The Mississippi Link Newswire
The National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials has selected City Councilman De’Keither Stamps as its second vice president. The organization selects individuals who have displayed outstanding leadership that has produced a positive and significant impact in local government and the African-American community.
Councilman De’Keither Stamps hopes to use his position as a way to streamline a voice for concerns and issues from citizens of the Capital City to Washington, D.C. and to create an avenue for bringing more vital resources back to the state he loves.
“As the second vice president of the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials, my goal is to engage and communicate with national leaders in Washington, D.C., identify their best practices that will help create positive change here, and bring those practices back to implement across our city,” said De’Keither Stamps. “We have issues and concerns here that demand resolutions, and the only way we will resolve these issues is to strengthen that connection and get feedback from national leaders.”
Serving as the previous City Council president, Stamps remains well-known as an advocate for the improvement of the quality of life of citizens in Jackson and across Mississippi.
In 2014, he sponsored an ordinance that requires officers to complete training on the nature of hate crimes, identifying victims and perpetrators of hate crimes, and the procedures for recording hate crime statistics. It also requires the police chief to develop guidelines for collecting and documenting hate crime data.
“Our state has a deep-rooted history of racially-motivated crimes including the murder of Emmet Till, the assassination of Medgar Evers and the brutal murder of James Craig Anderson, said Stamps. “This ordinance will ensure an efficient process and system to accurately report hate crimes, so we can encourage victims of these malicious acts to report these occurrences and be more proactive in fighting these malicious acts.”
Also under his leadership, the Jackson City Council passed the Responsible Gun Ownership Ordinance which was designed to decrease the number of cases involving the wrongful identification of stolen or sold firearms. This important measure requires individuals to report lost or stolen firearms to the police within 48 hours. The Enterprise Community Zone Ordinance also passed and was designed as an incentive to offer businesses an additional tax credit to help them pay for factors associated with the development of their business.
In 2015, Stamps collaborated with the Jackson Parent Teacher Association to successfully launch the Books in the Barbershop initiative which seeks to increase male engagement and improve the reading skills of young men across our community by providing local barber shops with books for accessible and convenient reading. Thanks to the support and participation of several local barber shops across the Jackson-metro area, countless young men will receive the tools needed to improve and increase their reading skills.
The Jackson City Council also approved a resolution which recognizes Jan. 1, 2015 to Dec. 31, 2024 as the International Decade for People of African American Descent in Jackson, Miss. The resolution supports implementing measures to ensure equality and the access to justice to decrease poverty and reduce social exclusion for people of African-American descent. The measure also recognizes the need to take practical steps through the adoption and effective implementation of policies to combat racism and racial discrimination.
Created in 1970, the National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials represents the concerns and interests of African-American elected officials. The organization works with members to inform them on issues affecting the African-American community and helps to develop strategies to accomplish community-oriented goals through direct action and legislation.
Be the first to comment