Greene County Democrat

Tag: NAACP President

  • Newswire : Biden Administration unveils new initiatives to combat school segregation on Brown v. Board 70th Anniversary

    Descendants of families involved in historic Supreme Court decision, along with NAACP President, Derrick Johnson, address school desegregation 


    By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent


    On the 70th anniversary of the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision, President Joe Biden emphasized his administration’s commitment to educational equity by announcing new funding and resources aimed at enhancing school diversity and tackling racial segregation. The landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling declared racially segregated schools unconstitutional, but recent data reveals persistent inequities in U.S. education.

    “Every student deserves access to a high-quality education that prepares them to be the next generation of leaders,” President Biden stated. To further this goal, the Biden-Harris Administration introduced several initiatives, including a $20 million investment through the Department of Education’s Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP). This funding will support magnet programs in states such as Arkansas, Colorado, and Florida, designed to attract students from diverse backgrounds.

    Additionally, the administration’s 2025 budget proposal seeks $139 million for MSAP and $10 million for the Fostering Diverse Schools program.
    Moreover, a new Technical Assistance Center on Fiscal Equity will assist states and districts in developing fair resource allocation strategies. The initiative aims to address the stark resource disparities that exist between racially and economically segregated schools.

    Stephen Benjamin, senior adviser to Biden and former mayor of Columbia, South Carolina, acknowledged the ongoing challenges. “There’s an acknowledgment every day with our president that we’re not where we ought to be, but we’re certainly not where we used to be. Still a lot of work to be done,” Benjamin declared.

    The research underscores the strong correlation between school segregation and racial achievement gaps. The desegregation following Brown significantly boosted graduation rates for Black and Latino students. However, recent decades have seen a reversal, with segregation between white and Black students increasing by 64% since 1988, and economic segregation rising by 50% since 1991. According to the Department of Education’s State of School Diversity Report, racially isolated schools often lack the critical resources necessary for student success.

    To combat these trends, the Department of Education announced the release of new data on access to math and science courses, highlighting ongoing racial disparities. The administration said it also plans to launch an interagency effort to preserve African American history, ensuring that students and the public have access to essential historical and cultural resources.

    Officials noted that the American Rescue Plan has directed $130 billion to the nation’s schools, with a focus on underserved institutions. This includes nearly $2 billion in additional Title I funding, and a five-fold increase in funding for Full-Service Community Schools, which provide essential services to students and families in need.

    Recognizing the importance of teacher diversity, the administration has prioritized efforts to increase the number of educators of color. Competitive grant programs have awarded $450 million to support teacher recruitment and retention, with a particular focus on diversity. Additionally, the Augustus F. Hawkins Centers of Excellence Grant program has provided over $23 million to HBCUs, TCCUs, and MSIs for teacher preparation.

    The president met with family members of the plaintiffs from the Brown v. Board case. Cheryl Brown Henderson, daughter of lead plaintiff Oliver Brown, expressed the ongoing struggle for educational equity. “We’re still fighting the battle over whose children do we invest in. Any time we can talk about failing underfunded public schools, there is a problem,” Henderson said. NAACP President Derrick Johnson, also in attendance, affirmed, “We must continue to fight on all fronts.”

    As the nation reflects on seven decades since Brown v. Board of Education, the White House said that the Biden Administration’s initiatives signal a renewed effort to fulfill the promise of equitable education for all. Schools “remain divided along racial, ethnic, and economic lines,” according to a 2022 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. “With around 18.5 million children attending schools where 75 percent or more of students were of a single race or ethnicity.”
     

  • Newswire: NAACP launches ‘Covid know more,’ An innovative initiative empowering Black Americans with latest information, resources and updates on COVID-19

    Derrick Johnson, NAACP President

    BALTIMORE — With the country showing increasing signs of reopening each day, the tendency exists among some to forget the most devastating impacts of COVID-19. In many of our most vulnerable communities, the battle against the disease continues to rage on as Americans contend with not just high infection rates, but also the pandemic’s long term health implications and unprecedented economic setbacks. The NAACP, the nation’s largest and most pre-eminent civil rights organization, in seeking to ensure that our communities continue to stay informed and get the facts they need to make best decisions for their families and communities, today announced the creation and launch of an essential and exciting new national initiative, ‘COVID. KNOW MORE.’ The campaign, which kicked-off this morning, has been conceived with the intent of providing to Black Americans the most comprehensive suite of relevant information and resources on COVID-19 available, curated specifically for them. The mainstay of the NAACP’s ‘COVID. KNOW MORE’ effort is a now live, multifaceted online information hub housing a broad array of features designed to empower African Americans’ decision making as they navigate the pandemic—at their own convenience. The hub, which can be accessed at naacp.org/covidknowmore, stands as one user-friendly, central place for individuals, community groups, partners and NAACP branches alike to find the latest news and information, research, resources, science-based guidance and updates from medical experts. The platform further reinforces the NAACP as the most visible and trusted resource for African Americans on the health crisis. “The NAACP is continuing its work to help our most vulnerable citizens and communities safely navigate back to normalcy while countering the ongoing devastation of COVID-19,” said Derrick Johnson, NAACP president and CEO. Through our pioneering ‘COVID Unmasked’ virtual town hall series, local mask distributions and other COVID education efforts, the NAACP has been dedicated to fighting this pandemic from the outset. COVID. KNOW MORE is the natural evolution to continue to expand not only the information provided to our communities, but also to address the long-term implications and impacts of the pandemic and systemic disparities.” The NAACP has commissioned proprietary research, which will be featured and updated bi-monthly, taking a consistent pulse of Black America’s status and progress as we collectively progress toward full recovery. African Americans surveyed have expressed ongoing concerns about the vaccines, the rise of COVID-19 variants, public adherence to guidelines, jobs availability, safely returning to work and other factors affecting their daily lives. The key learnings from this exclusive polling will serve to fill in the information gaps, and further strengthen our communities as they build back given the expressed need for reliable updates on the factors impacting their daily lives over the coming year. Other specific highlights to be found on the branded site are a running news feed, infographics illustrating proprietary NAACP COVID-19 research, an information-rich video series, public service announcements and testimonials plus a customizable messaging toolkit which partners, NAACP branches and units can use to pique awareness of the ‘COVID. KNOW MORE’ initiative in the organization’s key regions across the country. Among the partners who will be engaged in facilitating the rollout of the national campaign are J.P. Morgan Chase and international rideshare operator Lyft.

