All Articles Tagged "Ben Jealous"
NAACP Regaining Relevance Through Diversity
(AP) — Jobs, education, health, housing — the issues driving the NAACP these days look much like the concerns of most Americans, and that’s by design. As the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People kicks off its 102nd convention this weekend in downtown Los Angeles, the venerable civil rights organization’s policy agenda shows how it has evolved from its decades-long role as a leading fighter against racial inequality to become a staunch advocate for social justice for all minorities. ”They’re doing a much better job by being seen as lobbying for poor, disenfranchised people of all colors,” said Peniel E. Joseph, a Tufts University history professor and author of a book on the civil rights and black power movements. The strategy has enabled the NAACP to bounce back after a decade in which many charged that the organization had lost its way, becoming irrelevant. In the 1950s and 1960s, the NAACP was a standard-bearer of the struggle for voting rights, desegregated schools, and equal access to everything from water fountains to bus seats. But by four decades later — with a black president in the White House — the NAACP’s prominence had trickled to a place in history books.
NAACP, Urban League Press Obama on Safety Net Funding
(AP) — Leaders of the largest and oldest black civil rights groups said they urged President Barack Obama in a White House meeting Thursday to resist deep cuts to programs that benefit urban communities _ with some of the highest unemployment rates _ as he negotiates the nation’s debt limit. NAACP president Benjamin Jealous and National Urban League president Marc Morial said they left the Oval Office feeling assured Obama understands deep budget cuts to safety net programs such as Social Security or Medicaid would be counterproductive to the country and poorer communities.
NAACP Criticizes CNN for Lack of Black Anchors
(LA Times) — CNN’s newly announced prime-time news lineup has come under fire by the NAACP, which claims the slate continues a multi-network trend that excludes African Americans from prime-time slots as anchors and hosts. ”As CNN announced their new schedule, a glaring omission was present — no African Americans were hosts or anchors in their prime time lineup,” NAACP President and Chief Executive Benjamin Todd Jealous said in a statement. “The NAACP is deeply concerned with the lack of African American journalists in prime time, both on cable and national network news shows.”
Public vs. Charter: NAACP Locked in Showdown Over Schools
(The Root) — As states grappled with ways to reinvigorate the flagging public education system, charter schools were offered up as an attractive alternative: a way to break outside the mold and offer the kind of innovative learning environment and accountability for results that is more often associated with private schools. Some critics fear that this alternative is now crowding out the public school system it was meant to supplement, creating a two-tiered system that leaves children in more traditional settings with fewer resources and options. That argument is the crux of a lawsuit filed by the NAACP and the United Federation of Teachers against the New York City Department of Education. They charge the city with favoritism toward 18 charter schools that share space in public schools. The suit, filed last month in New York State Supreme Court, claims that charter schools are getting more than their fair share of space within public school buildings and have better access to playgrounds, gyms and cafeterias. It also disputes the rationale for closing 22 failing schools, including 15 that were part of similar litigation last year by the UFT and the NAACP.
NAACP Apologizes for Snubbing Black Press
(TriceEdneyWire.com) –NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous admits that “a grave mistake was made” right under his nose when advertising inserts were placed only in White newspapers on the eve of the organization’s annual image awards, which aired March 4. Danny Bakewell, chairman of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a federation of more than 200 Black-owned newspapers, is demanding justice.
“If the NAACP desires to advertise with the white press, they need to understand and experience the repercussions of going outside of their “house” (The Black Press). The NAACP needs to know that by ignoring the Black Press they are ‘cutting off their nose to spite their face,’” Bakewell said in a March 7 letter to NNPA publishers, obtained by the Trice Edney News Wire. “We have marched side by side with them and been their voice in the African American community. It is truly disheartening to be on the battlefield with someone and not be able to share in the spoils.”
Does the NAACP Have a Leadership Problem?
(The Root) — Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and chief executive officer of the NAACP, strode into the media spotlight last month when he called on the Tea Party to “repudiate the racist element and activities within” its ranks. He immediately became the focus of attacks from the right and emerged as a visible advocate for racial justice, following the announcement at the organization’s convention in Kansas City, Mo. The time was ripe. For about two years, Jealous, 37, has been working to earn his stripes as leader of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization.
NAACP Backtracks on Official Accused of Bias
(New York Times) — The president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People apologized Tuesday to a black civil servant whose ouster the civil rights organization had originally Last week, the NAACP. garnered headlines when it accused parts of the Tea Party movement of being racist. Then, over the weekend, a video emerged of Shirley Sherrod, the head of the Department of Agriculture’s rural development office in Georgia, speaking at an NAACP event in Douglas, Ga., in March. In a two-and-a-half-minute clip, Ms. Sherrod seemed to explain that she discriminated against a white farmer 24 years ago.
Black Leaders Urge Swift Federal Action on Poverty
(Chicago Sun Times) – Poverty-stricken minority neighborhoods across America are “zones of pain” in a “state of emergency” that deserve a swift federal response, a group of black leaders said during a discussion on economic recovery at the Rainbow/PUSH annual conference Saturday.
“We’re fighting two battles right now . . . to rescue main street and rebuild back street. Most of our cities were already in a state of recession before the recession,” NAACP President Ben Jealous said. “The federal government must be forced to make a decision publicly on whether or not [budget] deficits are more destructive than massive joblessness.”
Beyond Barack – Ten Men Who Run Things
On January 20, 2009, black America got what it always wanted—he came 6′ 1″ tall, with a bright smile and fierce wife. And although President Barack Hussein Obama is still the world’s most powerful man (black or white) we figure we’d peruse the many lists out there to compile our 10 other influential men. Because what’s a strong Madame without a good man?
