2115 K STREET 916 498-1898 SACRAMENTO. CA WWW.Canaacp.org CANAACP 95814 ONE BLACK MAN IS KILLED EVERY 28 HOURS BY POLICE OR VIGILANTES: THE NEW CIVIL WAR IS WHITE ON BLACK RACE WAR IN AMERICA IS STRONGER AND MORE, GENOCIDAL TODAY THAN EVER BEFORE WHERE IS THE OUTCRY TO SAVE OUR COMMUNITY? The first African servants, slaves, and explorers arrived in the Americas in 1492 on the Sana Maria with Columbus. To encourage Spanish immigration to the Americas in 1517, each settler was allowed to import 12 African slaves, thus, the Atlantic slave trade began. Anti-slavery efforts began immediately. Slaves were the free labor source that built America. The first formal anti-slave law was passed in 1630 in Massachusetts to protect slaves who had run away because of cruel treatment. Indentured slaves sued for their freedom and in 1652 Rhode Island passed the first anti-slave law limiting slavery to 10 years. By the 1700’s, nearly 4 million slaves occupied the Americas. Anti-slavery efforts began immediately. There were slave revolts, rebellions and at the same time a proliferation of slave laws were enacted across this country. Nat Turner, Harriett Tubman, Denmark Vesey, Sojourner Truth and other African- Americans were not the only ones that were vigilant in the abolishment of slavery. There was a considerable amount of white Christians, beginning in 1754 known as the Society of Friends who considered manumitting their slaves on the grounds of morality; later in 1758 at a Philadelphia meeting of The Friends they voted to ban buyers and sellers of slaves from their society. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed by a small group of white Americans who believed there was an urgent need for an effective civil rights organization. The catalyst was The Race Riot of 1908 in Abraham Lincoln's hometown of Springfield, Illinois which highlighted the urgency of the situation in the U.S. This event is often cited as the catalyst for the formation of the NAACP. Mary White Ovington, journalist William English Walling and Henry Moskowitz met in New York City in January 1909 where the idea of the NAACP was born. The NAACP was founded on February 12, 1909 by a diverse group composed of W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, Archibald Grimké, Henry Moskowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villard, William English Walling (the last son of a former slave-holding family), Florence Kelley, a social reformer and friend of Du Bois and Charles Edward Russell. Du Bois played a key role in organizing the event and presided over the proceedings. Although the NAACP was for the advancement of African-Americans in America, all of the elected officers were white except DuBois. The organization was financed mostly by the Jewish community. The Jews realized they shared a common thread with African-Americans. Jews and African-Americas were both forced into slavery as well as faced sub-standard living conditions in the ghettos that they involuntarily populated. It was important to stress the similarities of African-American and Jews. Convinced that the two groups would benefit the most from equal rights in America, Jews began traveling down South in the 1960’s to challenge Jim Crow Laws. As a member of the Princeton chapter of the NAACP, Albert Einstein corresponded with Du Bois, and in 1946 Einstein called racism "America's worst disease.” Du Bois continued to play a pivotal role in the organization and served as editor of the association's magazine, The Crisis which had a circulation of over 30,000. This brings me to the point of this writing as I, a civil rights leader participate in protests over police brutality and a disparate criminal justice system. The police brutality of today is reminiscent of the lynchings that went on for many years at the turn of the 19th century. While today we think the lynchings were done primarily by the Ku Klux Klan, laws across this land legalized it. African- Americans received unfair or no trials and on a whim, were lynched or falsely imprisoned. What is different today? There are so many young African American men and women dying by police force prior to a trial that it is alarming. In 2012 there were 313 reported killings of African Americans by law enforcement.124 or 40% were between 22 and 31 years old. 57 or 18% were between 18 and 21years old. 54 or 17% were between 32 and 41 years old. 18 or 6% were older than 52. 3 or 1% were of unknown ages. 68 people or 22% suffered from mental illness. 43% occurred after racial profiling 24 % after 9-1-1 calls and 19% after domestic violence. 7%of innocent people were killed for no reason at all. 2 This violence is accepted. Everyone knows that when it is particularly egregious and high profile, a few activists will rally, demonstrate, and demand an investigation. The cops committing the assaults or murders are put on administrative leave pending an investigation by their peers. They are almost always found innocent and even when indicted, they are found not guilty. This has become the routine. What’s different today? The NAACP devoted much of its energy during the interwar years to fighting the lynching of blacks throughout the United States by working for legislation, lobbying and educating the public. This was not left exclusively to African- Americans but by whites also who cared about social justice and the plight of African Americans. Where do we stand in America today? We are victims of America’s criminal justice system that was built around racist laws; a failing public school system that for the most part has relegated African-Americans to a second class education; we are disproportionately abused by tactics played out by law enforcement in the war on drugs; we have the highest unemployment; we continue to suffer from the shock of being stranded at the end of slavery without means to survive when this country reneged on reparations. Even today, we are exploited by drug lords who used our addiction to fund foreign wars. Now that we refuse to be enslaved, there is no perceived relevance or role for us in keeping the America strong that was built from the free labor of our ancestors. I submit that there is no hue and cry from white Americans over the treatment of African- Americans because they probably view us as irrelevant until one political side needs our votes to win an election. The NACCP did a study of eight race riots and 41 lynchings called Thirty Years of Lynching in the United States to highlight the problem. The NAACP also spent more than a decade seeking federal legislation against lynching, but Southern white Democrats voted as a block against it or used the filibuster in the Senate to block passage. Because of disfranchisement, there were no black representatives from the South in Congress. The NAACP regularly displayed a black flag stating , "A Man Was Lynched Yesterday", from the window of its offices in New York to mark each lynching. Actually, we could fly the same flag today saying an African- American was killed today by law enforcement; an African American was sentenced in court unfairly for a crime he or she did not commit because of little or no legal representation; an African-American child’s brain was damaged due to inferior public education. I write this as the news flashes on the Missouri murder by law enforcement of Michael Brown, and pending a meeting with the highway Patrol Commissioner Joe Farrow on the freeway beating of Marlene Pinnock in California, and on to 3 reflect on Renisha McBride, Eric Garner, Ezelle Ford, Trayvon Martin, Rodney King, Oscar Grant, Amandou Diallo, and on and on. African American victims at the hands of law enforcement, listed by state since 1951 is in the thousands. What’s up with Americans? African Americans are only 13.1% of the population. Where are our allies? Was the election of President Barrack Obama meant to cure and heal all? Where is the empathy? Where are the Christians? The scholars? What elected official will say enough is enough? What law enforcement leader will courageously stand apart from his or her clan and put protective practices into law on our behalf? What happened to our Jewish relations? Who will stand with us in our darkest hours? Will it be those who benefitted from the hoses that were sprayed against the civil right workers in the South; the ones who were murdered, to move human rights and race relations forward? Other causes propelled forward because of this brave work done in the South. Will it be the other ethnic minority groups and white women who benefitted? Or will it be the gays who came to us for support; or will it be the Latinos who garner our support on every one of their issues and see if together we could all move forward? Will the Jewish community return to their original mission of advocating and investing in our rights; or will it be majority citizens who just believe in justice and the constitution of the United States of America? Do we just worry about Genocide in the Middle East and ignore it at home as we are murdered by law enforcement, or killed by one of our own that suffers from the social maladies of the oppressed hopelessness of urbanism? The bigger question is who besides us really care about us? Alice A.Huffman, President, CA/Hi State Conference NAACP National board member Sources Wikipedia and the Time Table of African American History.