NAACP suggests removal of battle flag from Alabama trooper uniforms
July 15, 2015adminNewsComments Off on NAACP suggests removal of battle flag from Alabama trooper uniforms
(AP) An Alabama chapter of the NAACP says it’s time to remove the Confederate battle flag from state troopers’ uniforms and patrol vehicles.
Rev. Robert Shanklin of the NAACP’s Huntsville chapter told local media the flag is offensive and should not be included in uniforms state troopers wear or on the vehicles they drive. The battle flag is part of the Alabama state seal.
The flag has come under renewed scrutiny since nine black churchgoers were fatally shot during Bible study in Charleston, South Carolina. The man charged in the shooting had been photographed with the flag numerous times.
Some have said the flag represents Southern heritage. Others have said the symbol is divisive and white supremacy is at the heart of the heritage the flag represents.
By BRETT ZONGKER
Associated Press
(AP) WASHINGTON – The NAACP’s board is forming a search committee to find the next president and CEO for the nation’s largest civil rights organization, its chairwoman said Monday.
Chairwoman Roslyn Brock said during a conference call that she expects the change in leadership to be an orderly transition. Outgoing NAACP President Benjamin Jealous also used the call to elaborate on his desire to spend time with his children, a reason he cited in his announcement the previous day. His departure is effective Dec. 31.
Brock says the board is disappointed Jealous is leaving after five years during which he was credited with boosting the organization’s finances and increasing stability… […]
NAACP leaders from around the country gathered in Jackson recently to honor the memory of their former leader, Medgar Evers and to hold their annual meeting.
Evers was assassinated nearly 50 years ago outside his home in Jackson.
NAACP president Benjamin Todd Jealous and board chairwoman Roslyn Brock helped Evers’ widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams, lay a wreath at the home, now a museum on Thursday, May 16.
Evers-Williams told nearly 200 people that she still remembers hearing the shot that killed her husband in their carport on June 12, 1963. She and their three young children, Darrell, Reena and Van, were waiting up for him. […]
Myrlie Evers-Williams acknowledges it would be easy to remain mired in bitterness and anger, 50 years after a sniper’s bullet made her a widow.
Instead, she’s determined to celebrate the legacy of her first husband, Medgar Evers – a civil rights figure often overshadowed by peers such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.
Events including a black-tie gala are being held this week to remember Evers, the first Mississippi field secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He was 37 when he was assassinated on June 12, 1963. […]