THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 5, 1995 TAG: 9511050071
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
It could've been the highlight of the 60th annual NAACP Virginia State Convention to have Myrlie Evers-Williams, address convention delegates during Saturday night's climactic banquet as planned.
But hundreds of delegates, a dozen politicians shaking a few more hands before Tuesday's election, learned late Saturday evening that Evers-Williams, chair of NAACP's national board of directors and widow of civil-rights martyr Medger Evers, was too ill to come to Norfolk and charge her Virginia troops.
``Please accept my apologies for not being able to attend,'' an NAACP national board member read from a letter, ``But my doctor has prescribed that I stay in bed for the next two weeks to recover from severe laryngitis . . . rest assured I will be with you in the future, in a special event in the Commonwealth of Virginia.''
Evers-Williams would have capped a day of powerhouse speakers at the Howard Johnson hotel in Norfolk, who preached and pounded the podium to energize NAACP members in the spirit of the conference theme - ``Carrying the Eternal Torch for Civil Rights.''
Elaine Jones, director of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, spoke during Saturday's luncheon and joined early-morning speaker, Congressman Bobby Scott, in reminding the NAACP members that the hardest work for the organization will be in the months to come.
Jones, a Norfolk native, and Scott said the past months have been difficult ones for African Americans as legislative protections are being chipped away. Jones said the Voting Rights Act of 1964 is being challenged with court rulings across the country stating voting districts drawn with race in mind were unconstitutional. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this year that race-based scholarships at the University of Maryland were unfair.
The most recent attack, Jones said, is a federal law that gives a five-year mandatory sentence for possession of as little as five grams of crack cocaine. Possession of the same amount of powder cocaine yields a lighter sentence. Statistics show powder cocaine usage is more common among whites while the cheaper ``rock'' derivative is more prevalent among minorities.
``Drug possession is wrong. I'm not talking about legalizing drugs,'' Jones said passionately.
``But stats show that 77 percent of drug users are white, 15 percent are black . . . yet 88 percent of crack trafficking defendants are African American and 4.1 percent are white. . . . Don't patronize me. . . . We're using laws to racially oppress people. We need to understand this!''
Jones and Scott said the only way to keep up the good fight is to support the country's oldest civil- rights organization financially and for blacks to fully develop their political potential.
``There was a lot of talk last year about how all of these votes got the Republicans into office,'' Scott said.
``But it wasn't that there was a big increase in Republican votes - Republican votes were as high as they've always been. It's that the Democratic vote, particularly the black vote, wasn't there.''
Scott, a former NAACP branch president, said also that strength comes through financial independence; the group has historically drawn much of its support from corporate and outside donors and needs to develop its own financial development bank.
``The NAACP could use some of the money it receives from membership and place it in an endowment fund,'' Scott said.
``It has public policy implications. We can still protest, we can still work through the courts. . . . But it's one thing to protest a banks' lending policies and another thing to finance construction ourselves.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot
The Rev. Bernard Spellman, president of the Norfolk Branch of the
NAACP, listens to a speaker at state convention.
by CNB