“…When our budgets reflect the nation’s commitment to jobs and justice, and peace we’ll keep our eyes on that prize…”

“…I’d rather have a guy calling me a name with no power, than a guy smiling at me that has state’s rights power as the government…”

Reverend Jesse Jackson.

There was a question and answer session with the media at the end of yesterday’s press conference:

….Question: …Dave Helling, Kansas City Star.  Uh, Reverend Jackson, you suggested the tea party resolution was a diversion. What did you mean by that? And maybe some of the other members, uh, could, uh, address today’s pushback, Sarah Palin and others that issued statements calling it divisive, inappropriate, that type of thing, sad. Could you talk just a little bit about the tea party resolution?…

(left to right) Reverend Jesse Jackson, Reverend Al Sharpton, NAACP National Board Member Clayola Brow, NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous, NAACP Vice President for Communications Leila McDowell.

…Reverend Jesse Jackson: My point is the agenda we must address is put America back to work, whether you’re in rural Alabama, whether you’re in Appalachia. Put America back to work.  The economy collapsed because banks were not overseen and to their own greed drove us into a hole. They bailed the banks out without linking it to lending and to saving our homes. That’s the focus. People in West Virginia were killed in a coal mine because workplace laws were not enforced, workplace safety. We have this crisis in the Gulf of Mexico because the environmental protection laws are not honored and mining minerals company got colluded with BP and created this crisis. So while they media has a certain sensational taste for arguing, uh, about other groups our focus is put America back to work. And there’s a sense in which our, we are bailing out, with a plan, Afghanistan, bailing out with a plan, Iraq, bailing out the banks, comprehensive immigration reform. Urban America, unemployment among blacks around twenty-seven to thirty-five percent, um, three times beyond the national average. That’s a state of emergency. We want that emergency addressed. And, uh, we used to sing a song in the South. And there were different groups arguing against our case – Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on, hold on – we’ll focus on that prize in, in that, in that room in that big tent, all Americans.

Question: Uh, Reverend Sharpton, could you talk a little bit about the push back and whether you think it’s a diversion to talk about the tea party?

Reverend Al Sharpton: I was in, uh, Alabama night before last and one of the ministers hosting me showed me the court house of George Wallace. The issue in the fifties and sixties was not that George Wallace may or may not have been a racist, the issue was he that he was the governor and could stand in the school house door as governor and stop people from going to jail. The media wants to concentrate on our saying there are elements in the tea party this is racist rather than saying the philosophy of the tea party is anti civil rights, ’cause they’re promoting pro state’s rights on immigration, pro state’s rights across the board which will turn back the clock of civil rights. So, you got part of the sermon without the text. The context is the tea party as a political philosophy is to reverse what civil rights did and that is say the federal government must protect people, whether it’s in Arizona on immigration, or South Carolina on civil rights. And I don’t think Miss Palin or anyone else can deny that they are supporting states to supersede the federal government in these areas. That is the context that, uh, President Jealous and others said, yes, there are elements in there that’s racist, but if you pull down the race signs, and you still want to return to statehood type of governmental operation you will have reversed what King and Wilkins and them did. So, I think the emphasis, the media likes to get into who called the name. I’d rather have a guy calling me a name with no power, than a guy smiling at me that has state’s rights power as the government. That’s what this is about. And that’s why we’ve called for these gatherings.

Question: But how [crosstalk] do we get to fo…

Leila McDowell, Vice President for Communications for the NAACP: We can, what’s, excuse me, we can take one more question. Go ahead.

Question: Eric Wesson, The Call newspaper. How do you get the focus back now away from the tea party resolution back on jobs [crosstalk] and the things that people are [inaudible].

Reverend Al Sharpton: Easy. You all need to ask them to deny or admit whether they’re for state’s rights and breaking down where labor laws, work to right laws in states, immigration, civil rights, all of that. Since you all got it out there. It’s like getting center stage. You all got it the show set, now tell ’em, sing. Sing on whether or not they agree on state’s rights. You all have limited the debate on whether they called us a name, rather than trying to change the Kingian form of government. So I don’t want you to get off the tea party, I want you to make them answer the right question. I don’t care if they like me.  What I care is they try to change the power equation that’s going to protect us. And that’s what Ben Jealous and all of us said.

