In
2000, Presidential candidate George W. Bush courageously chastised his
own conservative colleagues saying "while some in my party have avoided
the NAACP, and while some in the NAACP have avoided my party, I'm proud
to be here...I believe we can find common ground." But after refusing
to speak at the NAACP's annual convention, President Bush became the
first President since Herbert Hoover not to attend an NAACP convention.
According to NAACP President Kweisi Mfume,
the
NAACP "has reached out to Bush numerous times in hopes of meeting with
him," but the President never responded to the NAACP.Instead, the
President chose to mark key civil rights holidays with
racially-insensitive announcements and behavior.
For instance, last year, the President chose the
Martin Luther King holiday to announce the Administration's stance
against affirmative action. [more]
This year, the President used the same holiday to unilaterally elevate Charles Pickering to the federal appellate bench [more] in the face of what Mfume noted was "Pickering's hostility to civil rights and leniency to cross burners." [more]
This year he also used a visit to Martin Luther
King's grave to force taxpayers to foot the travel costs for a
$2,000-a-plate political fundraiser in Atlanta, Georgia. [more] Source of info [here]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
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