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from the
Fairfax County NAACP
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Message from the President
Congratulations to our newly elected officers and many thanks to those who have served and supported me for the past two years.
It has been an honor and pleasure to have served as your President for the past four years. We have many accomplishments and improvements on how we operated, but there is still a lot that needs to be done. I am confident, with the new leadership, the branch will continue to move forward. We have a long and rocky four years ahead and we must be prepared and continue to fight for justice for everyone. One of our upfront advocacy initiatives remains the Renaming of J.E.B. Stuart High School. We must remain solid on our position and hold those who can make this change accountable. This is about doing what is right, and correcting a wrong.
Our school-to-prison pipeline hasn’t been eliminated but steps have been made to reduce it. We must continue working with the School Board on this and on the Academic Achievement Gap. While very few steps have been made toward reducing this, especially with more students coming into the County, this will be an opportunity to work with the School Board in finding ways to reduce this gap. Of course, prison reform will always be a priority for me. I will continue this advocacy with the branch and other organizations. We have too many of our men and women incarcerated for nonviolent crimes. And the laws of our state are keeping them from becoming successful citizens upon return. Our laws must be changed and we must begin to mentor our future leaders.
Your continued support and active involvement is a must if anything is to be accomplished. I wish each of you and your families a Happy Holiday and a blessed and prosperous New Year.
Thank you for the privilege of serving you.
Shirley Ginwright,
President,
Fairfax County NAACP
(2012-2016)
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Congratulations to our newly elected
2017-19 Officers and Executive Committee
President - Kofi Annan
1st Vice President - Karen Campblin
2nd Vice President - Evelyn Spain
3rd Vice President - Iris Hunter
Treasurer, Michelle Leete
Members At-Large:
George Alber
Sylvia Washington
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December Monthly Meeting and
Swearing-In Ceremony
Please join us on December 10th for our monthly meeting at Burke Library from 10am - 12 noon. Our newly elected officers will be sworn-in by NAACP Region 15 Area Chair and Loudon County NAACP President, Phillip Thompson.
We will have a potluck lunch and also collect holiday gifts that will be donated to Woodbine Nursing Center.
You don't want to miss our last meeting of 2016.
Come out and bring a friend!
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Door Prizes for Attending December
Swearing-In Meeting
Amazon gift cards will be given to two lucky winners at the December meeting. Come meet your new officers and earn a chance to win a gift card for the holidays!
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Messages from our National Leadership
President & CEO Cornell Williams Brooks and Legislative Director Hilary Shelton provided insightful comments in the wake of the newly elected Republican Administration. Read more below:
NAACP STATEMENT ON PRESIDENT-ELECT TRUMP SELECTIONS FOR TOP ADVISORS
November 16, 2016
The following is a statement from Cornell William Brooks, President and CEO of the NAACP:
“As the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the country, the NAACP is deeply disturbed by recent reports of President-elect Trump’s intention to appoint Frank Gaffney, well-known as an Islamophobic conspiracy theorist, to his transition team to guide the selection of national security advisors. The news of Gaffney’s new position follows Trump’s appointment of Stephen Bannon, former head of Breitbart News, as senior advisor and chief strategist to the White House.
Both selections are troubling and incongruous with President-elect Trump’s recent calls for unity and promises to serve the interests of
all
Americans. Trump’s choices instead indicate a disregard for the equal protection of all citizens and grant favor and influence to a faction with unabashedly racist, misogynistic, xenophobic and anti-Semitic views. The NAACP strongly encourages the President-elect to build a team that seeks to heal rather than aggravate the wounds of division that afflict our nation.
The announcements of President-elect Trump’s senior advisors coincided with the release of the FBI’s report on hate crimes in 2015. The FBI’s 2015 data showed a 6.8 percent increase from hate crime incidents reported to the police in 2014, including a 67 percent rise in anti-Muslim hate crimes.
The recent election season saw campaigns founded on platforms of hatred and bigotry. Therefore, it is sadly unsurprising that hate crimes – from vandalism and intimidation to church burnings reminiscent of the Jim Crow Era – have continued to rise in 2016. Within six days of the election, the Southern Poverty Law Center received reports of more than 300 hate crimes – equal to 5.1 percent of all of the hate crime incidents reported to the FBI in all of 2015. In North Carolina, on the heels of multiple court decisions calling out the intentional disenfranchisement of black voters, one vandalized building proclaimed, “Black lives doesn’t [sic] matter and neither does your vote.”
These are the dangerous, tangible consequences of derogatory rhetoric and discriminatory policies becoming
de rigueur
. Trump’s appointment of Gaffney and Bannon further substantiates his most threatening campaign remarks and endorses such a surge in expressions of hate.
During this transition, there are those who say “wait and see.” Having seen these two morally disqualified appointees, the NAACP cannot wait or ignore. The NAACP is working with our 2,200 units across the country to document and take legal and political action against the explosions of hate playing out in the public square. We will continue to monitor the new administration’s words and deeds with the utmost vigilance and fight back against any attempt to roll back hard-won civil and human rights advances.”
