By Lauren Burke

Citing Trump’s “attacking our democracy,” the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will not invite President Donald Trump to its national convention this year. The decision marks the first time that America’s oldest civil rights organization will exclude a sitting president at its convention. In a statement on the evening of June 16, the reasons were made clear. “Donald Trump is attacking our democracy and our civil rights. He believes more in the fascist playbook than in the U.S. Constitution. This playbook is radical and un-American. The president has signed unconstitutional executive orders to oppress voters and undo federal civil rights protections; he has illegally turned the military on our communities, and he continually undermines every pillar of our democracy to make himself more powerful and to personally benefit from the U.S. government,” the statement from the NAACP read in part.

The NAACP’s statement referred to President Trump’s recent decision to send the National Guard to Los Angeles after protests against ICE detentions and abductions sent fear through parts of the Los Angeles community. The White House responded to the NAACP’s June 16 statement. “The NAACP isn’t advancing anything but hate and division, while the President is focused on uniting our country, improving our economy, securing our borders, and establishing peace across the globe. This is the same vision for America that a record number of Black Americans supported in the resounding reelection of President Trump,” stated White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a written statement. Since he took office in January 2025 for his second term in The White House there has been a clear anti-Black policy focus pushed by the Trump Administration. Trump and members of his cabinet have constantly attacked diversity and inclusion since taking office.

The Trump Administration has also fired without cause several Black officials in top roles such as General CQ Brown, who was Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Dr. Carla Hayden, who served as the Librarian of Congress.  It was reported in early April that books on racism civil rights and the Black experience have been removed from the library at the U.S. Military Academy in Annapolis. The reason was the stated policy by the Trump Administration against “diversity” and “inclusion.”

“For 116 years, the NAACP has invited the sitting president of the United States to address the NAACP National Convention — regardless of their political party. There is a rich history of both Republicans and Democrats attending our convention — from Harry Truman to Dwight D. Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and beyond. We’re nonpartisan and always welcome those who believe in democracy and the Constitution,” the organization led by Derrick Johnson, also stated. Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush addressed racism during their speeches to the NAACP. The organization’s annual convention is one of the largest gatherings of Black leadership in the U.S. each year.

By Ellen Perrault

On #GivingTuesday, November 28, the Nextdoor Kind Foundation awarded 20 U.S. small business owners of color microgrants from the Keep It Local Business Fund in partnership with the NAACP, and Hello Alice, the free platform helping over one million small businesses launch and grow.

Four of the 20 grantees are located in California including The Daisy Refillery located in San Francisco; FreeJac Nation in Oakland; I Know a Place located in Los Angeles; and Kindness and Mischief Coffee, also located in Los Angeles.

The Keep It Local Business Fund has awarded $200,000 in microgrants this year to community entrepreneurs across the country.

“These 20 entrepreneurs demonstrated not only a clear vision and plan for their businesses, but a drive to create solutions, opportunities and positive change for their communities,” said Shireen Santosham, Executive Director of the Nextdoor Kind Foundation in a press release. “It’s a privilege to introduce these innovative business owners as Keep It Local Business Fund grant recipients and connect them with financial resources and a network of cohorts to help fuel their ongoing growth.”

More than 11,000 applications were received from across the country during the  application period for this grant round,

Unified by a vision for growth and a commitment to their communities, this period’s grantees represent a diverse spectrum of proposals and industries spanning real estate and preservation, wellness and beauty, counseling and educational services, culinary and more.

“The NAACP extends a heartfelt congratulations to the recipients of this year’s Keep It Local Business Fund,” said NAACP President and CEO, Derrick Johnson.  “This grant initiative further underscores the transformative power of a thriving community through its small business owners. We celebrate not only the achievements of these 20 entrepreneurs but also the potential they hold to inspire and uplift their communities.”

In addition to the grant, recipients will receive resources and tools to grow their business including pro bono advertising on the Nextdoor (NYSE: KIND) platform and access to personalized training.

Follow this link to learn more about the 2023 grant recipients.

The post Keep It Local Business Fund Grants $200k to Community Entrepreneurs appeared first on Black Voice News.

Mayor reiterates that chief was fired for “knee-jerk” response to criticisms and “poor judgment”

By Ken Epstein

The Oakland NAACP has issued a statement calling on Mayor Sheng Thao to rehire fired Oakland Chief of Police LeRonne Armstrong, citing a non-binding arbitrator’s report that is not publicly available, though some people have obtained the leaked document.

