Nathaniel Jones served the NAACP as its general counsel for 10 years, but his service to his country extended much longer than that. Jones was born on May 13, 1926 in Youngstown, Ohio. The son of Virginians, Lillian Brown Jones and Nathaniel Bacon Jones, he attended Westside School and Grant Junior High School. Black publisher J. Maynard Dickerson, owner of the activist Buckeye Review, mentored Jones, who wrote for the column, “Sports Shorts,” before graduating from South High School. Drafted into the military in 1945, Jones served in the United States Army Air Corps in Dayton, where Dickerson introduced him to NAACP activists Mylie Williamson, James H. McGhee and F. Leon Higginbotham. After his discharge in 1947, he was introduced to Walter White, NAACP executive secretary. Jones earned an A.B. degree from Youngstown State University in 1951 and an LL.B. degree from Youngstown State University Law School in 1956.

Admitted to the bar in 1957, Jones, after four years of private practice, served as executive director of the Fair Employment Practices Commission and in 1960 was appointed by Attorney General Robert Kennedy as United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio in Cleveland. In 1967, Jones was appointed Assistant General Counsel to President Johnson’s National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Commission).

Briefly returning to private practice, Jones was asked by NAACP executive director, Roy Wilkins, to serve as NAACP general counsel in 1969. For the next 10 years, he argued several cases before the United States Supreme Court and led national efforts to end school segregation and to defend affirmative action. Jones investigated discrimination in the armed forces and successfully coordinated the NAACP’s First Amendment defense in the Mississippi Boycott Case. Jones was nominated by President Carter to the United States Court of Appeals in 1979 to which he became Senior Judge. He retired from the bench in 2002.

For his service to the NAACP and to his country. Judge Jones is the recipient of the 101st Spingarn Medal, which was instituted in 1914 by the late J.E. Spingarn (then Chairman of the NAACP Board of Directors). The medal is presented annually to the man or woman of African descent and American citizenship who made the highest achievement during the preceding year or years in any honorable field of human endeavor. Past honorees include actor Paul Robeson, Thurgood Marshall, Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King Jr., Sammy Davis Jr., Hank Aaron, Rosa Parks and Oprah Winfrey.

In introducing the award, Cornell Brooks, President & CEO, NAACP, said of Judge Jones, “It is a legacy that speaks to us because Judge Jones is one of us. We yet draw sole sustenance from the work that he has done and yet does.”

Anthony Foxx, Secretary of Transportation, said in his introduction of Judge Jones, “Tonight, we celebrate a scholar, a jurist, an activist, a confidant, mentor and a friend to so many: Nathaniel R. Jones. The march to freedom, justice and equal opportunities is still incomplete. But where would we be without people who are willing to dedicate themselves to using the tools of the law to demand progress. At every point when his country needed him, Nathaniel Jones answered the call. Because he answered the call, we can answer the call.”

Judge Jones, in accepting his award, said, “I am truly honored to be the recipient of the coveted 101st Spingarn Medal. Because of the progress made since 1909 and what President Jimmy Carter did in a period of four years to bring diversity to the judicial bench, I can attest to the changes that we have made in this country due to the persistence and campaigning of this organization.

“I was a beneficiary of the kindness, mentoring and assistance of those who came before me,” Judge Jones continued. “In writing my book, ‘Answering the Call,’ I was reminded so proudly of how much my life’s work has been shaped by the mission of the NAACP.

“Being a lawyer was my calling. And that calling was the struggle for racial justice.”

a��_@yOS

The national news spotlight may have moved on from the Flint water crisis of late last year, but that doesn’t mean that the crisis is over, or its repercussions have been forgotten. As you remember, when the city of Flint switched its water supply from Detroit’s system to the Flint River in 2014 in a cost-saving move, residents began complaining about the quality of their water. It took more than a year for the city’s officials to urge residents to stop drinking the water after high levels of lead were confirmed.

On the fourth day of the NAACP national convention, the Flint Water Crisis was discussed during an environmental injustice panel featuring not only the Mayor of Flint, but mayors of major cities across the country that could be the “next Flint.”