Question: Ben, Ben could you talk to us about that a little bit? [crosstalk]

Leila McDowell: Um, okay, I’m sorry [crosstalk] we have other reporters and we have to, after Reverend Jackson we have to end it. I’m so sorry.

Reverend Jesse Jackson: What I want to focus on, there are fifty million Americans that can’t get three meals a day. Forty million Americans are in poverty. Twenty million have no job. We cannot re-fund unemployment compensation, but we’re gonna fund a war with no end in sight. And all across America we’re closing schools and building jails. We focus on racing to the top but we need prenatal care, Head Start, and daycare, bottom up, so not to have jail kind of welfare on the back end. So on August twenty-eighth we, around, will be marching in Washington and Detroit and unemployment offices focusing on jobs and justice and peace. Jobs and justice and peace. When our budgets reflect the nation’s commitment to jobs and justice, and peace we’ll keep our eyes on that prize. And come October second we’ll be there in even greater numbers together. Jobs and justice and peace. We will not be diverted nor otherwise distracted by any other messages except put America back to work. We want jobs and justice and peace. Thank you so much.

Leila McDowell: And we’ll have President Jealous. We’re gonna have President Jealous give the last words.

Benjamin Todd Jealous: The, um, we, we considered seventy, approximately seventy-five resolutions at this convention. There’s only one that the media’s focused on. Sixteen of those resolutions were on criminal justice, more than a dozen were on the issue of, of education.  I gave a forty-two page speech, half of one page addressed the tea party. That’s all anybody’s talk
ed about. We need the media to pay attention to the issues that are most important to this country. It’s fine if you want to pay, focus on one half of one page of a forty-two page speech. But we’d appreciate you focus on at least half the other pages, too. Or, or half of another page. We talked about education, we talked about jobs, we talked about criminal justice. We talked about this march where we have people from hundreds of communities across the country who have been here for days planning for a very big and robust march on Washington to put the focus back on jobs, to make sure that the issue of education is dealt with, to make sure that what Frederick Douglass said about com, uh, about the issue of, of immigration, actually goes into action which is that we base it on human rights principles and not mere expediency. That’s what all of us have been saying.

Thank you and God bless, we’ll see you inside the panel….

Previously:

The 101st NAACP National Convention in Kansas City

NAACP in Kansas City: Benjamin Todd Jealous at the opening press conference

NAACP in Kansas City: EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson at the opening press conference

NAACP in Kansas City: report on the impact of the BP oil spill in the Gulf region

NAACP in Kansas City: Sunday – photos

NAACP in Kansas City: Michelle Obama – photos

NAACP in Kansas City: Representative Sheila Jackson Lee on the tea party and human rights

NAACP in Kansas City: Senator Claire McCaskill (D) – “Now is no time to quit.”

NAACP in Kansas City: Representative Emanuel Cleaver – “Don’t you forget it!”

NAACP in Kansas City: Wednesday afternoon press conference – photos

NAACP in Kansas City: Rev. Al Sharpton – “There clearly is some racial leaves in their tea bag…”

NAACP in Kansas City: Rev. Jesse Jackson – “We want jobs, justice, and education for all.”

NAACP in Kansas City: Benjamin Todd Jealous – “…we all need a testament of hope…”

NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous was the third of three speakers at yesterday afternoon’s press conference at the NAACP National Convention in Kansas City.

(left to right) Benjamin Todd Jealous, Reverend Al Sharpton, Clayola Brown, Reverend Jesse Jackson.

….Benjamin Todd Jealous, NAACP President and CEO: Thank you, good afternoon. [voices: “Good afternoon.”] There’s no one in this country who works harder on behalf of working people than the three people standing right behind me. It’s an honor to be on the stage with all of them.

Eight twenty-eight will be a springboard to ten-two-ten. It’ll be a wake up call to, to the country. We will be asking faith leaders across the country the month of September to preach and teach at their houses of worship about the values of human rights and human dignity, true meaning of Dr. King’s words and the words of all the others who spoke that day in nineteen sixty-three and all of those of us who believe in human rights and human dignity.

