Election-year Battle: NAACP Promises to ‘Educate, Mobilize and Agitate’ for Voter Participation
By Hazel Trice Edney

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – With a “pivotal election” coming up Nov. 4, the NAACP will kick off its 105^th Annual Convention this week focusing primarily on maximum Black voter turnout for the mid-term elections.

“All In for Justice & Equality” is the theme of the convention – to be held in Las Vegas. Voter suppression, criminal justice reform, voting rights, economic opportunity and educational equality are among the topics on the agenda from Saturday, July 19 to Wednesday, July 23.

Chairman Roslyn M. Brock says that the 105-year-old organization will escalate its traditional strategies with determination to turn out the largest voting force possible.

"In this pivotal election year, it is especially important for us to address voter suppression and the challenges facing communities of color and the nation as a whole. As we tackle important issues like health care, economic opportunity, education and civic engagement, we know that we cannot fully recover as a nation unless we are courageous, stand in solidarity and get out the vote,” says Brock. “The NAACP will continue to educate, mobilize and agitate to create an informed and engaged populace and continue the work in ensuring every American has unfettered access to the ballot box."

NAACP is a non-partisan organization, but has always fought for Black voter participation given the social, civil rights, and economic justice issues at stake. The Republicans Party, which gets only a hand full of Black votes, are determined to win back the majority in the Senate that they lost in 2006 elections. Currently Senate Democrats have a 55-45 majority (including two independents who usually vote with Democrats). Republicans will likely maintain control of the House unless Democrats can pick up at least 17 seats. Democrats have not had a House majority since 2010.

The convention comes amidst major civil rights milestones including the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education desegregation ruling March 17, the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, signed into law on July 2; and the 50th Anniversary of the Mississippi Freedom Summer. Also, next year is the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (Aug. 6, 1965).

A statement from the NAACP stressed that the convention also occurs on the heels of the “devastating decision” in Shelby v. Holder, June 25, 2013, which gutted Section IV of the Voting Rights Act.

"The civil rights anniversaries this past year remind us how far we have come, and how far we still have to go,” said NAACP former Interim President & CEO, Lorraine C. Miller.  “As we honor the contributions of heroes like Thurgood Marshall, Dorothy Height and Maya Angelou, we also continue to address the new Jim Crow of mass incarceration and the old Jim Crow of voter suppression. NAACP members and partners have never been content to simply memorialize historic icons; in fact, we are inspired and energized by their example for the work that lies ahead.”

The convention will also feature the first speech from NAACP Cornell William Brooks, a civil rights lawyer and AME preacher, is scheduled to speak at the first plenary session Monday morning July 21. Brooks is slated to speak on Brock is schedule to speak at the first public mass meeting on Sunday evening, July 20.

According to a release, the convention speakers include “well-known as well as the next generation of civil rights leaders, elected officials, faith leaders, actors and community activists.”

“The NAACP is still the most influential and relevant voice in the fight for social justice,” stated NAACP Vice Chairman Leon Russell. “We still face several challenges and we must continue to set the tone for those who believe that the struggle for a greater nation must continue. Our Convention must also re-emphasize the importance of civic engagement as we move into off year elections. The ability to cast an unfettered ballot that is actually counted is perhaps our greatest challenge.”

July 14, 2014

Liberians Rally in Response to Philadelphia Fire That Took Children's Lives

Aftermath of Philadelphia house fire that killed three children.

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Global Information Network

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – A Philadelphia church is calling the outpouring of support for the Liberian community “overwhelming” in light of the deaths of three 4-year-olds and an infant during a fast-moving fire Saturday, July 5.

The fatalities included twin sisters Maria and Marialla Bowah, and Patrick Sanyeah - and Taj Jacque, who was not quite 7 weeks old. Eight row houses were totally incinerated in the blaze. A large number of Liberian emigres live in the neighborhood in the Mount Moriah section of Southwest Philadelphia that saw the deadly fire.

At the church on the corner at Gesner and South 65th Streets, bags of clothes, crates of water, stacks of canned goods and other supplies have been piled high in the basement amidst Spider-Man and Ironman balloons and stuffed animals.

