The NAACP called for the federal government to give District residents more power to control their local government, including giving them the right to elect voting members of Congress.
“We support the right to vote for the citizens of the District of Columbia,” National Association for the Advancement of Colored People spokesman Bruce Gordon said Saturday. “It’s a natural thing for us to align with.”
“We are in the home of the most powerful people in the United States and [we are] the most powerless people in the United States,” NAACP Chairman Julian Bond added. “We can’t even set our own budget.”
The group, which is meeting in Washington this week for its annual convention, is expected to go to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to lobby the Senate for District voting rights and for the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. Portions of the act, which was passed 41 years ago, have to be renewed, including sections of the law that deal with voter disenfranchisementprotections.
The House has already reauthorized the bill. Gordon said the Senate is behind schedule in pushing the bill through.
“We’re going to celebrate the fact that this bill moved through the House with an overwhelming majority,” he said. “We’re going to pressure the Senate.”
“We will remind them that the NAACP is paying close attention,” he added.
The NAACP describes itself as the nation’s “oldest and largest” civil rights group. Gordon said it has about 300,000 members, and said he is working to increase its membership.
This is the first time the group has met in Washington since 1987. It is not clear whether President Bush, who has not visited with the group since taking office in 2001, will make an appearance at the convention.
“We hope the president will see fit to join the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, especially when the Voting Rights Act is on the table,” Gordon said.
Bond added, “If he comes, we’re going to give him a good old NAACP welcome.”
White House spokesman David Almacy said the president’s schedule for the week has not yet been released, so it is not known whether he will attend.
The convention, which is being held at the Washington Convention Center, runs through Thursday.
Legislation in the works
» Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., and Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., recently introduced legislation that would give the District a voting member in the House of Representatives.
» NAACP spokesman Bruce Gordon said the association was not behind a specific bill, but supportive of the concept of District residents having a voice in Congress.
