[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 23 (Tuesday, February 12, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S914]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            COMMEMORATING THE 99TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NAACP

  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, 99 years ago today, a group of courageous 
individuals came together to form the National Association for the 
Advancement of Colored People.
  The year of 1909 was the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. Fewer 
than 50 years removed from the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation 
and the carnage of the Civil War, the promise and price of that 
struggle must have still been fresh on the minds of many Americans.
  The ``Call for the Lincoln Emancipation Conference in 1909'' was 
designed to take stock of the progress since the end of the Civil War.
  The conclusion of the 60 organizers, among them the mayor of Toledo, 
and the president of Western Reserve University in Cleveland, the 
conclusion was that Lincoln would have been disheartened by the 
Nation's failure to secure equality of law and equality of opportunity 
without respect to color. They faced rampant Jim Crow discrimination, 
conducted with the blessing of the Supreme Court. The country was 
plagued by race riots and lynchings in every region, even in Lincoln's 
hometown of Springfield, IL.
  The founders of the NAACP understood that if true equality was to be 
had, the spirit of the abolitionists must be revived. So long as the 
North remained silent about the conditions in the South, it was 
supplying tacit approval.
  They wrote:

       Discrimination once permitted cannot be bridled. Recent 
     history shows that in forging chains for the Negroes, the 
     white voters are forging chains for themselves.

  They met, they organized, and they spoke out. For almost a century 
the NAACP has led the fight for equality, continually working to ensure 
political and educational and social and economic equality for persons 
of all races.
  Whether it was the fight to desegregate public schools or to secure 
equal voting rights or the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 
NAACP has remained at the forefront of the struggle for justice. Even 
when this body, this Senate, did not do the right thing, the NAACP 
continued to fight for equal rights and equal opportunity.
  This is a struggle that continues today. Discrimination in housing 
has continued a legacy of segregation in many of our neighborhoods and 
many of our schools. Discrimination in housing finance has led to 
disproportionate numbers of African-American and Latino borrowers being 
stuck with predatory loans that are falling into forclosure at record 
rates.
  Black young people are more likely than their peers to attend failing 
schools. A new wave of barriers to voting rights has appeared in the 
form of vote caging, deceptive practices, and unreasonable voter ID 
laws. I saw some of those in the 1980s as Ohio Secretary of State. They 
happened in New Jersey, they happened in Louisiana, they happened in 
the North, they happened in the South. They are still happening.
  African Americans make up about 13 percent of our population but 
account for over 50 percent of the prison population.
  In times such as these, the NAACP is needed more than ever. 
Fortunately, in my home State of Ohio and across the Nation, NAACP 
chapters continue their fight for justice and equality. In Lorain, in 
Mansfield, in Toledo, in Cleveland and Columbus, they continue that 
fight.
  The Ohio NAACP Prison Program is changing the lives and helping to 
rehabilitate hundreds of inmates. NAACP members across the State are 
registering voters and run afterschool programs.
  The Cincinnati NAACP chapter is holding public forums to foster a 
better relationship between the community and the police department. 
Through programs such as these, our communities are stronger, our 
neighborhoods are stronger, our Nation is stronger.
  As a life member of the NAACP, I am proud to support its efforts to 
protect our rights to increase opportunities for all Americans. As the 
founders observed 99 years ago, this Government cannot exist half slave 
and half free any better today than it could in 1861. I hope my 
colleagues will join me today in commemorating the NAACP's 99th 
anniversary.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Menendez.) The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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