The discussion included panelists Dr. Karen Weaver, Mayor of Flint; Dr. William Bell, Sr., Mayor of Birmingham, AL. and Michael Coleman, former Mayor of Columbus, Ohio. Also included in the discussion was Frances Gilcreast, president, NAACP Flint branch; Hezekiah Jackson, IV, president, NAACP Metro Birmingham, AL, branch; Bernard Simelton, president, NAACP Alabama state conference; Nana Watson, president, NAACP Columbus, OH branch and Sybil Edwards McNabb, president, NAACP Ohio State conference.

Moderator Makani Themba from Higher Ground Change Strategies opened the discussion by saying, “There are hundreds of Flints” in this country, most of which are not on television.

Flint Mayor Weaver told the attendees that “It’s your duty to use Flint as an example, as a podium to demand the investment on infrastructure. It only happens in cities where we are the majority. We need to be more educated about our votes.

“Sometimes our leaders are chosen for us,” Mayor Weaver continued. “We’ll get up for a 5 a.m. hair appointment, but we won’t vote. We’ll watch ‘Basketball Wives’ but we won’t vote.”

Birmingham Mayor Bell echoed the sentiment that residents need to be more involved in their cities’ decisions. “We need to make it a priority at all levels, national, state, etc., to bring about a change,” he said.

“What happened in Flint is a crime,” said former Columbus Mayor Coleman. “But these environmental issues happen in small communities as well as cities like Columbus. Our infrastructure was so bad I couldn’t develop anything. No matter what my vision was, it was difficult to do because I couldn’t develop a thing. I had to repair it all.”

“Mayors are often left to their own designs,” Coleman continued. “There’s no help from Congress, from state legislators, from anyone. We have to make sure they look at the things you cannot see.”

So what can NAACP members and local units do to help make sure another “Flint Crisis” doesn’t happen again?

Here are a few ideas shared during the discussion:

1. Be the voice for the leaders who don’t want to speak out.
2. VOTE! Pass the right laws and elect those who will work for upgrades in infrastructure.
3. Bring awareness to environmental issues in your communities.
4. Have an environmental justice standing committee within local NAACP chapters. Until you know about a problem, you can’t do anything about it.
5. Learn how to support leadership that favors upgrades in city infrastructure.
6. Acknowledge that having fresh, safe water and secure infrastructure as a civil right for all citizens.
7. Incorporate allies in the fight for better city infrastructure.
8. Connect local government with environmental protection agencies, then hold the them and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accountable for any infrastructure problems.
9. Be persistent! Ask where the money is and bring it back to the cities.

Themba reminded participants to know the terrain, know who is making decisions and to look at funding opportunities for their cities because “it is important to work together.” Attendees were encouraged to “fight the good fight” for the children and their future by going to meetings that deal with environmental and zoning issues, to stand up and not be complacent.

“Environmental racism in cities is one of the most important and least addressed issues,” said former Mayor Coleman. “Having a Mayor that backs these policies is important to addressing these problems.”

by Eric Herbert

Voting Rights, Election Reform, Policing Issues and Criminal Justice reform were the top issues discussed by members of the United States Congress at the 107th annual NAACP’s national convention in Cincinnati. The Members exchanged views on several controversial legislative and public policy initiatives that are currently pending before Congress.

Hilary Shelton acted as moderator for the panel, which included Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Congressman Al Green (D-TX), Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Congressman Robert Scott (D-VA), Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) and Congresswoman Joyce Beatty (D-OH).

Senator Merkley opened with a series of powerful statements advocating voter and economic empowerment among African Americans. Congressman Green buttressed this point with further calls for economic justice after learning of the disparities in unemployment among White and Black citizens; in 2015, African Americans with college degrees suffered from an unemployment rate of 4.1%, while Whites without college degrees had an unemployment rate of 4%. He also defended the Dodd-Frank Act (2010) and urged people to understand the benefits it yields for African Americans below the poverty line.