Ten-two-ten is being put together by over a hundred and fifty organizations, including many of the largest civil rights organizations, religious denominations and labor organizations in this country. It is intended to show that we are at a place in this country where the majority of people just want to focus on what’s important – be able to put food on the kitchen table, be able to be treated fairly, insure that this economy works for all of us – [inaudible] working class people of all colors, struggling families of all colors. And this march on ten-two-ten really will be a reminder, will be a reflection of the country. You will see Teamsters there, you will NAACPers there, National Action Network and Rainbow and PUSH and National Council of La Raza and LULAC and Jews and Christians and Baptists, Episcopalians and Muslims and Buddhists – all together.

We are one nation and we all need a testament of hope. And that testament of hope for so many families is simply a job and a fair shake.  So I want to thank Reverend Sharpton, I want to thank Reverend Jackson, I want to thank Miss Brown, President Brown of the Randolph Institute {AFL-CIO], for their support of ten-two-ten and for coming together with us to say put America back to work, pull America back together. Thank you very much….

Benjamin Todd Jealous was also on Keith Olbermann last night, in reference to the NAACP national convention resolution on racist elements in the tea party:

….Benjamin Todd Jealous: You know, we got death threats at our office in, uh, Los Angeles today. And, you know, if there aren’t violent racists in the tea party then why are people calling threatening to kill us for speaking out about violent racists in the tea party?

Keith Olbermann: I don’t mean to laugh, but it does sort of prove your point, uh, rather self evidently….

Evidently.

Previously:

The 101st NAACP National Convention in Kansas City

NAACP in Kansas City: Benjamin Todd Jealous at the opening press conference

NAACP in Kansas City: EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson at the opening press conference

NAACP in Kansas City: report on the impact of the BP oil spill in the Gulf region

NAACP in Kansas City: Sunday – photos

NAACP in Kansas City: Michelle Obama – photos

NAACP in Kansas City: Representative Sheila Jackson Lee on the tea party and human rights

NAACP in Kansas City: Senator Claire McCaskill (D) – “Now is no time to quit.”

NAACP in Kansas City: Representative Emanuel Cleaver – “Don’t you forget it!”

NAACP in Kansas City: Wednesday afternoon press conference – photos

NAACP in Kansas City: Rev. Al Sharpton – “There clearly is some racial leaves in their tea bag…”

NAACP in Kansas City: Rev. Jesse Jackson – “We want jobs, justice, and education for all.”

BGinKC Jobs, and Justice and Peace. Keep our eyes on THAT prize. –Jesse Jackson #NAACP101 #NAACP about 3 hours ago via web

Waiting for the start of the press conference.

(left to right) Reverend Jesse Jackson, NAACP President and CE0 Benjamin Todd Jealous, Reverend Al Sharpton.

Reverend Al Sharpton.

Reverend Jesse Jackson.

Benjamin Todd Jealous.

(left to right) Benjamin Todd Jealous, Reverend Al Sharpton, NAACP National Board Member Clayola Brown, Reverend Jesse Jackson.

Previously:

The 101st NAACP National Convention in Kansas City

NAACP in Kansas City: Benjamin Todd Jealous at the opening press conference

NAACP in Kansas City: EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson at the opening press conference

NAACP in Kansas City: Sunday – photos

NAACP in Kansas City: Michelle Obama – photos

NAACP in Kansas City: Representative Sheila Jackson Lee on the tea party and human rights

NAACP in Kansas City: Senator Claire McCaskill (D) – “Now is no time to quit.”

NAACP in Kansas City: Representative Emanuel Cleaver – “Don’t you forget it!”

First Lady Michelle Obama addressed the NAACP National Convention for its first plenary session, focusing her remarks on the problems of childhood obesity and her effort to address the problem through her Let’s Move campaign. Prior to her speech Senator Claire McCaskill (D) and Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D) addressed the audience with brief remarks.

First Lady Michelle Obama speaking at the NAACP National Convention in Kansas City.

