Beginning Sunday, July 11, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), held its 101st Annual Convention. Thousands of members gathered for the convention in Kansas City, Missouri.
President and CEO of the NAACP, Ben Jealous, gave an address at the opening press conference where he spoke about the economic state of the country and what to look toward in the future.
“History has shown us that in tough times like these there are really only two choices. Either we run downhill towards hate and division, or we continue to push uphill towards progress and hope,” Jealous said.
Also on Sunday, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon signed an executive order requiring each department of the State’s executive branch to submit an annual workforce diversity plan, to designate a representative for the new Workforce Diversity Council and to meet biannually with the State’s compliance officer concerning the department’s diversity goals (see Business, page B1).
Among the speakers at the event was U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D–MO), who spoke on Monday, July 12.
“I know many of you may realize that I shared the pride of a nation on that special night in November when Barack Obama was elected president of the United States,” McCaskill said. “Too many of us thought the hard work was over. Our president needs our passion and our energy.”
Also on Monday, First Lady Michelle Obama gave the keynote address. Much of her speech focused on childhood obesity and the Let’s Move initiative campaign. She mentioned that black children are more likely to be obese than white children and that close to half of African-American children will develop diabetes at some point in their lives.
“Surely the men and women of the NAACP haven’t spent a century organizing and advocating and working day and night only to raise the first generation in history that might be on track to live shorter lives than their parents,” First Lady Obama said in her speech.
“And that’s why I’ve made improving the quality of our children’s health one of my top priorities.”
Michelle Obama also mentioned other issues that currently face black communities and families.
“When African-American communities are still hit harder than just about anywhere by this economic downturn, and so many families are just barely scraping by. I think the founders would urge us to increase our intensity,” she said.
The following day, Jealous gave the most rousing and controversial speech of the convention. His speech intensely called out the radical conservative tea party movement’s acceptance of racism and bigotry.
“I hope it will empower the tea party to actually look at itself and see that there are those who are noticing things that I think most tea partiers don’t want,” Jealous said.
This call led to a debate and the eventual signing of a proposal that calls for the tea party movement to repudiate the racist elements within the movement.
Sarah Palin, a leading member of the tea party movement, along with other tea party members, denied the claims made by Jealous.
The same day a group called the St. Louis Tea Party issued a statement that called for the NAACP to withdraw its proposal.
This is not the first time the movement has faced accusations of racism. In March there were reports that health insurance reform demonstrators, many of them tea party members, yelled racial epithets at black congressmen, including U.S. Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver II, a Democrat from Missouri. Cleaver spoke after Senator McCaskill on Monday during the convention.
