NAACP Celebrates Its Centennial

The nation’s oldest civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, celebrates its centennial Thursday. While the election of Barack Obama caps a century of struggle, the group will give the new president a list of initiatives to tackle in his first term — because there is still plenty of work to be done, the head of the NAACP said Wednesday.

“At the end of the day, we are not an organization [that] is here to celebrate any milestone too much,” said Benjamin Jealous, NAACP president and CEO.

“On Jan. 20, we celebrated Obama as the first black president... And we are out there making sure that his agenda is our agenda.”

The organization weighed in on several issues involving civil rights and education during the transition, Jealous said, and it has full access to the White House.

“That is the beauty of this moment — we aren’t relegated to the office of public liaison,” Jealous said. “We have high-level, ongoing conversations, and they continue to be receptive. They know our job is to make sure that civil rights remain a high priority.”

A main priority is ensuring that stimulus dollars are distributed equitably, Jealous said, which will first mean rebuilding the civil rights infrastructure at the Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, he said.

Among the priorities listed in the 18-page report:

• Creating policing standards for effective law enforcement in all communities.

• Ensuring that all children have access to a high-quality education.

• Ensuring that economic policies — particularly involving the bailout and stimulus funds — do not violate civil and human rights.

• Developing a federal unemployment insurance benefit.

• Establishing a moratorium on home foreclosure, and instituting judicial loan modifications prior to the occurrence of a foreclosure.

• Providing health care to the uninsured to reduce health care disparities.

by NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON for POLITICO