The arbitration hearing conducted by retired federal judge Maria Rivera has issued a 54-page opinion, which the Oakland NAACP says has found that the “investigation which formed the basis for his initial termination was unreliable.”

However, in a statement issued this week, Mayor Thao stood by her decision to fire the former chief, saying he was terminated not for failing to punish an officer guilty for misconduct but because Armstrong responded to criticisms of how he handled the officer’s misconduct by denouncing the significance of the misconduct and protesting federal court oversight of OPD.

Rivera wrote in her report that “the discipline imposed on Chief Armstrong should be reversed and removed from his personnel record,” the NACCP alleged in a press statement about the arbitration report, which is considered a personnel matter and not available to the public.

“This was a complete vindication of Chief Armstrong that established he had done nothing to warrant his termination,” wrote the Oakland NAACP, which has been in the forefront of public pressure defending the chief.

Judge Rivera further said *the parties should meet and confer, together with their counsel, to discuss the viability of resolving the dispute in a manner to be negotiated, including the possibility of reinstatement,” the NAACP press release said.

“Too much time has been wasted playing politics, while Oaklanders are terrorized by violence and the crimes they face daily and businesses are driven from the city,” said Cynthia Adams, Oakland NAACP president.

In her statement, Thao said, ““At the beginning of this year, I was faced with the difficult decision of how Oakland and our police department could ensure our commitment to accountability and reform in light of a troubling report illustrating failures within our disciplinary process.”

Continuing, she said, “I placed then-Chief Armstrong on administrative leave so that I could take careful consideration of the best path forward. During that period, I was troubled by then-Chief Armstrong’s many statements indicating that he saw no need for deep reflection or change within the department.”

When faced with the case of an officer who was involved in a hit-and-run accident and failed to report it, and “whether OPD failed to rigorously investigate it,” Chief Armstrong “immediately dismissed the allegations as ‘mistakes and not systematic problems, ‘and insisted the officer had already been held accountable, Mayor Thao said.

“My decision was based on Mr. Armstrong’s knee-jerk response to the outside investigator’s report and the poor judgment it revealed, not on the report itself,” the mayor said.

“That lack of leadership led me to lose confidence in his commitment to reform, and his ability to serve Oakland as a credible messenger and partner to the federal court and federal monitor in finally ending 20 years of oversight,” she said.

“Mr. Armstrong had a right under state law to object to his termination and have a neutral hearing officer make non-binding recommendations to the City,” according to Mayor Thao.

“While I similarly cannot publicly discuss the hearing officer’s findings, since they are personnel records, I will say that there was no recommendation that I reverse my decision to move the department forward under new leadership… Neither my administration nor the federal court agreed with Mr. Armstrong that the findings could be written off as ‘mistakes,’” she said.

A news story from KQED, which examined the arbitrator’s report, said that the arbitrator found that the original investigation that led to Armstrong’s suspension early this year for mishandling a police officer’s misconduct case had many inaccuracies and urged Mayor Thao to meet with Armstrong to discuss the possibility of reinstatement.”

“It would be wise for both parties, and of great benefit to the citizens of Oakland, to avoid the costs and related toll of protracted litigation,” the arbitrator wrote.

However, the arbitrator’s report did not go as far as calling for Armstrong to be reinstated. The report also rejected Armstrong’s claim he was fired because he was a whistleblower and found no evidence to back up the former chief’s claim that the federal monitor was improperly raising issues to extend the federal court’s oversight of OPD to enrich himself at the city’s expense.

The arbitrator also “did not fully endorse Armstrong’s claims that he was fired for exercising his First Amendment rights,” according to KQED.

KQED also said that under the Oakland City Charter, Mayor Thao does not have the authority to rehire a police chief. “Instead, the chief must go through the police commission’s hiring process,” according to KQED.

The post Oakland NAACP Calls on Oakland Mayor to Rehire Former OPD Chief LeRonne Armstrong first appeared on Post News Group. This article originally appeared in Post News Group.

By Ken Epstein

Several lifelong NAACP members, including Black Business Round Table host Doug Blacksher and civil rights attorney Walter Riley, held a press conference this week criticizing the conduct of the Oakland NAACP chapter for its attacks on criminal justice reform and on reformer Black DA Pamela Price, the repetition of false narratives about crime and criminal justice, and the use of historic fear-mongering that props up the system of mass incarceration.