Thereafter, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. shifted discussion to the troubling issues that police departments are facing across the United States of America. In light of the recent shootings in Dallas, Baton Rouge and St. Paul, Conyers promoted the importance of empowering minority police officers, improving the dissemination of data collection on police brutality and setting federal standards to elevate law enforcement reforms. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee similarly addressed the problem of aggressive law enforcement with calls for additional police training in de-escalation tactics and the conception of independent investigation committees.

Subsequent to Congressmen Robert Scott and Sean Patrick Maloney’s reflections of America’s flawed criminal justice system, Congresswoman Joyce Beatty implored people to demand and expect more from their public officials. As Beatty explained, “we are trapped in inaction and a lack of expectations”. Hilary Shelton concluded the panel by graciously thanking the panelists for their sharing opinions with the NAACP and objectives for future public policy reform.

Sign up to receive the NAACP’s Action Alerts for updates on key civil rights legislation here.

If there is one takeaway that attendees of the 80th Anniversary Youth and College Public Mass Meeting were left with, it was this oft-repeated mantra: courage will not skip this generation. The meeting, which was a highlight of Monday’s programming for the 107th Annual NAACP Convention, featured over ten prominent speakers — all of whom emphasized the vitally important role that youth and college-age students play in continuing the NAACP’s mission.

The atmosphere throughout the session was electric, charged by the optimism of the speakers and the energy of a large, youthful audience. NAACP Board of Directors Chairman Roslyn A. Brock led a spirited rendition of a fight song that invigorated both young and older members of the crowd alike, reminding those gathered that the organization “will always have energy as long as young people are among us.”

Likewise, National Youth and College Director Stephen Green “turned the lights on” both physically and metaphorically, telling the crowd that 80 years ago the NAACP declared “let there be light” by creating the youth division and illustrating his point by inviting those in attendance to shine lights from their phones onto the stage as a reminder.

This energy built to a fever pitch during the speech by NAACP President and CEO Cornell William Brooks, who brought nearly every member of the audience to their feet with his rousing address.

“This is a moment. It is not your grandfather’s civil rights movement. This is YOUR movement. This is YOUR movement on Facebook. This is YOUR movement on Twitter,” Brooks said, emphasizing another common theme found throughout the evening’s speeches: the power that young people have to enact real change just by picking up their phones and using social media.

Stefanie Brown James further echoed Brooks’ comments in her “Strange Fruit Speaks” discussion, in which she argued that it is the duty of youth and college-age students to rediscover a sometimes “lost sense of mission” by re-focusing on the political, educational, social and economic inequalities that are at the heart of the NAACP’s mission.

“You are not our future generation. You are now,” James reminded the audience, which was met with audible cheers. Indeed, James’s words ultimately served to underscore the primary purpose and theme of the evening: that the current youth and college division members of the NAACP truly are part of “the courageous generation” — one that has made tremendous progress in the past 80 years, but still has a long way to go.

Join this courageous generation and become a member of the NAACP Youth & College Division.

By: Chloe Herzog

The third day of the 107th Annual NAACP Convention brought inspirational, unifying rhetoric to all those in attendance. In the main hall, addressing thousands of NAACP members, President and CEO Cornell William Brooks echoed Chairman Roslyn M. Brock in encouraging the audience to initiate change — starting in the black community and younger generation — to carry the NAACP legacy of activism forward. Secretary Hillary Clinton spoke to the duty we have as a nation to come together in empathy, humility, and unity. But after the likes of such honored and revered figures left the stage, four young people took to a smaller, but no less inspiring platform to share their big ideas on progress.

The Youth and College Division Idea Lab Competition brought four high school students from across the nation to the NAACP convention to share their ideas on economic empowerment. Their ideas stand as a testament to all that Clinton, Brooks, and Brock envisioned for the future. Developed in partnership with Wells Fargo, the competition challenged each student to design an economic empowerment program utilizing the Wells Fargo Hands on Banking as means to promote financial literacy within their communities.

Finalists Michael James II and Andreas Nelson, Amani Franklin, and Kyla Anderson presented months of research and strategic vision to a panel of four judges representing the NAACP and Wells Fargo.

