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CHAPEL HILL
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VOLUME 93 - NUMBER 21
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, MAY 24, 2014
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913
PRICE: 30
New NAA CP leader: I’m
Brown v. Board beneficiary
By Jesse J. Holland
WASHINGTON (AP) - As a
Head Start and Yale Law School
graduate, Cornell William
Brooks calls himself a direct
beneficiary of Brown v. Board
Education.
Now the lawyer and activ
ist is taking over as the next
national president and CEO of
the NAACP, whose legal arm
brought that landmark legal case
challenging segregation in pub
lic schools.
On the 60th anniversary of
the Supreme Court’s decision
that said separating black and
white children was unconstitu
tional, the nation’s oldest civil
rights organization announced
Brooks’ selection.
The NAACP’s board made
the final decision May 16, and
chair Roslyn Brock told The
Associated Press about Brooks’
new position on May 17.
Brooks will be formally pre
sented to the Baltimore-based
organization’s members at its
national convention in Las Vegas
in July.
“I am a beneficiary, an heir
and a grandson, if you will, of
Brown versus Board of Educa
tion,” Brooks told the AP.
“My life is the direct prod
uct, if you will, of the legacy of
the blood, sweat and tears of the
NAACP and so today I’m partic
ularly mindful that the NAACP
has made America what it is, and
certainly made my life possible
and we are all grateful heirs of
that legacy.”
Brooks, 53, of Annandale,
New Jersey, will become the
NAACP’s 18th national presi
dent, replacing interim leader
Lorraine Miller. Miller has
served in that position -since
Benjamin Jealous ended his five-
year tenure last year.
“I am deeply humbled and
honored to be entrusted with the
opportunity to lead this powerful
historic organization,” Brooks
said in an interview. “In our fight
CORNELL WILLIAM
to ensure voting rights, econom
ic equality, health equity, and
ending racial discrimination for
all people, there is indeed much
work to be done.”
Brooks, a minister, is origi
nally from Georgetown, South
Carolina. He currently is presi
dent and CEO of the New Jer
sey Institute for Social Justice,
a Newark, New Jersey-based
urban research and advocacy or
ganization.
He graduated from Jackson
State University, received a Mas
ter of Divinity from Boston Uni
versity School of Theology and
got his law degree from Yale.
Brooks has worked as a law
yer for the Federal Communica
tion Commission and the Justice
Department. He also ran for
Congress as a Democrat in Vir
ginia in 1998. He still owns a
home in Woodbridge, Virginia.
“Mr. Brooks is a pioneering
lawyer and civil rights leader
who brings a wealth of knowl
edge and experience to the as
sociation,” Brock said. “We look
forward to leveraging his legal
prowess, vision and leadership
as we tackle the pressing civil
rights issues of the 21st century.”
The organization had hired
The Hollins Group Inc., of Chi
cago to lead its search for a new
CEO, and Brooks was selected
from more than 450 applications,
Brock said. The organization
held more than 30 interviews,
she said.
Brooks said he would start
talking to and listening to the
NAACP’s membership to plan
for the organization’s future.
He said he would present his
vision for the NAACP at the
organization’s convention after
he’s held conversations with the
members.
“As long as America contin
ues to be a great, but imperfect
nation, there will be a need for
the NAACP,” Brooks said.
Jealous called Brooks’ selec
tion “the beginning of a new
and exciting chapter for the
NAACP.”
President Barack Obama slides across a counter to pose for photos with staff
following lunch at the Dupont Circle Shake Shack in Washington, D.C., May 16.
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
WASHINGTON - The
Board of Directors of AARP,
one of the nation’s largest and
most powerful nonprofit advo
cacy groups, has unanimously
selected Jo Ann Jenkins as its
new chief executive officer, to
succeed longtime CEO A. Bar
ry Rand on September 1,2014.
“After an extensive,
thoughtful and deliberative
national search, the AARP
Board unanimously selected Jo
Ann Jenkins as our new Chief
Executive Officer,” said Gail
Aldrich, chair of the AARP
Board of Directors.