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Message from NAACP’s Legislative Director Hilary Shelton
The 115th Congress will be sworn into service on January 3, 2017, and is scheduled to run for two years until the end of the year in 2018. As a result of the 2016 election, the 115th Congress will be one of the most diverse ever, including an historically high number of African Americans. Specifically, beginning in 2017 there will be a record 51 African Americans in the Congress: 3 in the US Senate (including only the second African American woman in history), and 47 in the US House of Representatives. This means that African Americans will represent just under 10% of the entire Congress.
For more information, as well as an historical chart on the number of African Americans in Congress, please see the attached
Issue Brief
.
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In addition, the NAACP has partnered with other civil rights organizations to combat the threats to civil discourse and behavior in the wake of the unprecedented crude and racially charged Presidential campaign.
Here is their statement:
NAACP & Partners Standing for Civil Rights Against New Threats
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November 14, 2016
NEW YORK -- The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) joined six other leading civil rights organizations today to issue the following statement in response to the 2016 Presidential and Congressional election:
“As civil rights leaders working for racial justice and economic opportunity, we join much of the nation in our apprehension about the incoming administration. We cannot ignore that the campaign was characterized by divisive racial rhetoric, and has emboldened white supremacists across the country. The wave of hate crimes sweeping the country, with perpetrators invoking the name of the President-elect, is an ill omen, as is the appointment of a chief strategist with an appalling record of promoting racial, anti-Semitic and anti-woman rhetoric.
“We were appalled by the calls for intimidation of voters at urban and rural polling places and will not forget. Voter suppression had a measurable effect on elections in a number of states. While racial voter suppression was widespread, voter suppression was generational as well. Millennials, as a multiracial demographic, also were targeted by strict ID laws and poll closings affecting millions of youth, college and high school students, as well as young professionals. Addressing this threat to our most vulnerable citizens and our still young democracy will be a top priority for our organizations in the coming weeks and months. "We have a responsibility to vigorously oppose any policies or actions which are inconsistent with our agenda or would serve to turn back the clock on hard-fought gains. America’s advance toward diversity is not interrupted by the results of Tuesday’s election.
“We will continue to battle discrimination, racial injustice and barriers to equal opportunity as we have done for decades. As always, we will advocate for the next President of the United States to honor and prioritize the Constitutional guarantee of equal protection, due process and full citizenship for every American. The President-elect needs to begin by repudiating hate crimes and attacks undertaken in his name and by announcing a commitment to abandon the divisive rhetoric and policy proposals of his campaign that are inconsistent with equality and opportunity for all.
"Having earned a minority of the popular vote, elected with the support of only about a quarter percent of the adult population, the President-elect must recognize the challenge of his extremely narrow appeal to the American people. His obligation is to be President for All Americans.
“Other important races on the ballot were significant for the advancement of the nation. While Congress remains in control of leaders with a demonstrated history of obstructionism, we take encouragement from the election of the most diverse Congress in United States history. When the 115th United States Congress is seated in January, it will include 100 women – notably Kamala Harris among the 23 elected to the Senate -- and the largest-ever Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.
"We encourage every American to stand firm in the fight for the protection of civil rights and in opposition to racism and hate."
The statement was issued jointly by the following:
- Cornell William Brooks, President and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
- Melanie Campbell, President and CEO, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Convener, Black Women’s Roundtable
- Kristen Clarke, President and Executive Director, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
- Wade Henderson, President and CEO, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
- Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
- Marc H. Morial, President and CEO, National Urban League
- The Rev. Al Sharpton, Founder and President, National Action Network
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On January 14, 2017, thousands will converge in Washington, D.C. as the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday begins. Protecting the civil rights of citizens and the voting rights of people that have been excluded, providing health care for all Americans and equal opportunity should supersede any of the beltway partisan fights that we are inevitably headed into.
Some have given their lives and others dedicated their lives to try to make Dr. King’s dream a reality, and now they have added to that mission by preserving the legacy of President Obama. Groups come and go, elections come and go, but some things must remain constant and non-negotiable.
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On January 21, 2017, the Women’s March on Washington will begin at 10 a.m. at the Lincoln Memorial and conclude at 5 p.m. “The Women’s March on Washington will send a bold message to our new administration on their first day in office, and to the world that women’s rights are human rights. We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us,” they added. The march is seen by organizers as the first step in creating change “from the grassroots level up” to achieve parity and equity for women at all levels of leadership. “We work peacefully while recognizing there is no true peace without justice and equity for all.
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Police Civilian Review Panel to be Discussed by
Fairfax County
Board of Supervisors
The Board of Supervisors will discuss a recommendation for a
Civilian Review Panel
at its upcoming December 6 meeting. The recommendation is an outcome of the Ad Hoc Police Practices Review Commission on which outgoing Fairfax County NAACP President, Shirley Ginwright served. For more information about the upcoming meeting, link to the
MEETING AGENDA.
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Have you Joined or Donated? When you join and donate to the Fairfax County NAACP, your support makes a direct and positive impact in your community
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Membership in the NAACP is just $30 a year. With so many issues facing our children and our community, we need your support. Your donations support our branch's advocacy, community programs, and operations. Therefore we strongly encourage you to donate along with joining our branch. Our members spend countless hours fighting injustices. We could do so much more with your assistance.
Please Donate and Join TODAY!
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