff members across the country. We counted more than 100 in total. In the midst of this wave, a young man was arrested in Florida for making terrorist threats against an NAACP unit, and another man was arrested after a shootout in California. He was dressed in body armor and reportedly on his way to shoot up our allies at the ACLU and the Tides Foundation.

Finally, it provoked a barrage of viral video attacks on the NAACP. Most of them failed to get any traction. One now-notorious video promoted by Andrew Breitbart and Fox News gained widespread media attention on several networks.

I made a critical mistake in assessing the content of that video excerpt, and issued a statement supporting USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack’s decision to “accept the resignation of Mrs. Shirley Sherrod” for statements allegedly made at a local NAACP event and condemning the statements as portrayed.

As President Obama has said, Mrs. Sherrod did not deserve the rush to condemnation.

The mistake is one I deeply regret at a magnitude unparalleled in the 19 years since I took my first job working in the civil and human rights movement. I hurt Mrs. Sherrod and hurt her deeply, and I am very sorry.

I am also thankful that she has graciously accepted my apology, and that she has stated publicly that she continues to believe in the NAACP and the urgent need for our work.

We issued the original statement in the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday, July 20, attempting to head off a brewing media firestorm before the morning news shows.

Within hours of issuing that statement, we knew something was wrong.

By 9:00 a.m., that same day, we had removed the statement from our website and announced publicly that we were withdrawing it. We had also assembled a multi-departmental team to investigate the facts surrounding the incident.

By 11:00 a.m., we had contacted Mrs. Sherrod to inform her we were actively reassessing our statement.

By 4:00 p.m., we had tracked down the full video, and assembled staff and a national commentator on CNN to listen to the entire speech.

By 5:00 p.m., I was on the phone apologizing to Mrs. Sherrod and reviewing with her the statement we would issue moments later stating our error and urging the Administration to reinstate her.

By 7:00 p.m., that evening, we succeeded in uploading the full video of her remarks on our website for the world to see and to unequivocally set the record straight.

That evening I went on CNN and MSNBC to amplify our new statement.

I am grateful for how our national staff came together to address the error.

The beautiful and inspiring speech Mrs. Sherrod gave to our Coffee County, Georgia, Branch has now been viewed more than 500,000 times since being posted at NAACP.org. Most notably, it was viewed by senior officials at the USDA and the White House as they deliberated and decided to make their apologies to Mrs. Sherrod and invite her to rejoin the senior ranks of the USDA.

As she graciously accepted my apology, Mrs. Sherrod asked that the NAACP redouble our efforts on Capitol Hill to ensure Black farmers receive the settlement they won after filing a lawsuit documenting the USDA’s entrenched patterns of racial discrimination. I agreed readily. It is an issue in which our Washington Bureau Director Hilary Shelton and I have both been personally engaged.

A mistake of this sort will not happen again. In the future, no matter what the context, before making such a decision, there will be much more intensive investments in research and consultation on the front end.

The staff is currently in the process of debriefing and reviewing protocols to institutionalize this commitment. America counts on the NAACP to get it right the first time, and you should be able to count on your national office to be the standard bearer for our great Association.

In the meantime, what will not change is our commitment to confronting racism wherever it flourishes, and building powerful alliances to combat its most urgent structural manifestations.

We applaud Mrs. Sherrod’s decision to sue Mr. Breitbart and will back her up on that suit. We will complement that effort and build upon the work we began with our nationwide protests against Fox News’ parent company, NewsCorp, by advocating even more aggressively for them to reverse their pattern of exploiting and inflaming national racial and social tensions. (It should come as no surprise that the aforementioned gunman claims to be a loyal listener to Glenn Beck, or that the ACLU and the Tides Foundation are frequent targets of his on-air animus.)

Breitbart’s attack on Mrs. Sherrod, on us and on the movement was just malicious. He said he attacked Mrs. Sherrod to destroy the NAACP. Let me say again that I made a grave mistake. What Breitbart did was calculated and deliberate, designed to divide and destroy.

But if those who seek to divide us think what was done in trying to damage a mighty and heroic black woman, damage the NAACP, and damage the movement will succeed, then they do not know that we live by a higher order.

What was meant for evil, God will turn to good. We will be made stronger, not weaker.

That’s why we will stand with Shirley Sherrod, a hero to us all, in her lawsuit.

