Since the convention officially began Saturday, July 22, members and supporters of the civil rights organization passionately and unapologetically slammed Trump’s proposals on criminal justice, education and voting.
The Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the NAACP Detroit branch, called Trump’s voter fraud commission “a scam.”
“If you want to fix something, Mr. Trump, about our election [process], let’s start with the people on your own commission,” Anthony said while hundreds in the audience clapped and yelled inside the Baltimore Convention Center on Monday, July 24. “And above all, get the Russians the Hell out of our national election. I apologize. I’m from the city of Detroit and sometimes when I think about all this stuff, I get the inner-city blues.”
The NAACP also took care of its own business this week by appointing Derrick Johnson as interim CEO and president of the organization. Johnson, of Jackson, Mississippi, served as the vice chairman on the group’s national board of directors and president for the Mississippi State Conference of NAACP.
Jackson said about 52 percent of blacks in the United States reside in the South, which also has some of the most damaging voter laws.
“This is a crucial time for the NAACP,” Johnson said. “People have the audacity to ask if we’re relevant because we are not demonstrating in the streets…We’re going to be here. We exist in a way in which no other organization can show up.”
One of the group’s future plans focuses on the 2018 midterm elections.
Led by the NAACP’s D.C. branch, attendees picked up copies to highlight when U.S. senators and governors are up for re-election.
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