‘Selma and Montgomery Times’: Head of NAACP Compares Voter ID Laws to Civil Rights Struggles of 1960s
- Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:32pm by
Jason Howerton
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NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous lays out his goals for the more than century-old civil rights organization at its annual convention Monday, July 9, 2012, in Houston. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)
(The Blaze/AP) – The head of the NAACP on Monday compared the group’s fight against voter ID laws that have been passed in several states to the struggle for civil rights in the 1960s.
Benjamin Todd Jealous, the CEO and president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said these are “Selma and Montgomery times,” referring to historic Alabama civil rights confrontations. He challenged those attending the NAACP’s annual convention to redouble their efforts to get out the vote in November.
“We must overwhelm the rising tide of voting suppression with the high tide of registration and mobilization and motivation and protection,” he said.
“Simply put, the NAACP will never stand by as any state tries to encode discrimination into law,” Jealous said.
The power to vote will be a key theme of the weeklong 103rd convention, which was expected to host about 8,000 attendees. An appearance by Attorney General Eric Holder was postponed from Monday until Tuesday, and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and Vice President Joe Biden are also expected to speak at some point, making today sort of like a warm up.
Since 2010, at least 10 states, including Texas, have passed laws requiring people to show a government-issued photo identification card when they go to the polls.
Supporters of voter ID laws contend they are necessary to protect against voter fraud. But critics argue instances of such voter fraud are extremely rare and that voter ID laws could suppress turnout among the elderly, poor and some racial minorities who are less likely to have driver’s licenses or passports and who might find it harder to miss work or lose pay to obtain proper ID.
George R. Brown Convention Center was only about half-full for Jealous’ hour-long speech, but by the end he had much of the crowd standing and shouting, “Forward ever, backward never!”
“Our democracy is literally under attack from within. We have wealthy interests seeking to buy elections and when that ain’t enough, suppress the vote,” Jealous said. “There is no battle that is more important or urgent to the NAACP right now than the battle to preserve democracy itself. Let me be very clear, our right to vote is the right upon which our ability to defend every other right is leveraged.”
He cited the group‘s 103 years in existence as proof it wouldn’t cede ground on voting rights.
“If you let someone diminish the power of your vote you will already have lost a battle.”
Jealous said with 120 days remaining before the November elections, his organization’s members could allow the election to be stolen from them “or we can double down on democracy and overcome the tide of voter suppression.”
“If we simply accept things as they are and allow those who wish to turn back the clocks and tides of all that we have gained, and block the forward movement of our movement for human rights … we will have failed in our mission and our calling,” he said.
More from KHOU in Houston:
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Comments (154)
cassandra
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:10pmI would bet the elderly, the poor and racial minorities are collecting wellfare where they HAD to show their photo ID to receive it
Report Post »Altair
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:19pmDamn right. This is blatant Washington-sponsored fraud. What is more sacred to the continuation of the Republic than the vote ?
Report Post »The_Cabrito_Goat
Posted on July 10, 2012 at 9:27amThe NAACP is an outdated group of the past. They only wish they could relive the hayday of their existence by pretending it’s the 1960s over again. Only then could they stay relevant and hope to feel like they’re doing something right.
Report Post »Dismayed Veteran
Posted on July 10, 2012 at 10:45amMy wife and I were direct care givers to my wife’s mother. We had to show picture ID and her Medicare card everytime we took her for any medical treatment. At first, we used her expired driver’s license. We then got her a state ID card for non-drivers. No bid deal. InIf a person does not have transportation, the assisted care facilities will take elders to DMV for free.
Report Post »Psychosis
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:10pmyes, you are serious
seriously lame
now bugger off
Report Post »Steve Lindsey
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:10pmSo exactly what is Benji Gutless really saying? That Minorities are just to darned stupid and lazy to get a FREE ID?
Really? ….and the response from minorities was? Cue Crickets..
So tell us Benji… how do they drive, own a car, get insurance, cash a check or darned near anything else?
Report Post »MAMMY_NUNN
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 11:20pmYou have to understand they will need a valid address also which creates the problem as many have outstanding warrants and are on the lamb.
Report Post »psadie
Posted on July 10, 2012 at 12:07amYou hit the nail on the head. They are too lazy to get a voter ID. If no ID then they can vote. This way they can vote and vote as much as they want. This makes up for those that don’t bother to vote or even want to vote because they could care less!
Report Post »Tankertony
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:08pmTypical progressive-marxist condescention to so-called minority voters.
They’re too stupid, too helpless, to dependent to get a ID card.
This charade is so obvious, so puerile, and so common amongst leftists.
Our side simply wants Truth and fairness to prevail.
Report Post »cassandra
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:07pmdid they get this idea from The Little Blue Book
Report Post »Steve Lindsey
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:05pmSo just exactly what is Benji Gutless saying… That Minorities are just to darned stupid and lazy to get a FREE ID?