“Did we image the response? No, we did not. It was overwhelming,” the Rev. Napolean L. Divine, pastor of Christ International Baptist Church told an interviewer at Philly.com. The church has been in the neighborhood since 2001.

The neighborhood is made up of first- and second generation West African immigrant families, many of them from Liberia. Divine came to the U.S. from Liberia more than 30 years ago. The children who died came from families of Liberian immigrants. Since the late 1990s, more refugees have arrived in Philadelphia from Liberia than from any other country—about 3,300 in total, escaping the civil wars that raged in the West African country from 1989 until 2003.

The city could provide a moral lesson to the heated national debate on immigration. While some refugees have encountered problems achieving upward mobility and dealing with neighborhood crime, settlers coming from countries in conflict are accustomed to overcoming hardships and finding ways to get by. In fact, refugee populations fighting to secure their own prosperity have been a driving force behind the economic resurgence of decaying cities and neighborhoods.

This isn’t just a case of “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” said University of Pennsylvania’s Associate Chair of City and Regional Planning Domenic Vitiello. Under the right conditions, adult refugees contribute to economic growth, fill specialized labor niches and help revitalize commercial corridors.

A link to donate to the fire survivors can be found at The Liberian Association of Pennsylvania http://liblap.org/ Other chapters of Liberians can be found at the Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas http://ulaalib.org/chapters

July 14, 2014

President Obama Happy with Last Month's Jobs Report
Blacks benefitting from improved economy, report says

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from TheNorthStarNews.com

By Frederick H. Lowe

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - An ebullient President Barack Obama said on Thursday that that day's jobs report showed the fastest growth since the first half of 1999.

"This is also the first time we've seen five consecutive months of job growth over 200,000 since 1999. And we've seen the quickest drop in unemployment in 30 years," President Obama said.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Thursday that total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 288,000 in June and the unemployment rate declined to 6.1 percent, led by growth in professional and business services, retail trade, food services and drinking places and health care.

The Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan think tank, reported that African-Americans benefited from the improved economy.

"The share of working age African Americans with a job increased1.3 percentage points since January 2014," Valerie Wilson, director of EPI's Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy, wrote in a blog.

The overall black unemployment rate was in June was 10.7 percent compared to 11.5 percent in May. The African-American unemployment rate, however, is still much higher than the 8.3 percent unemployment rate recorded in 2007, according to Heidi Shierholz,  labor-market economist for EPI.

The jobless rate for black men 20 years old and older was 10.9 percent compared to 11.5 percent in May. For black women 20 years old and older, the jobless rate in June was 9.0 percent compared to 10.0 percent in May. The labor-participation rate for black men and black women also improved, according to BLS.

It wasn't all good news. The Economic Policy Institute reported that a large pool of workers are missing because of still weak job opportunities.

"They are neither employed nor actively seeking a job," EPI reported. "In other words, these are people who would be either working or looking for work if job opportunities were significantly stronger." If the missing workers were looking for work, the unemployment would be 9.6 percent, EPI reported.

President Obama admits there is more work to do. "Now, what we also know is, as much progress as has been made, there are still folks out there who are struggling," the president said. "We still have not seen  as much increase in income and wages as we'd like to see. A lot of folks are still digging themselves out of challenges that arose out of the Great Depression."

July 7, 2014

Black Policy Group Vows to Rescue Joint Center
By Hazel Trice Edney

The National Policy Alliance, seen here meeting with President Obama on Feb. 8, 2011, has reformed to undergird the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.  PHOTO: Pete Souza/White House

Tuskegee Mayor Johnny Ford, NPA founding co-chair 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The Public Policy Alliance (NPA), a coalition of thousands of Black elected officials and public policy executives, founded more than 40 years ago under the leadership of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, has recommitted to restoring the Joint Center’s historic political research wing, which is currently dormant due to a lack of funds.