Obama hosts Brown v. Board families and lawyers
By Darlene Superville
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama on May 16 marked the 60th anniversary of the Su
preme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation decision by recommitting to
“the long struggle to stamp out bigotry and racism in all their forms.”
Obama also met May 16 in the White House East Room with families of the plaintiffs, lead attorneys
Jack Greenberg and William Coleman and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Greenberg argued the case;
Coleman was a leading legal strategist.
Obama said in a statement that the decision, issued on May 17, 1954, was “the first major step in dis
mantling the 'separate but equal’ doctrine that justified Jim Crow,” the racial segregation laws that were
in place at the state and local level across the South.
“As we commemorate this historic anniversary, we recommit ourselves to the long struggle to stamp
out bigotry and racism in all their forms,” Obama said. “We reaffirm our belief that all children deserve
an education worthy of their promise. And we remember that change did not come overnight, that it took
many years and a nationwide movement to fully realize the dream of civil rights for all of God’s children.”
Obama pledged to never forget the men, women and children who took “extraordinary risks in order
to make our country more fair and more free.”
“Today, it falls on us to honor their legacy by taking our place in their march and doing our part to
perfect the union we love,” he said.
First lady Michelle Obama observed the anniversary by visiting Topeka, Kansas, site of the lawsuit
that initiated the case. She met May 16 with high school students in a college preparatory program and
delivered remarks at a pre-graduation event for seniors in the Topeka Public School District.
North Carolina NAACP, Forward Together Moral Movement Statement on Return of Moral Mondays to Raleigh by Rev. Barber
Durham - This afternoon at 5 pm, the North Carolina NAACP and the Forward Together Moral Move
ment will join together at Moral Monday in Raleigh to petition our lawmakers to repeal these laws that
are hurting our state’s most vulnerable and to restore our confidence in their ability to govern for the good
of the whole.
To explain the return of Moral Mondays to Raleigh, we have released the following public statement:
“Nearly a year ago, we joined together in moral witness again the extremist assault on North Caro
lina’s working families and the poor, our state’s unemployed, the hundreds of thousands without health-
care and our embattled public schools. Despite the state constitution’s mandate that citizens have the
right to “assemble to consult for the common good” and “apply to the General Assembly for redress of
grievances,” the General Assembly authorities ordered seventeen of us arrested for violating the vague
and unconstitutional building rules. Eventually, tens of thousands joined our protests. By the end of the
session, the authorities hadjailed 945 protestors on the same shaky charges. The whole nation took notice
of our moral stand, and citizens organized similar protests in many other states.
“The growing Moral Monday - Forward Together Movement refused to allow Thom Tillis and his
extremist “super-majority” to pursue their morally bankrupt agenda in the dark. We shined a bright light
on what was happening in our General Assembly. Most North Carolinians did not like the hard-hearted,
ideologically driven and morally bankrupt policies that were shoved into law. As Gov. McCrory and the
extremist legislature saw their poll numbers plummet, our protests swelled with large numbers of youth
becoming engaged, many seniors offering their wisdom, North Carolina’s clergy on fire for justice and
mercy and our movement taking the moral high ground. Independents, Democrats and Republicans alike
joined our volunteer army of love, which was black and white and Latino, Asian and native American,
Jewish and Muslim, uninsured workers and health professionals, educators and students, gay and straight,
environmentalists and labor. Moral Monday won the endorsement of United Methodist, Jewish, Episco
palian, Presbyterian, Lutheran Evangelical and Roman Catholic denominational leaders, among others.
“Despite public disapproval, the General Assembly:
* cut education, health care and environmental protections as well as enacted a regressive and fiscally
irresponsible tax plan, raising taxes on the poor and working families while giving huge tax breaks to the
super-wealthy;
* rejected the federally-funded Medicaid expansion, risking the health of half a million uninsured and
damaging the state economy;
* slashed unemployment insurance to give North Carolina the most severe unemployment laws in
America, creating a disastrous and sudden cut-off of benefits to unemployed workers and their families;
* created a school voucher program that directs ten million tax dollars to private, unaccountable pri
vate and religious schools;
* passed a monster voter suppression law that will undermine voting rights and impede voting for
thousands;
* intruded into the relationship between women and their doctors;
* and issued administrative rules that expedites “fracking” and endangers the state’s water supplies.
