The Greene County Democrat

Tag: President of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP

  • Newswire : The president of the Alabama NAACP said a state law banning DEI and divisive concepts was targeted to hurt minority students, and it’s working. 

    Benard Simelton, Alabama NAACP State President

    By John Moon, Alabama Political Reporter

    The Alabama State Conference of the NAACP believes an Alabama law that went into effect in October that eliminates diversity, equity and inclusion programs on college campuses and restricts what professors can teach on matters of race is purposefully harmful to minority students and that the law serves no benefit to white students. 

    Benard Simelton, president of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, told the Alabama Politics This Week podcast that his organization filed a federal lawsuit against the new law because it has already proven harmful to students on college campuses in the state. 

    “This lawsuit is to address what we’re really considering the illegal action by the state to take away some of the things that were offered to minority students on the campus of University of Alabama and other campuses across the state,” Simelton said. “It’s essentially eliminating the opportunity for these students to have access to programs that will help them succeed in college. That can be anything from a physical space where they can join together and communicate and talk and come up with plans to just funding that goes to these students because they are a student organization on the campus of the University of Alabama – on the campuses of universities across the state.”

     The NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama filed the lawsuit on behalf of Simelton’s organization, and on behalf of several students and professors at the University of Alabama and UAB. In addition to raising questions about the legality of blocking DEI programs, the lawsuit also claims that the new law encroaches on the First Amendment rights of students and professors by banning the teaching of “divisive concepts.” 

    Simelton said “divisive concepts” is a code word for topics that delve into sensitive matters of racial history, particularly where a more accurate and thorough history of slavery, Jim Crow and other discriminatory practices are tied to the causation of poverty, incarceration rates and homelessness. 

    But he said the NAACP’s primary concern, at least in the immediate future, is ensuring that minority students – many of whom can feel overwhelmed and out of place on a college campus, resulting in academic struggles – get the reasonable assistance they need to feel welcome and comfortable. 

    “We are hoping that the state relooks at this bill, relooks at this law and at least goes back to modify it to where it does not impact students and faculty the way that it is,” Simelton said. “The DEI programs at these institutions have been a tremendous help to students, students of color. And to take that away takes away a part of what makes a student’s experience at a university worthwhile. They want to come there and get a good education, but you’re taking away some of the things that help them to matriculate and to make it through these universities.”

    Simelton also said that his organization could find no evidence — and that no evidence has ever been offered by lawmakers — that white students were harmed, denied resources or otherwise inconvenienced by the DEI programs on college campuses. 

    The state’s anti-DEI law prohibits universities, public school systems and state agencies from sponsoring DEI programs. That includes classes, training, programs and events where attendance is based on a person’s race, sex, gender identity, ethnicity, national origin or sexual orientation. In addition, the law prohibits certain divisive concepts, including that a person “should feel guilt because of their race or that fault, blame or bias should be assigned to people based on race, religion, gender or national origin.”

    In practice, however, the law has been a “nightmare,” according to complainants named in the lawsuit. Among several examples of overreach, a social work professor said she was threatened with termination if she didn’t agree to cancel a lesson in which students studied the negative impacts of the anti-DEI law. 

    To listen to Simelton’s interview and for more political news and rational discussions, you can listen to the Alabama Politics This Week podcast at its website or subscribe on all podcast platforms. 

     

  • Newswire: Alabamians, Civil Rights groups launch legal challenges over Alabama racial gerrymandering 

    BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Individual voters joined with civil rights and faith groups yesterday to file a pair of lawsuits in federal court challenging Alabama’s newly drawn political maps for state legislative and congressional districts.  This is the second major lawsuit questioning
    The lawsuits cite Alabama’s “sordid record” of its white majority using racial discrimination to maintain power. The suits charge that the newly drawn congressional redistricting map denies Black residents equal opportunity to participate in the political process and elect candidates of choice, and that both the congressional and state legislative maps result from racial gerrymanders that intentionally pack and crack Black communities in the state, which denies such communities equal protection of the laws. 
    Because of this, the lawsuits describe how Alabama’s new district maps violate the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and how the congressional map also violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 
    The cases were brought on behalf of Greater Birmingham Ministries, Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, and several individuals who are being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Alabama, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Hogan Lovells LLP, and the firm Wiggins, Childs, Pantazis, Fisher & Goldfarb.  
    Plaintiffs are requesting a federal court step in to enjoin — or halt — the maps’ implementation to prevent harms to Black Alabamians. 
    “By packing Black voters into a small number of districts and breaking up communities of color throughout the rest of the state, Alabama’s leaders are diminishing the political power of Black Alabamians. That is unlawful,” said Caren Short, senior supervising attorney for the SPLC, which represents plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging the state legislative districts. “This builds on a long history of racial discrimination in voting in Alabama – particularly when drawing political districts – that demands a court-ordered redrawing of maps immediately.” 
    New political maps are drawn as part of a once-in-a-decade redistricting process triggered by census data, that determine the allocation of political power, representation, and ultimately resource access at every level of government across the country for the next 10 years. 
    “Cracking” refers to splitting communities of color into different districts to prevent them from exercising greater political power. “Packing” refers to placing people of color into the same district in greater numbers than necessary to elect candidates of choice to prevent them from exercising greater political power in surrounding districts. 
    According to the lawsuits, Alabama’s steadfast refusal to address the rights of its Black residents is directly linked to its historical and present conditions of racial discrimination against Black people. 
    In five of the six redistricting cycles since 1960, the U.S. Department of Justice or federal courts have found that Alabama’s legislative districts — congressional, state, or both — violate the rights of voters under the U.S. Constitution or the Voting Rights Act. 
    “It is crucial that Black Alabamians have the opportunity to elect government officials we believe will best serve us,” said Benard Simelton, President of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, a plaintiff in both cases filed today. “Although no longer controlled by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, Alabama is still required to provide Black Alabamians that opportunity – these maps attempting to rob our state of its diversity notwithstanding. We will continue this fight for our dignity and political voice, as we long have, in the courts.” 
    Again, in this latest round of drawing political districts, Alabamians had no access to potential maps during the so-called “community input” process that predated the special legislative session. Legislative leaders drew political maps in secret, and at the 11th hour, presented the maps challenged today that use race as a predominant factor in determining district lines – but not in a way tailored to comply with the Voting Rights Act. 
    “I have lived most of my life in Montgomery,” said plaintiff in both lawsuits filed today Evan Milligan. “On more than one occasion, the people in these communities have dramatically impacted the course of this nation’s history – particularly as to civil and human rights…Even with the extended time provided by the delayed release of census data, our Legislature failed to study racially polarized voting so that their map-making decisions could be guided by an interest in protecting the civil rights of Alabama’s nonwhite voters.” 
    The cases are Thomas v. Merrill and Milligan v. Merrill.  
    To view a version of this release in full – including additional statements from plaintiffs and representatives from other counsel – please visit:
    https://www.splcenter.org/presscenter/alabamians-civil-rights-groups-launch-legal-challenges-over-alabama-racial
    Thomas v. Merrill complaint challenging state legislative maps: https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/complaint_-_thomas_v._merrill.pdf

    Milligan v. Merrill complaint challenging congressional maps: https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/complaint_-_milligan_v._merrill.pdf

  • Calls for AG Steve Marshall to resign SOS leaders protest Alabama Attorney General’s joining Texas lawsuit to challenge legally cast Black votes

    A group of leaders of the SaveOurselves Movement for Justice and Democracy protested Tuesday, December 15, in front of Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office at 501 Washington Street in Montgomery.
    The protest was to denounce and question Marshall’s decision to join with 17 other Republican Attorney Generals from around the nation, in a Texas lawsuit to question absentee voting in four states – Georgia, Michigan, Arizona and Pennsylvania – and throw out the legally cast votes, many by Black and Brown people in those states.
    The United States Supreme Court, wisely rejected and declined to hear the Texas lawsuit, which was part of a continuing campaign by President Trump and his backers to disenfranchise legitimate votes and take away the election victory of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on November 3, 2020.
    The protestors carried signs that said: AG Marshall you must resign;
    Marshall you abused your powers, you acted lawlessly; Prosecute yourself – AG Marshall; You betrayed the voters of Alabama.
    Faya Rose Toure, SOS leader and attorney from Selma said, “We are demanding that Attorney General Marshall resign. He used Alabama funds backing a frivolous law to challenge the legitimate votes of Blackfolks in four other states. He joined a lawsuit to challenge legal actions in other states, who voted for Biden, even though we did the same things in Alabama, where Trump won.”
    John Zippert, SOS Steering Committee member from Greene County said, “Who authorized Attorney General Marshall to spend time and money on lawsuits to fight things that many Alabama citizens support. Not only did he join this recent lawsuit against other states voting rights but he joined the lawsuit to rule the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, which will deny healthcare coverage to millions of people in Alabama and around the nation.
    Zippert also read portions of a letter sent by Bernard Simelton, President of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP to Attorney General Marshall. The letter says, “We are outraged that you chose to involve the state of Alabama in a baseless and frivolous lawsuit aimed at overturning an American Election. If the citizens of this state and nation do not have the right to vote in an American Election, we call upon you to explain to us why.”
    The letter concludes saying, “It is very disturbing to see you take such a bold step to support a lawsuit that is racist on its face. The unmitigated gall to invalidate millions of votes cast by African Americans and people of color is insulting at best and criminal at worst – we are grateful that the Supreme Court twice rejected you and 106 Congresspersons, and hope we can get back to the business of addressing real voter suppression in the state of Alabama instead of chasing down unsubstantiated claims in other states.”
    This letter was signed by SOS, Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, Alabama Arise, Greater Birmingham Ministries, in addition to the NAACP.