“The whole idea now is for the Joint Center to begin to utilize this constituency group and we’re going to rely upon the Joint Center like we used to do for research and statistics and support and that kind of thing,” said Tuskegee, Ala. Mayor Johnny Ford, a founding chair of the NPA. “I’m back now as mayor of the historic Tuskegee, Alabama. I am now going to devote some time to rebuilding this organization to the level that it once was.”

Ford said the NPA, which represents at least 12,000 elected officials, had gone through a period of inactivity for the past several years although it met with President Barack Obama at the White House twice, most recently on Feb. 8, 2011, to discuss policy issues. He said he aims to re-establish that relationship as well as undergird and revive the political arm of the Joint Center.

The Trice Edney News Wire confirmed last month that the Joint Center’s once powerful political think tank has been defunct for at least five months and that the center is now mainly focused on health issues. David Bositis, its long time researcher of Black politics and election statistics was among at least seven staffers who left the center last spring due to the lack of funding. The current interim president, Spencer Overton – on sabbatical from his law professorship at George Washington University - is working without a salary.

Ford said he has met with Overton to reestablish an agreement through a memorandum of understanding. According to the memo, “The NPA began in early 1970s under the leadership and direction of the Joint Center. The earlier organizational name was the National Policy Institute. NPA members have convened every four years, at the beginning of each Presidential election year, to discuss public policies and issues that serve the interests and needs of the African American community.”

Ford and other principals of the Joint Center and NPA who were interviewed during the Center’s annual fundraising dinner June 25 conceded that the dinner alone would not be enough to rebuild the political arm upon which the Joint Center was founded 44 years ago in 1970 to increase Black political participation. But, Ford appeared confident that fund-raising for the Center will be bolstered by the revitalized alliance, which is made up of nine Black public policy organizations.

The member organizations are: Blacks in Government; Congressional Black Caucus; Judicial Council of the National Bar Association; National Association of Black County Officials; National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials; National Black Caucus of School Board Members; National Black Caucus of State Legislators; National Conference of Black Mayors; World Conference of Mayors, and the Joint Center.

The annual dinner, held in a Downtown D.C. hotel, drew hundreds of political insiders and elected officials, including heads of the nine NPA organizations, plus more than a dozen members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

“For over forty years, they have provided the intellectual capital that makes policy possible,” Congressman Bobby Scott (D-Va.) said of the Joint Center. “Having that information and documentation really helps make policy. They are not relegated to sound bites and slogans, but real solid information.”

Given economic and social disparities that remain, Darlene Young, president of Blacks in Government, said, “We need [the research arm of the Joint Center] more now than ever before.”

The Center’s Immediate Past President Ralph Everett was a dinner program honoree as well as U. S. Sen. Cory Booker, who received the coveted Louis E. Martin Great American Award. Everett, who resigned effective Dec. 31 last year, was reluctant to answer questions about the organization’s finances. But he stressed the necessity of the political arm. “The Joint Center is the only organization that does the kind of tracking that we do in that area. So, I’m very hopeful that it would come back, but again that’s a decision by the board of governors,” Everett said.

Board member Dr. Dianne Pinderhughes, a political scientist at the University of Notre Dame, would only say that the future of the political arm is “something that the board will have to discuss in the coming weeks.” She also said the board would probably know the direction by the end of this year. Neither Pinderhughes; nor Ford would give a dollar amount needed to rebuild and sustain the political think tank.

Overton made an impassioned plea to members of the audience to contact the Joint Center to support: “This is a time of great transition and the Joint Center is not immune,” he said. The audience applauded strongly when he added, “But, I am also convinced more than ever that there is a need for a Joint Center.”

Ford, a legendary mayor of Tuskegee, who was first elected in 1972 as the city’s first Black mayor, served six consecutive terms before being elected to the Alabama House of Representatives. He was re-elected mayor in 2004 and then again in 2012 giving him an eighth non-consecutive term as mayor.

He indicates he will fight for the Joint Center with that same determination: “The Joint Center is going to be alright. We have renewed this relationship. We met with Overton, told him that we want to work with the Center. ‘We want to be your constituency group. You can use us to give you the credibility you need to say to corporate America that I need X number of dollars,” he said. “I know. It’s serious. But we’re going to overcome all of that.”