“When the legislative session ended, the Moral Monday - Forward Together Movement took our pro
tests to cities, towns and rural communities across North Carolina, from Mitchell County in the mountains
to Dare County at the Outer Banks. In February, tens of thousands came to a Moral March on Raleigh.
“Despite our efforts, the policies pursued in these chambers have had a devastating effect on hundreds
of thousands of North Carolinians who were already suffering. The leaders of this extremist “super-ma
jority” remain deaf to the cries of the needy whom Jesus called “the least ofthese.” Gov. McCrory, Thom
Tillis and other Tea-Party-backed extremists called us “outsiders,” mocked us as
“morons” and derided us as “losers,” but they still could not explain how their legislative agenda meets
the basic standards of human decency. And now they hide behind a cloak of civility while they pass laws
that take away our voting rights, deny us health care and put government in the service of the rich.
“We have come back to call upon Thom Tillis and his extremist “super-majority” to repent from their
attacks on our public schools and our teachers, to repeal the shutdown of the Earned Income Tax Credit
for 900,000 lower income families and the fat tax cuts for the rich and to restore North Carolina to its
traditional moral values of kindness, decency and fairness. We have come back because our religious tra
ditions and moral reasoning lead us in a different direction, away from the unwise and inhumane policies
being pushed by the extremists in the General Assembly.
“The Moral Monday - Forward Together Movement is coming back to follow our rights under the
North Carolina Constitution and once again “assemble together to consult for the common good” and
“apply to the General Assembly for redress of our grievances.” Not surprisingly, however, the extremist
leadership has already changed the rules of the building, which Thom Tillis publicly referred to as “my
House,” in order to restrict our freedom of speech. In response to the thousands who gathered at the
People’s House during the last session, the extremists have banned signs or speech that may “imminently
disturb the General Assembly” and banned press conferences. Some of the new rules are plainly uncon
stitutional, while others are unfair or invite selective enforcement. All this is merely an effort to bully and
intimidate the people ofNorth Carolina.
“The book of Micah asks all of us to ponder a serious question. ‘What does the Lord require of you?
But to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God?’ It is in a spirit of openness to the Biblical
prophet’s question that we gather here as people of faith and citizens ofNorth Carolina. We have written
to Gov. McCrory and to both legislative chambers, asking them to reconsider their assault on the poor,
the many thousands of our state’s unemployed, our many citizens without healthcare and our embattled
public schools.
“So we have no other choice but to assemble in the People’s House where these bills are being pre
sented, argued and voted upon in hopes that God will move in the hearts of our legislators, as he moved
in the heart of Pharaoh to let His people go. Some ask the question, ‘Why don’t they be quiet?’ We remind
them that it was our collective silence that unwittingly opened the city gates to these extremist forces. If
we must pray forgiveness for anything today, it will be the silence with which we once allowed this to
happen quietly and without protest. Thoreau said in his famous essay, “Civil Disobedience,” that if he
had to repent of anything, it would be his good behavior. ‘What possessed me,’ he asked himself, ‘that I
behaved so well in the face of such wrong?’
“We welcome old friends and new to this celebration ofthe spirit ofjustice, love and freedom. We are
glad to recognize the faces of our fellow citizens and for each of us to know that we are standing together
for the highest values that we hold in common. We are grateful to everyone who has come to Raleigh to
be a voice for the voiceless and to resist the spirit of domination and the rule of money.
“Make no mistake about it: this has become the making of something new in the Old North State. We
are calling together a coalition of goodwill, a nonviolent volunteer army of love, to oppose this legisla
ture’s heartless, ideologically driven agenda. We call on all people of good will to join us, that we might
build the bridges of understanding, not the walls of division. We call on all residents of North Carolina
who believe in the common good to pray and partner with us as we use the tools of protest to illuminate
for the nation the shameful acts taking place here. We are not alone. We shall speak and we shall act. We
will become “the trumpet of conscience” and “the beloved community” that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. called upon us to be, echoing the God of our mothers and fathers in the faith. Now is the time. Here is
the place. We are the people. And we will be heard.”