That’s why we will continue on, release our report on racism in the Tea Party, and push all their factions to adhere to modern standards for inclusiveness and civility.

That’s why we will mobilize and march on Washington on 10.2.10, and continue to build the movement to put schools before wars, and fighting massive joblessness for our neighbors above maintaining massive tax breaks for the nation’s wealthiest 1 percent.

We must be as aggressive as parents fighting for their children’s lives, or as individuals fighting for their own lives, because we are.

We must be as inclusive as our long-standing vision for the 21st Century, because it is here.

And we must be as vigilant in the fight against hate-based politics and racist threats and violence as our forebears, because as the NAACP we are committed to ensuring America moves ever forward, never backward.

As Mrs. Sherrod said in her now famous speech, “If we are going to rebuild our communities, if we are going to get with all of the problems we have in our communities, it will take all of us working together to solve them.”

Thank you to everyone who has contacted me with advice, counsel, and encouragement in recent weeks. I have benefitted from it, and I am as committed to seizing this personal opportunity for growth as I am to maximizing our collective opportunity to lead America in a better direction.

It is an honor to serve as your national president.

I look forward to seeing you on 10-2-10 as we together take the fight to our foes, make our demands on Congress clear before the elections, and remind America that we and our allies are the present and growing majority and will not yield the battlefield willingly.

Yours in the struggle,

Benjamin Todd Jealous
President and CEO
NAACP

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It’s time…
For too long we’ve dealt with the issues of violence, crime, under-achievement, and low expectations. For too long our community and organizations have been plagued by divisions and mistrust. For too long we’ve waited for solutions to come from the outside, when we have to power to change our reality right now if we would only come together…

It’s time…
On June 26th, at 12:00 noon, the NAACP and the Ministerial League along with other community minded organizations, concerned citizens, families, and youth, will STAND TOGETHER. We will March through our neighborhood, walking past the sites where our young men and women have lost their lives to senseless violence. We are going to March, and sing, and Pray, and recall that spirit of the Community we Used to be… We are going to March together, arm-in-arm, and work together to bring about the Rebirth of our Community Spirit. We are going to March together, and teach our Young People about the beautiful People and Community that God intended us to be.

It’s time…
We are going to stand together and say Goodbye to the Ego’s, Goodbye to the Silo’s, and Goodbye to the divisions that have kept us apart. We are going to stand together and say Goodbye to the violence, Goodbye to the crime, and Goodbye to the low expectations that have afflicted our community.

It’s time…
We’re going to Reclaim our community by reclaiming our Youth. We are not going to cast these young men aside — We are going to reclaim them. These are our children – We are going to let them know that we love them, and we are going to bring them back into the fold. We’re not going to lecture them about the way it was ‘back in the day‘… We going to talk to them about the way its ‘going to be Tomorrow‘, and we’re going to fight to bring our prodigal sons back home. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

It’s time everybody… So get out your old walking shoes. And JOIN US on June 26th… More details will follow shortly through the blog, email, radio, newspaper, text, twitter, facebook, and flyers…

Be ready everybody – Start talking it up – Start praying and Stretching – because on June 26th, we’re going to stand together and rebuild our community…

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May 15, 2010 Hollywood, Florida—The NAACP, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, unanimously endorsed Elena Kagan, President Barack Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court, today at their quarterly board meeting.

The organization reviewed Kagan’s available record on civil rights including her recent authorization for the Department of Justice and the Department of Civil Rights to file an amicus brief supporting the constitutionality of the University of Texas’ affirmative action program in Fisher v. University of Texas and her brief in support of African American firefighters who challenged a hiring test used by the City of Chicago under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Lewis v. City of Chicago).

“After a careful and thorough review of Elena Kagan’s record, we have unanimously voted to endorse her nomination,” stated President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous. “Elena Kagan has demonstrated a commitment to civil rights and equal justice under the law throughout her career. Kagan drew her inspiration from NAACP former counsel and Supreme court Justice Thurgood Marshall who she considers a hero and mentor. During her tenure at the White House, Kagan worked on issues such as strengthening hate crimes legislation and civil rights enforcement. As a law school Dean, she worked to ensure a diverse student body and faculty. And as Solicitor General, Kagan has vigorously defended the nation’s equal opportunity and civil rights laws. We look forward to actively supporting her nomination,” Jealous said.

