NAACP chief: Voter ID fight akin to ’60s battles
HOUSTON — The head of the NAACP on Monday likened the group’s fight against conservative-backed voter ID laws that have been passed in several states to the great civil rights battles of the 1960s. Benjamin Todd Jealous, the CEO and president of the Baltimore-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said these are […]
Committee looks into race, incarceration
About 74 percent of inmates in Maryland’s prisons are black — a racial gap one state committee wants to close, though it does not yet know how. Nine of the 17 members of Maryland Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights heard testimony from attorneys, members of the state government and representatives from […]
NAACP chief: Marriage equality is a civil right
NAACP President Benjamin Jealous said Monday he hopes the group’s resolution supporting same-sex marriage will encourage blacks to support civil marriage equality as a civil right if the question is put to voters on the ballot in Maryland or other states. The civil rights group’s resolution was significant, as only 39 percent of blacks favor […]
NAACP head to give keynote at LGBT conference
NAACP President Benjamin Jealous will deliver the keynote speech at a national conference on rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Jealous is scheduled to speak at the conference Thursday night in Baltimore. Under Jealous, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People launched an equality task force for the LGBT community. […]
Kweisi Mfume endorses Sen. Cardin
Former Maryland Congressman Kweisi Mfume is endorsing Sen. Ben Cardin’s bid for re-election as the senator faces a Democratic primary challenge. Cardin’s campaign announced Mfume’s support Friday. Mfume, the former president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, called Cardin a “principled leader who understands that compromise is possib[...]
NAACP lays out plans to build voter turnout
LOS ANGELES — The NAACP plans a big push to increase minority turnout in the 2012 elections, hoping to gain political influence and turn back what the civil rights group says are efforts in various states to deny minorities the right to vote. To do it, the group is going to reach out to black […]
NAACP chief focuses on voting laws at convention
LOS ANGELES — The NAACP plans to spend the next year fighting against a slew of voting laws that it says disenfranchise huge swaths of minority voters, the civil rights organization’s president said at the group’s convention on Monday. Benjamin Todd Jealous said legislation promoted by what he called racist elements in the tea party […]