Really……? ..and the response from those minorities? Cue Crickets…
How do they cash checks, drive or own a car well just about anything then…
Report Post »nattybrooks
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:04pmthey’ll miss work to get an i.d.? without an i.d. you cant get a job, jackwagon!
Report Post »Searchingforthelight
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:03pmIf you have a job, chances are you have a drivers license or need one anyway. State Id would work and
Report Post »If the state offices kept their doors open 2 hours later for the next two months until 7pm.
All this drama is overdone. Find the problem, stick to the rules and fix it.
spirited
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:01pmAre social security numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers…, comparable too???
Report Post »marcus_arealius
Posted on July 10, 2012 at 4:42amThat’s correct. The ‘Negroes Are Always Causing Problems’ (NAACP) organization is against anything invented by non-negroes.
Report Post »normbal
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:01pmTotal BS. EVERYbody has some kind of ID. You can’t collect unemployment, get any kind of social assistance, or even healthcare without showing SOME kind of ID. This is simply the left crying about getting called out on one of their favorite methods of voter fraud. The other being gerrymandering. We’ll get to that soon enough. Thanks for sharing, now sit down and STFU.
Report Post »Fubared
Posted on July 10, 2012 at 7:15amYou can’t get a pack of Newports or a bottle of Mad Dog without one. Can’t claim your lotto winnings without one. Can’t get an Obama phone or EBT card without one. But a free state ID taxes the reserve and fortitude of some.
Report Post »GUT CHECK
Posted on July 10, 2012 at 9:03amGeez, I thought for sure some of the first posts would be about that knot in that borrowed tie he is sporting. Looks like someone pre tied it, he slipped over his head and didn’t do that last tighten up move to keep it from looking larger than life itself. Is this a new look?
Report Post »70S_KIDS_FIGHTING_SOCIALISM
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:00pmThey need to stop the segregation. Its time we picket this organization and demand they stop the segregation. We need to demand they show were there money is going to. Its mostly going into the pockets of their leaders. They are nothing but criminal thugs who need to be completely investigated and the money grabbers put in jail. They need to be labeled by the tea party as a HATE GROUP promoting segregation. Along with Laraza and many other groups. We are no longer afraid of your decrying racism every time something happens they dont like.
Report Post »nattybrooks
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:07pmthats why they lost their tax exempt status years ago damned disgraceful this butch of heathen bigots
Report Post »normbal
Posted on July 10, 2012 at 9:26am“Butch Heathens.” I like that. Sounds like a lesbian punk band from the city.
Report Post »Worriedone
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:56pmJust wait till he starts cracking down on food stamps welfare fraud after he steals the election. He has their votes and big government is so much more important than the little people. He never grew up in poverty like the Dems kept the black people segrated for a voting base. He grew up with a white family and white friends and a white girlfriends. I bet his marriage was prearranged with the most militant black woman they could fine to keep him in line.
Report Post »Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:53pmThese people are a one trick pony. EVERYTHING, to them, is a civil rights struggle.
Report Post »If they would quit living in the past and actually look beyond themselves they’d find a whole new world where minorities have more rights and benefits than the majority. They are not expected to work, yet are paid, have no food, yet are given banquets to eat. Having more rights, these people choose to just sit around and agitate, never having to live up to any potential. What a waste of lives.
spirited
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:52pmBenjamin Todd Jealous born in 1973. (head shake, head shake, sigh)
Report Post »Tri-ox
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:52pmVoter ID laws don’t prevent COLORED citizens, or any citizens, from voting – so what is this COLORED idiot going on about? Oh, that’s right, the NAACP is a propaganda arm of the democrat party, which has fought for years to allow illegals to vote.
Report Post »encinom
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:05pmOnly thing, is that the voter ID laws were designed to prevent likely democrates from voting, the poor, students minorities. The Pennsylvania law has the potential to prevent over 750Kcitizens from voting. “Three-quarters of a million Pennsylvanians may be denied a chance to vote in November unless they can come up with an acceptable form of identification, a tally released by the state suggests.” http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-06/pennsylvania-voter-id-law-may-bar-9-from-presidential-election.html
The GOP is seeking to limit the basic rights of citizens and the Tea Baggers and smiling as the march toward serfdom and faicism.
Report Post »Psychosis
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:12pmencinom is admitting his fellow democrats are too stupid to figure out how to get free government issued id
thanks for admitting that encinom
Report Post »Altair
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:23pm“The Pennsylvania law has the potential to prevent over 750Kcitizens from voting. ”
Hadn’t realized there were that many pieces of walking excrement in that state.