Ms. Anderson and her age-based financial management program were honored as the winning Idea Lab empowerment plan and received $500 in funding courtesy of Wells Fargo. But far more than her holistic approach or incentive-based workshops, Anderson won the hearts of the judges with her passion and commitment to the proposed initiative.

“I want to keep my money from being funny, and my change from being strange,” said Anderson as the audience erupted in concurring laughter.

Anderson went on to explain her strategy for appealing to each age group, from children 11 and under, to seniors who could benefit greatly from financial technology training and finance protection resources. To Kyla, the key to change is building a foundation. Without empowerment, children cannot grow and adapt the necessary skills — financial and otherwise — to create independent and successful lives for themselves.

Kyla Anderson’s presentation blew away the judges for its potential to break financial barriers. But her words left an even greater impact. Kyla Anderson’s presentation stood as clear evidence of an inspired and excited vision for the future. Even amidst recent and horrific events, this young woman showed that beyond ruminating on the issues facing our nation today, we must determinedly and passionately pursue solutions for tomorrow. As we reflect on the dark, we must always look forward to the light.

Ms. Anderson stood tall and proud, spoke confidently and eloquently, and reminded us all of the bursting potential emerging from young people who are empowered to act. With powerful voices like Kyla Anderson leading her generation, the NAACP can rest assured that their legacy lies safe in the hands of their young people.

By Carla D. Walker

Walking out of the Women in NAACP brunch today at the NAACP Convention, I am ever confident that the future of the African American community is in great — not good — hands. That is because of Darriell Anderson, a recent graduate of Woodward High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, who was the “Voice of the Youth” speaker on the dais. This young lady shared her inspirational story of overcoming adversity but what resonated with me was her focus on a goal to accomplish big things in her life no matter what she has to face.

Darriell shared how she knew her parents were kids when they had her. Her dad was imprisoned when she was born and her mom struggled to make a living. During high school, she could not go with the debate team to competition or participate on the cheerleading squad because she had to work. At times, she had two jobs which made her the primary bread winner in her household — at 15 years of age. She shared, “The more I became engaged with school, the more disconnect notices we received, so I worked.”

Parts of her story left the audience in tears especially when she talked about living out of a car, taking care of her mother after a cancer scare and becoming the second mother to her sister. In spite of all she went through, she had a will to be different and better than her circumstances. Her dream was to be in a construction management program at an HBCU and that she would have one of the first black female owned construction business.

She gave me a new mantra to add to my daily meditation when she said, “Where I am, is not where I will be.”

And she left no doubt in the room that she would succeed because here she was, standing tall, confident and poised speaking to this room of 400–500 mostly women from around the country who immediately embraced her.

When she stepped to the podium, she was introduced as an incoming freshman at Alabama State but she indicated to the Mistress of Ceremonies that there was a mistake in her bio. What the audience learned was that Darriell received the first bill statement from ASU. While she had saved money for college, she knew that neither she, nor her family, could afford the expense of the school. Not to be deterred, she started talking with Central State University about attending school in the fall.

She calls her story the “Amazing Book of Darriell” and at the end of her story she shared “and on August 10th, when I walk onto the campus of Central State, I’m going to write the newest chapter of that book.”

The audience roared knowing that she is now a proud incoming Freshman at Central State and that she is preparing to enter its construction management program.

By Jennifer Moore

The second day of the 107th National NAACP Convention kicked off with powerful discussions in the Author’s Pavilion, focusing on entrepreneurship and diversity in Hollywood. Featured during the Pavilion were Tika Sumpter, 2008 NAACP Image Award Nominee and star of OWN TV’s hit show The Haves and the Have Nots, and Miss Robbie Montgomery, star of the 2013 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Reality Series, Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s.

Convention attendees were treated to a sneak peek of Southside with You, starring Sumpter as Michelle Obama, which focuses on the first date between President Barack Obama and the first lady in 1989. Sumpter, who also serves as a producer of the film, said that she was inspired to show great black love stories on the big screen and increase diversity in Hollywood. She also stated that First Lady Michelle Obama was aware of the film but had not seen it yet.

Southside with You is distributed by Miramax and Roadside Attractions, and due in theaters August 2016.