“Elena Kagan has a track record of bringing people together. She is skilled at forging legal consensus on contentious issues,” stated NAACP Chairman Roslyn Brock. “Civil rights is a bipartisan issue. It is central to the core of our American values. We believe Elena Kagan has the ability to use her fine legal mind, her commitment to diversity and her ability to build bridges to effectively advocate in the Court for the civil rights and democracy enshrined in our constitution.”

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The NAACP supports Amnesty International’s (AIUSA) report on Reggie Clemons “Death by Prosecutorial Misconduct and a ‘Stacked Jury.” Along with AIUSA, the Missouri ACLU the Missouri State Conference NAACP stands with the Justice for Reggie Committee to expose the miscarriage of justice that has kept Reggie Clemons on death row for 20 years.

Reggie was beaten by the police and coerced into making a false statement; and was denied an attorney. This statement was compelled by torture that should have been excluded. At Reggie’s arraignment, Judge Michael David noted that Reggie had suffered physical injury while in custody and sent him to a hospital Emergency Room.

The civil rights question is whether proceedings in which a coerced statement was used, and which resulted in a sentence of death for Reggie Clemons denied him the due process of law guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. In February 2009 the NAACP National Board of Directors voted to support efforts to stop the execution of Troy Davis in Georgia, consistent with NAACP resolutions in 2004, 2001 and 1975. At the NAACP Centennial Convention in New York, July 2009 the Missouri State Conference delegation lead by Mr. Harold Crumpton, Ms. Anita Russell and Missouri State Conference President Mary Ratliff introduced an Emergency Resolution that was passed for a Clemency Campaign to save the life of Reggie Clemons. NAACP Units across the US are collecting signatures on petitions to prevent the execution of an innocent man.

The NAACP also supports legislative efforts to end the death penalty in Missouri:

–House Bill 1683 to create a moratorium was introduced by Rep. Bill Deeken. –Senate Bill SB 591 (Sen. Joan Bray, D-St. Louis) would repeal the death penalty. –House Bill HB 1413 (Rep. Mike McGhee, R-Odessa) would compel counties to cover the cost of prosecuting death-penalty cases and create greater overview of which homicide cases could qualify for seeking a death-sentence. –House Bill HB 1415 (Rep. Mike McGhee, R-Odessa) would open the Parole board clemency hearing to the person scheduled to be executed and his/her attorneys and require the Board’s findings be made public. –House Bill 1550 (Rep. Don Calloway, D-St. Louis) would strive to prevent race from playing any role in pursing death sentencing.

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A team comprised of the NAACP executive leadership, communications, policy, and field organizing staff, traveled to Google Headquarters (known as the Googleplex) in Mountainview California to discuss new ideas, applets, and initiatives to merge the power of technology with the NAACP’s historic mission of social advocacy. Over the two day trip, the NAACP team met with various engineers and project managers to discuss how Google technology could be used or modified to amplify our efforts.

Our team was met on-site by David Drummond, Google’s Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, and Harry Wingo, DC Policy Counsel for Google. The NAACP team consisted of National President Benjamin Jealous, COO Roger Vann, Director of Unit Capacity Rev Gill Ford, National Field Director Stephanie Brown, Congressional Analyst Carol Kaplan, Senior Manager for Law Enforcement Accountability Dr. Niaz Kasravi, Director of IT Jacob Frimpong, Director of New Media Eric Wingerter, Kansas State Conference President Kevin Myles, Audrey Lamyssaire, Eric Oliver, Carmen Berkley, Jamaa Bickley-King, Curtis Johnson, Adam Lee, and Aba Tyus.

One of the very exciting initiatives we discussed was the development of a tool that would plot the type of data and information the NAACP receives (and has received) through our data collection applet. This tool would allow us to graphically display incidents of racial profiling, discrimination, and police misconduct on an animated timeline; which would give us the ability to easily spot trends and identify areas in need of concentrated reforms. The tool would also greatly assist in Unit’s advocacy efforts because it takes what would otherwise be seen as hundreds of scattered anecdotal reports and compiles them in an easily understood and visually compelling display.

We also discussed various uses and potential applications of Google apps such as Google Voice, Docs, Profiles, Sites, and Wave. Over the coming months, we look forward to rolling out new National and Local initiatives from this effort…

(Top photo: NAACP Leadership team with Harry Wingo at the Googleplex.  Bottom Photo: The NAACP Communications team with NAACP President Ben Jealous, Google Senior VP David Drummond and Google Policy Counsel Harry Wingo)

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