Yeah, we know. The main press riser was 110 feet from the stage and we weren’t lugging a 400 mm telephoto lens because they’re really heavy and we can’t afford one.

Senator Claire McCaskill (D).

Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D).

Photographers on the main press riser.

The much smaller cut riser to the right of the stage was so packed it looked like a raft with survivors of the Titanic, except in this case they were holding really expensive cameras.

An introductory hug – Roslyn Brock, Chairman of the NAACP National Board of Directors, greets First Lady Michelle Obama after introducing her.

There was standing room only at the back of the seating area.

A standing ovation from the audience after Michelle Obama’s speech.

NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous speaking to the media on the main press riser after Michelle Obama’s speech.

There was so much crowd noise after the session ended that we really couldn’t hear what anyone was saying on the press riser during the press availability. A credentialed still photographer handed me his high end camera and asked me to take a picture of him with Benjamin Todd Jealous. Guess what happens when you hand a Ferrari over to someone who doesn’t have one? The result ain’t pretty. And no, I didn’t drop the camera.

Previously:

The 101st NAACP National Convention in Kansas City

NAACP in Kansas City: Benjamin Todd Jealous at the opening press conference

NAACP in Kansas City: EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson at the opening press conference

NAACP in Kansas City: Sunday – photos

Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP.

There was an extensive opening press conference for the NAACP national convention this afternoon at the Kansas City Convention Center. Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP, spoke on the economy and the goal of the convention:

Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO, NAACP: ….These are tough times in our country. History has shown us that in tough times like these, great recessions and great depressions, there’s really only two choices, people of this country. Either we run downhill towards hate and division or we continue to push uphill towards progress and hope.  That choice of hope, not hate, the choice that the NAACP made a hundred and one years ago during a period of tough times – our country was being torn apart when black men were being burnt, hung from trees and burned, Catholic men and Jewish men, to a lesser extent. We were founded to resurrect the dream of Abraham Lincoln that this be truly one nation.  Because we knew that all of its people only had one dream. Which is the great American dream – universal access to prosperity and the things needed to realize the full potential within all of us…

 

…We come here this year, tough times – tough times in Kansas City, tough times in Missouri, tough times in our nation as a whole. People are impatient. They want to see results. They want to see change. They in many instances want to see all of the change that they voted for two years ago.

And there are, there is once again an insurgent movement in this country to tear this country apart. And if we pull off the veneer what we see behind them are wealthy law firms and fancy lobbyists like Dick Armey, this faux populist rage represented by the Tea Party. There is nothing new, and what is new is that this group of people is smaller than they have ever been in our society, smaller than the White Citizens Council, smaller than the Klan of the nineteen-twenties, but divisive and dangerous.

This convention is going on simultaneously with the convention of the National Council of La Raza and to the conventions of many religious and labor organizations around the country. All of whom have come together to begin pushing the country back uphill towards hope and prosperity, building our country up and making sure that jobs is job one for us. It is outrageous that the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Congress felt entitled  to go out on vacation without passing unemployment insurance. To take this let them eat hotdogs approach to starving families around the country, as if they could afford a hotdog when they’re surviving on three hundred dollars a week and you just decide to stop paying them because you would rather stop debating the issue and just get home to glad hand campaign.  It is disturbing that our Congress can find thirty-two billion dollars for war but can’t find twenty-three billion dollars to save hundreds of thousands of teacher’s jobs.

And it is time for the people of this country, the, the dynamic majority of this country that made history two years ago to reassert itself in streets across the country and say enough is enough, let jobs be job one. If we gotta spend more money to get out of the great recession, let’s do it, ’cause that’s what got us out of the Great Depression. We focused on creating jobs, we put the country back to work, and we pulled the country back together.

That will be our focus with our membership. That is our call to the country. And you will see the biggest mobilization in years on the Mall on October 2nd, one month before the election, to make sure that everbody’s, who is running for office in this country understands that jobs has to be job one.

Thank you and God bless. It’s going to be a great convention, we’re excited. [applause]

Previously:

The 101st NAACP National Convention in Kansas City