Montgomery, who sang with Ike and Tina Turner in the 1960’s, opened her famous soul food restaurant of the same moniker after an illness derailed her singing career. In a candid discussion, she shared her story of becoming an entrepreneur despite criticism from the community.

“To not be able to sing and hear everyone say ‘she used to be this and that’ was pretty hard to hear” said Montgomery. “But in my mind, I knew I had to go on. I realized a long time ago that opportunity is something that you have to make it, take it and use it whenever it is available to you. My opportunity was to feed people in St. Louis.”

According to her bio, with the help of her son Tim, she opened the first Sweetie Pie’s in 1996. Eight years later, her second location, Sweetie Pie’s at the Mangrove, opened its doors. Then at the age of 71, Montgomery undertook her most ambitious endeavor yet — Sweetie Pie’s: The Upper Crust. Opening in 2012, The Upper Crust was built from the ground up and includes a restaurant and a banquet space.

During her appearance, Montgomery also stressed the importance of black-owned businesses supporting each other.

“Don’t be afraid of competition,” she stressed to attendees. “I’m proud to see my black brothers and sisters open any type of business. We as black people have less businesses than others and we need to all get out there. There are a lot of things as black people that we can do. We are survivors.”

PiperWai is an all-natural deodorant that Sarah Ribner and her best friend, Jess Edelstein, began making by hand a few years ago. “We wanted an alternative,” said Sarah. “Something that was safe and effective.”

Sarah was terrified of pitching and public speaking, but knew it was something she had to overcome to take her business to the next level. With practice and even a few courses in public speaking, she and Jess felt they were finally ready to approach investors. That opportunity came quicker than expected, at the 2015 NAACP Conference in Philadelphia, when Shark Tank producers held an open Casting Call.

“We came in excited and hoped for the best,” Sarah recounted while speaking to a group of casting hopefuls at the NAACP National Convention held in Cincinnati from July 16–20.

Asking for $50,000 in exchange for 10 percent of PiperWai, Sarah and Jess found themselves in the tank for the Season 7 Christmas episode. Within 10 days of their episode airing, they sold 120,000 units and have seen a 4,000% increase in their business.

One of those 2016 hopefuls is Gregory Speights, a New York native now living in Tallahassee, who came to Cincinnati for the Convention. While walking around Duke Energy Convention Center, he passed the Shark Tank Casting Call and decided to take a chance on an idea 10 years in the making.

Gregory is still in the research and development phase of his security technology product, but is hoping for the same chance Sarah and Jess had in 2015. Working full time as a software developer at Florida A&M University, Gregory is looking for start-up money that would allow him to focus all his time and effort on pursuing a patent and creating a prototype.

“Security is so important today and being safe at home is the reason I am pursuing this,” he said.

In a presentation to the Casting Call hopefuls, Sarah offered a few tips for successfully pitching to potential investors:

1. If possible, take a physical product or samples into the pitch.
2. Practice, practice, and practice your pitch.
3. The value that Shark Tank brings is worth asking for less money in order to get in the door.
4. Get to know the Sharks or your investors before the pitch by researching their past investments.

=”: {�F�

Now in #NAACP107 Authors Pavilion. Adrian Jackson, former police officer & author of 'Black Man's Guide to Survival'pic.twitter.com/jl1YD2XFzn

This year’s theme, “Our Lives Matter, Our Vote Counts,” extends to every aspect of the Convention’s breakout sessions, panel discussions and performances, including the pop-up bookstore in the NAACP Commerce & Industry Show. The books highlighted tackle difficult yet timely subject matters — from policing practices to racial bias and civil unrest.

The 2016 NAACP Author Pavilion, which features close to 50 authors and their books, will be open at the Convention beginning today through July 20. A full schedule for the Pavilion is available at naacpauthorpavilion.org.

