NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous evoked biblical characters and said faith is what the nation’s oldest civil rights organization has to have in order to follow through on the mission it started 102 years ago. Jealous, speaking July 25 during the NAACP’s national convention at the Los Convention Center in Los Angeles, received a rousing standing ovation following his animated speech.
Likening the NAACP’s fight on behalf of the nation’s people to that of the miraculous battle fought by Bible prophet Gideon, Jealous said the right to organize, the right to vote and getting a fair shot at employment for people of color has all come under attack. “Let us be clear the right to vote is the right upon which all of our rights are leveraged and without which, without that vital access to the ballot box, none can be protected,” Jealous said. “If we are going to stop and turn back the assault on our rights, we must be crystal clear that there is nothing more important to be fighting for than restoring, expanding and protecting our voting rights.”
African Americans in this country have always struggled for voting rights. They finally won equal justice when the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The fight continues today.
Jealous said when President Barack Obama captured the 2008 presidential election, the voting backlash began. Since then, 47 states have introduced voter ID bills. States like Arizona and Georgia now require that voter registration forms come with a valid driver’s license and/or a passport. Another issue at hand is voter disenfranchisement of ex-convicts, particularly those with felony convictions. All three issues affect the power of the black vote, Jealous said. “First, let us recognize the obvious,” said Jealous. “Our voting rights are under attack because we had a great breakthrough—the election of a Black president. It was followed by a great backlash—represented by not all, but definitely by the worst and most racist elements in the tea party. And now we are reaping what those seeds of hate have sewn—the greatest rollback of voter access and voting rights since 1896. Right now, our vote is being attacked in many ways.”
Jealous said today’s battle for voter’s rights has rekindled memories of the NAACP’s forefather attacking going up against racist Jim Crow laws. “When we fight to block and undo voter ID and barriers to voter registration we are fighting to stop Jim Crow Jr.,” Jealous said. “Either war we must bring to that fight all of the force of all of our soldiers on the field today as well as the ancestral vengeance of all who have gone before.
“We must fight them hard and fight to win. And we must put the world on notice at the UN… because a century and a half of Jim Crow anything is a century and a half too long. If the NAACP stands for anything, it is ending Jim Crow everywhere in all its forms AND strengthening our democracy so that Jim Crowism may never rear its ugly head again.”
