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FinalCall.com News
National News
Bond blasts ‘enemies of justice’ in speech to NAACP
By James Muhammad
Updated Jul 21, 2005 - 8:47:00 AM
MILWAUKEE (FinalCall.com) - Declaring his organization the “conscience of the nation,” NAACP Chairman Julian Bond unleashed a blistering critique of the Bush Administration’s foreign and domestic policies and lashed out at conservatives and the religious Right.
“In recent years, in a stealthy, devious campaign, the enemies of justice and fair play have whittled away at the components of the progressive coalition,” Mr. Bond said to thunderous applause in a July 10 keynote speech, opening the group’s national convention in Milwaukee. “Ideas of government that were marginal, even delusional, have moved to center stage. The wacky has become the reality; the unimaginable is now taken for everyday truth.”
Mr. Bond, an icon of the Civil Rights Movement and a persistent critic of the President George Bush’s policies, said conservatives have launched an aggressive campaign to “seduce Black clergy” and “create a brand new political party” called the Faith-based Grant Party.
“Their hope is to create an alliance of the neo-cons and the theo-cons, all tied together by federal cash,” he said of efforts by conservatives to woo Black votes to the Republican Party by emphasizing opposition to gay marriage.
He said that Pres. Bush had declined an invitation to appear before the group for the fifth consecutive year, but that next year the convention will be held in Washington “and Mr. President, we’re extending the invitation a year in advance.”
Joined on stage by Congressional Black Caucus Chair Melvin Watt (D-N.C.), Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Congressman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) and a host of religious and civic leaders, Mr. Bond reminded the audience that all Americans have benefited from the work of the NAACP.
The outspoken chairman and former Georgia state senator also noted that, while the U.S. Senate recently passed a resolution apologizing for past failures to pass anti-lynching laws, allowing the resolution to pass by voice vote allowed eight senators to “dodge the apology.”
He then named Republican senators Lamar Alexander (Tenn.); Thad Cochran (Miss.); John Cornyn (Texas); Mike Enzi (Wyo.); Judd Gregg (N.H.); Trentt Lott (Miss.); John Sununu (N.H.); and Craig Thomas (Wyo.) for failing to co-sponsor the resolution.
Ninety-one-year-old Milwaukee resident James Cameron, who survived a 1930s lynching attempt when he was a teenager, was introduced to the audience. He was accused of raping a White woman, but was later cleared by the woman. After serving four years in jail, he went on to establish NAACP chapters in Indiana and become president of a branch in Madison County, Wisc., in the 1940s.
The convention also marked a new chapter for the historic civil rights group with the election of Bruce Gordon as executive director. Observers hope that Mr. Gordon, a former corporate executive, will help the organization to become financially stable. Previous directors have come from the stream of religion, civil rights and politics.
Mr. Bond emphasized the importance of Congress extending provisions of the Voting Rights Act due to expire in 2007 and applauded Rep. Sesenbrenner’s support. On the other hand, he criticized Democrats who entered an “empty compromise” that led to the confirmation of federal judge Janice Rogers Brown, whom he called “another Clarence Thomas.”
“Unfortunately, some Demo-crats won’t take their own side in a fight,” he said, referring to the compromise. “Reminiscent of Thomas’ confirmation fight, they played the ‘race’ card and the ‘bootstrap’ card and the ‘Bible’ card. This was three-card monty from a stacked deck,” he said.