Here are a few samples of the books available at the 2016 NAACP Author Pavilion:

Encounters with Police: A Black Man’s Guide to Survival by Eric Broyles and Adrian Jackson

“This book provides advice to African American boys and men on how to survive encounters with police. This book provides ideas on how to think about interaction with police to lower the chances of escalation. The book also provides information on legal and administrative rights citizens have to redress police misconduct so no hostilities occur at the time of encounter. The book provides practical step-by-step guidelines on how to respond to police when pulled over for traffic stops and when stopped for questioning outside of traffic encounters. Eric Broyles is an attorney and Adrian Jackson is a police officer.”

How to Be Drawn by Terrance Hayes

“In How to Be Drawn, his daring fifth collection, Terrance Hayes explores how we see and are seen. While many of these poems bear the clearest imprint yet of Hayes’s background as a visual artist, they do not strive to describe art so much as inhabit it. Thus, one poem contemplates the principle of blind contour drawing while others are inspired by maps, graphs, and assorted artists. The formal and emotional versatilities that distinguish Hayes’s award-winning poetry are unified by existential focus. Simultaneously complex and transparent, urgent and composed, How to Be Drawn is a mesmerizing achievement.”

Between the World by Ta-Nehisi Coates

“In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men — bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?

Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son — and readers — the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.”

Soul Food Love: Healthy Recipes Inspired by 100 Years of Cooking in a Black Family by Alice Randall and Caroline Randall Williams

“In May 2012, bestselling author Alice Randall penned an op-ed in the New York Timestitled “Black Women and Fat,” chronicling her quest to be “the last fat black woman” in her family. She turned to her daughter, Caroline Randall Williams, for help. Together they overhauled the way they cook and eat, translating recipes and traditions handed down by generations of black women into easy, affordable, and healthful — yet still indulgent — dishes, such as Peanut Chicken Stew, Red Bean and Brown Rice Creole Salad, Fiery Green Beans, and Sinless Sweet Potato Pie. Soul Food Love relates the authors’ fascinating family history (which mirrors that of much of black America in the twentieth century), explores the often fraught relationship African-American women have had with food, and forges a powerful new way forward that honors their cultural and culinary heritage. This is what the strong black kitchen looks like in the twenty-first century.”

As President Obama so eloquently stated on August 6, 2015, marking the 50th Anniversary of the enactment of the Voting Right Act of 1965, “There’s still work for us to do.” And yet, Congress has remained stalled; the majority of Members of the House and the Senate have chosen to ignore the call of the President and the NAACP. These so called Congressional leaders have snubbed the pleas and opinions of their constituents, and have obfuscated their Constitutional obligations as stewards of our Nation’s democracy and have allowed the 1965 Voting Rights Act to remain weakened, incomplete, and broken.

So, we are here today to tell President Obama that we’ve got his back. We have his back as he utilizes his Bully Pulpit and the stroke of his executive pen to further demand that the Congress act and Big Money receiving federal contracts report. We are here to stand arm in arm and march side-by-side with him and together, we invite all Americans who truly believe the democratic mantra of “one person, one vote”, join us. Our struggle continues.

From the White House to the Governors’ mansion, from Main Street to back street, we all join President Obama in continuing to call on Congress to repair and strengthen what has been broken in the Voting Right Act of 1965, to undo the damage that was inflicted by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 5–4 decision of Shelby v. Holder.

We also look forward to continuing our work with the White House to expose the democracy-drowning effect of dark money which is filling campaign coffers and political action committee war chests, and having a corrupting impact on those we elect and the policies they pursue. Especially in the economically and racially diverse communities served and represented by the NAACP. We need to know who is trying to drown out the voices of everyday American people with a convoluted influence over our elected officials.

It is our right to know which firms are spending how much money on particular candidates and political action and issue committees, so we can have a clear understanding of where political interests lay while casting a more educated and informed vote.

To quote President Obama again, in that historic speech on August 6, 2015, “this fight is just as is as important now as it ever has been.”

We stand with President Obama to demand that Congress act now, to fight until every eligible American is guaranteed the right to cast an unfettered vote and until he or she is guaranteed that their vote will be officially counted. Congress must act now, and until it does we urge and support the President using his powers to continue urging Congress to do the right thing, to live up to the promises of our Constitution, until the walls of injustice come crumbling down and the right to vote is restored and strengthened.