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:37pmENCINOM, Are you pointing out that the people who cannot fly from an airport, enter many parts of a large city, purchase tobacco products, beer, or liquor, use their EBT cards, drive, buy auto insurance, purchase state registration for a vehicle, register a weapon, cash a check even inside their very own bank, pay with a credit card, enter the White House, enter the DOJ to speak with Eric Holder, or actually do virtually anything in this nation? Your point is bull s**t, it’s moot. You dan’t do anything else out there without proper ID. What you really want, and believe me it is thinly veiled, you want there to be voter fraud. The rest of you claims are a stretch and you have to know it. Just don’t expect us to believe it.
Report Post »RJJinGadsden
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:40pmALTAIR, more like the voting age looking illegal aliens, and bussed in union rent-a-junkies.
Report Post »pudssweetie
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 11:22pm@ Encinom, again you are telling lies because it is what you are told to do. My elderly mother has to show an ID every time she writes a check and cash one. Please tell me that you have never ever had to pull out your ID when going to a bar or buy beer or cash a check or open a bank account. Please tell me that you never had to show an ID when you purchased a car, a home or got a loan for whatever. You know as well as I do that this administration does not want Voter ID because they cannot win their elections without committing Voter Fraud.
Report Post »henryKnox
Posted on July 10, 2012 at 12:31amFunny that @encinom believes that ‘students’ are too dumb to get an ID. Wow, what does that say about our educational system? I’m afraid I may have to agree with him. Our gov’t run school system has let down the people of this nation. Perhaps we need to eliminate the NEA before we require students to get a picture ID.
Report Post »marcus_arealius
Posted on July 10, 2012 at 4:45amEncicom – Whatever it takes to defeat your kind pal.
Report Post »wakewiseone
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:52pmben jealous……………..YOU ARE SO WRONG.
people need to be vetted when they register to vote and they also need to identify themselves by photo id when they go to vote.
no ifs, ands or buts.
only then can this country assure itself of honest elections.
Report Post »Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:48pmLook up the fact that the census data is being watered down to show a rise in minorities and a slower than average growth for white people (average growth is 6%, texas just showed a 4% rate). But then again, the census was put under the Executive branch oversite for the fist time ever……things that make you go HMMMMMMM.
MMMM…MMMM…MMMMM, Barrack Hussein Obama.
Report Post »TookARisk
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 10:21pmyou got that right and alot of people don’t realize that….the minute they did it I knew they would try to rig future elections
Report Post »MAMMY_NUNN
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:47pmAre blacks to lazy to get a ID card but I bet they will line up to get a EBT card ?
Report Post »historyguy48
Posted on July 10, 2012 at 6:50amComrade, they don’t have to line up. You can get an EBT card via your computer. Isn‘t it strange that America’s poor have computers? Nigerian poor don’t.
Report Post »DrFinch
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:47pmEven Rosa Parks had a MFN bus pass with ID on it . What’s the problem?
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on July 10, 2012 at 8:23amRequire a photo ID to collect welfare and food stamps and they will suddenly find their photo IDs.
Report Post »65Mustang
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:46pmIsn‘t it sad when blacks don’t even know when they are being screwed over…I guess they know that voter fraud is the only way the “black” president can win the election.
Report Post »historyguy48
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:44pmComrade since we are stopping voter ID, vote democrat and vote often!
Report Post »Just how stupid do these clowns think we are? So you want no voter ID, then if you get caught doing the above we hang you from the nearest tree for doing so! The penalty for voting twice is death, right there, right then, no dem judge to let you off, no dem jury to let you off, just you, a rope and a tree.
But then again, a lot of already dead dems still vote. Oh well. common sense is not really common!
JohnnyRaven
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:40pmAll you have to do is have an ID and vote. What’s the problem?
Report Post »MODEL82A1
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:46pmYou’re new to this “debate” aren’t you? Check your ability to reason at the door.
Report Post »Patriot Z
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:47pmDems and the NAACP dont want to disenfranchise mickey mouse, Rambo, and dead people who may not have the ability to get an id in time to vote democrat
Report Post »MODEL82A1
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:39pmDoes one need to produce photo ID to collect Welfare, Food Stamps, Unemployment Insurance Benefits or Social Security Disability?
Report Post »MODEL82A1
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 11:29pmI ask because those things are foreign to me. What I know for a fact is that one does, in fact, need photo ID to become part of a legitimate payroll. And CERTAINLY to be the Payer of that payroll.
Report Post »ICEDRAGON
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:38pmWhat a crock. If you prefer an honest election ID is necessary. If you prefer a dishonest election allow any to vote without ID, several times.
Report Post »chips1
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:38pmThe fight for civil rights was in the 60‘s and they still can’t figure out how to get an ID card? Unbelievable!!!
Report Post »raspberrytea
Posted on July 9, 2012 at 9:49pmThis ^
Report Post »Pittakos
Posted on July 10, 2012 at 12:22pmThey‘ve lived here for over three hundred years and many of them still can’t speak intelligible English so, yeah, I guess figuring out how to get a picture i.d. could be mentally challenging for them.
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