Every week, NAACP National Field Director Stefanie Brown answers your questions about the NAACP through her vlog, “Ask Stef.” You can participate by sending your questions to AskStefB (at) gmail (dot) com. This week, Stef takes your questions on organizer trainings and getting involved with your local NAACP chapter.
By Jason Upthegrove, President of the Lima, Ohio NAACP
On Valentine’s Day 2008 I was sitting in the driveway of my home, as my wife grabbed the mail from the mailbox and handed it to me. When I opened them, there was a noose in one envelope and racist literature in another.
It took many months, a lengthy investigation, and my testimony before a Federal Grand Jury, but finally this October a white supremacist named Daniel Jones from Portland, Oregon was indicted. At one point my 7-year-old daughter overheard me discussing this and innocently asked, “Daddy, what’s a noose?” This caused me to reflect on the terrorism many of our fore parents endured so we could have the privilege to be a voice for the voiceless as advocates of the NAACP.
In our not so distant past, nooses weren’t being mailed to pose a threat, but were put around the necks of our people to hang them from tree limbs while deranged onlookers gladly observed. Freedom advocates were dragged from churches and theirs homes in front of their families to be murdered for speech we sometimes take for granted that hasn’t always been so free. Therefore, I thought it important to now provide some context of why a small community in the Mid-West attracted such cowardly acts of racism and fear mongering. (more…)
By Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, President of the NAACP’s North Carolina State Conference
(Excerpted from a speech delivered at the North Carolina State Capitol)
If my people who are called by my name would humble themselves, pray and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven and heal the land. (2d Chronicles 7:14)
We are here today because we need a healing in the land. We need those who want to perpetuate a sick health care system that is not for everybody and does not cover everybody to turn from their wicked ways. We are here today because we need a healing in the land.
It is ironic that 74 years ago, President Franklin Roosevelt was fighting to secure and sign the Social Security Act. Even then, the precursors of today’s forces of greed, selfishness, fear, and division were fighting him, and fighting reform and progressivism in America. They called it “socialism.” That’s what they said about Social Security. They said it would break America. They said that everybody should not be included. (more…)
National Field Director Stefanie Brown takes questions from NAACP members and supporters around the country–everything from NAACP issue areas to organizing strategies.
This week, she’ll begin fielding your questions in her new video blog “Ask Stef.” Send your questions to AskStefB@gmail.com, and each week she will select the most frequently asked question to respond by video, right here on the NAACP blog.
By Jacqueline Patterson, Director of the NAACP Climate Gap Initiative
In late October, I attended the Poisoned Communities Meeting from the Environmental Protection Agency Region 4. The event consisted of community members from the 6 states that comprise the region providing testimony on their situations; the EPA Senior Managers making statements regarding their planned responses; and the community members responding to the EPA comments with a torrent of outrage. The stories I heard were heartbreaking:
* Sheila Holt-Orstead from Dickson Tennessee shared how she became involved with environmental justice when she discovered that her father had cancer. She was subsequently diagnosed herself with Stage 2 breast cancer and learned that other family members had cancer. Investigation revealed that the Dickson County Landfill, adjacent to her family farm, had dumped waste that included tricholoroethelyne, or TCE, a cancer-causing chemical that was used as a degreaser. This substance had been seeping into ground water at levels that far exceeded EPA’s safety standards. If this wasn’t horrifying enough, she learned that letters from the state sent to white families warned them of the hazard and placed them on clean drinking water from the municipal supply and letters to black families reassured them that the water was fine and potable. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund is representing Sheila’s family in a discrimination case. Sheila’s summary statement to EPA was simple: “Do your job.”
By Benjamin Todd Jealous, NAACP President and CEO
Cross-posted from TheRoot.Com
In the past decade alone, 880,000 African Americans died because they did not have access to meaningful health care.
For people of color, life is, on average, shorter. Illness is more prevalent, and disability is more common. We live in a system that provides limited opportunities for communities of color to access health services, with fewer options for treatment, and with lower-quality care.
Communities of color are hit hard because of lower incomes and less ability to afford insurance and care. Patients of color also face greater health risks since they are less likely to live in communities with basic access to a healthy lifestyle-local hospitals or clinics with specialized services, parks and green spaces to exercise, and supermarkets where people can buy fresh food.
For this reason, the NAACP has teamed up with the National Urban League and the Black Leadership Forum to form a War Room in Washington, D.C., in order to push for real, meaningful reform in the days leading up to the House vote. We will be holding dozens of rallies, lobby days and press events across the nation.
What do we mean by “real” reform? Here’s what we are fighting for: (more…)
By Shavon Arline, NAACP Health Care Programs Director
I am writing from the heart of Civil Rights Health Care War Room-an unprecedented coordinated effort by the NAACP, National Urban League, and the Black Leadership Forum and others to fight for real health care reform. Low income families and people of color have the most at stake in this national debate, and with a vote coming up as early as Friday, we have got to take control of this debate.
What does “real reform” mean? We are talking:
* Full, affordable & comprehensive coverage for all individuals and families
* Nobody being denied coverage for pre-existing conditions
* Equity in access to care, treatment & resources-an end to racial and income disparities.
* A real choice of a private or public health care plan. There is no reform without at strong public option.
Check out our War Room webpage, complete with video, action items and links to events going on across the country this week. Together we can make sure that health care reform works for all of us.
By Stefanie Brown, NAACP National Field Director
This week, civil rights groups across the country will rally for meaningful health care reform. On Thursday, November 5th, local NAACP units will hold press actions in ten states to kick off our final, coordinated push for meaningful reform, which includes a strong public option. Our actions will continue through the weekend and next week with rallies and lobby days in a dozen more cities throughout the country.
We know that real healthcare reform will have a profound impact on African American families. As a group, African Americans are more likely to be without quality, affordable and accessible healthcare. Our volunteers range in age from 15 to 95 years old; with our youth and college members belonging to the least insured generation ever and our cadre of senior citizens actively concerned about Medicare and the future health of their families.
Along with partner organizations like the National Urban League, Black Leadership Forum and Color of Change, we’ll be holding dozens of rallies, lobby days and press events across the nation. Please check out our online War Room to find an event near you!