  • Newswire: Civil Rights Leaders call on Congress to address disproportionate impact of Coronavirus on Black Americans

    Derrick Johnson, NAACP President


    (TriceEdneyWire.com) – The NAACP has requested an urgent meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer regarding racial equity in the coronavirus response proposal.
    According to a release, “Marc H. Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League; Melanie Campbell, President and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable; NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson and Rev. Al Sharpton, Founder and President of the National Action Network, insisted that coronavirus response legislation must take racial equity into account.”
    “As we often say, when white America catches a cold, Black America gets pneumonia, and never has that metaphor been more apt,” Morial said in a statement. “Urban communities of color are likely to suffer the brunt of the health and economic impacts of the coronavirus crisis and any legislative response must contain targeted relief.”
    “We’re concerned about the impact it will have on children who are out of school and don’t have the broadband internet access they need for digital learning at home,” Campbell added, “And comprehensive paid family leave for all is needed now more than ever.”
    “Low-income workers, who are disproportionately African-American, are the least likely to have paid sick leave,” said Johnson, NAACP president. “Black workers are more likely to face short-term layoffs or total loss of employment. How is the country going to address their plight?”
    Sharpton noted in the release that urban neighborhoods and communities of color often lack access to quality health care facilities.
    “What efforts will be made to make testing freely available in urban and poor communities?” Sharpton asked. “We need to make sure that the relief offered in any coronavirus response plan does not bypass the communities most in need.”

  • NAACP president: Trump ‘kind of Jim Crow with hairspray and a blue suit’

    By Ashley Young, CNN

     

    NAACP President William Cornell Brooks

    NAACP President
    Cornell William Brooks

    (CNN)NAACP President Cornell William Brooks on Monday condemned Republican front-runner Donald Trump and said he represents a “kind of Jim Crow with hairspray and a blue suit.”
    “The fact of the matter is this is hateful. It is racist. It is bigoted. It is xenophobic. It represents a kind of Jim Crow with hairspray and a blue suit,” Brooks told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room.” “Let’s not underestimate what we’re dealing with.  This is a very, very ugly moment in America.”
    But Brooks said he doesn’t hold anything against
    Americans who support Trump. “I don’t blame the people –- American citizens — for their economic anxieties and a sense of desperation. The fact that their grasping at straws and they grasped onto a bigoted, demagogic  billionaire speaks to their desperation, not necessarily his appeal or the strength of his platform,” he said.
    CNN has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment, with no response.
    The billionaire’s rallies have turned increasingly violent in the past week as supporters have clashed with protesters. Trump was forced to cancel a rally in Chicago over the weekend and was given a scare when a protester rushed the stage Saturday.
    And a former Breitbart reporter filed an assault charge against Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, alleging he yanked her violently from Trump last Tuesday.
    “The fact of the matter is he’s engaged in rhetoric that represents a kind of apologetics, if you will, of violence,” Brooks said.
    Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina said Monday they are weighing whether to press charges against Trump for inciting a riot during that rally where the protester was sucker punched by a 78-year-old white man. Trump has said he is considering paying the legal fees for the supporter charged with assault.
    Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks flatly rejected the premise of the investigation into Trump’s role in the violent altercation.”It is the protesters and agitators who are in violation, not Mr. Trump or the campaign,” Hicks said Monday in a statement.
    Hicks added that Trump’s speech was “extremely well thought out and well received” and instead focused on the role of protesters, who she said “in some cases … used foul language, screamed vulgarities and made obscene gestures, annoying the very well behaved audience.”
    Brooks believes Trump’s behavior is “contemptible” but will “leave that for the prosecutors in North Carolina to determine.” He added there “absolutely” is a racial aspect to business mogul’s increasingly violent rallies.
    “When you call Mexicans rapists, when you use code words like ‘thug,’ where you suddenly can’t distance yourself from the Klan. The fact of the matter is we’ve been in this ugly movie before. In the 1920s the Klan combined an anti-immigrant sentiment in the country with a kind of un-American patriotism with a venue of Christianity,” Brooks said.
    Blitzer pointed out that Trump eventually did disavow the Klu Klux Klan.