The speakers also said the Oakland NAACP has acted in alliance with Republican anti-Black and anti-democratic forces and served as a vehicle for the self-interest actions of failed candidates in opposition to the national NAACP’s promulgated policy and positions.

Oakland “NAACP leadership is reverting to lies, fear-mongering, and the ‘tough-on-crime’ rhetoric that has targeted African Americans throughout our entire history in this country, evoking stereotypical narratives of Black criminality that maintains the United States incarcerating more Black people than there were enslaved Africans,” said Blacksher, in a media release.

“We call upon the national NAACP to reign in the Oakland Chapter and demand that Branch 1051 align itself with the mandate of the national NAACP such as addressing policies that unfairly target or penalize Black people in the criminal justice system,” Blacksher said.

Speakers at the press conference, held Tuesday at the Dr. Huey P. Newton Center for Research & Action at 1427 Broadway in Oakland were: Blacksher and Riley, as well as Chaney Turner, Oakland-born entrepreneur and organizer; Desmond Jeffries, Oakland activist; and Cathy Leonard, longtime police accountability activist.

“Interestingly, when previous district attorneys were overcharging African Americans with excessive sentences and previous councils presided over unprecedented Black displacement and homelessness, the (Oakland) NAACP was silent. Now, they are taking positions and aligning themselves with those who wish a return to the unjust status quo,” said Leonard, an Oakland native.

Riley said the Oakland NAACP chapter is working against policies and positions that the national NAACP supports. “We seek to be in alignment with the national NAACP on topics of education, public safety, housing and economic justice, but our chapter constantly contradicts this aspiration,” he said.

In a letter to national NAACP President Derrick Johnson, the press conference organizers  accused current Oakland NAACP leaders of advocating conservative positions that align with the Republican Party, such as “singular support of charter school (Board of Education) candidates, efforts to recall the first Black female District Attorney in our county’s history, support (for) legislation that defunds public education in favor of tax breaks for the powerful real estate lobby over renters, and taking payouts from big tobacco and big pharmaceutical corporations.”

Letter signers included press conference speakers Blacksher, Riley, and Leonard, as well as Millie Cleveland, retired SEIU 1021 Field Representative; Ben “Coach” Tapscott, public education advocate; and Sheryl Walton, community activist and Oakland native.

The letter signers said that as NAACP members, they support formal positions taken by the East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club and the Alameda County Democratic Party denouncing the hateful accusations and homophobic statements made by Oakland NAACP leader Seneca Scott.

According to the letter, Oakland NAACP leaders are utilizing Republican talking points to attack “women of color who are currently serving in Oakland, creating stark divisions in the public discourse,” and seeking to “agitate people around a divisive, yet organizable conservative agenda.”

The letter said local NAACP leaders are seeking to misdirect people on the sources of crime and disorder in Oakland, instead blaming ‘wokeness,’ progressive policies, ‘liberal Democrats,’ and debunked claims that ‘defund the police’ are the sources of everything wrong in the city.”

Proposals for reform of the Oakland chapter include:

• “Cease the spread of false information. Factcheck first.”
• Remove any member, officer, or former elected official …who seeks to weaponize Oakland NAACP for personal gain.
• Disentangle the Oakland NAACP from the political agenda of the Alameda County Republican Party.
• “Reject all connections with Sam Singer,” a corporate public relations operative.
• “Provide transparency on all financial contributions.”

The post Local Black Leaders Break Silence on “Politicization” of Oakland NAACP Branch first appeared on Post News Group. This article originally appeared in Post News Group.

By Clifford Williams
Special to The Post

The Bay Area Jazz Society will hold a fundraiser and CD listening party to raise funds for youth programs at Berkeley’s Black Repertory Theater (BBRT), the only Black-owned-and-operated theater in the East Bay.

The event will take place at the BBRT on Sunday, Oct. 8 from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. at 3201 Adeline St., Berkeley, CA. Tickets are $25. The master of ceremonies will be KPFA’s Afrikahn Jamal Davis.

Many artists featured in “The Sounds of Oakland: Music from the Streets” compilation CD will perform with special guests including Larriah Jackson from “The Voice” Niecy ‘Living Single’ Robinson, one of the Bay Area’s most popular vocalists and Derick Hughes, who sang with Roberta Flack for many years, taking the place of Donnie Hathaway.

Other artists attending include Donnie Williams from “American Idol,” (the same year Jennifer Hudson and Latoya London appeared), and Williams’ sister, Terrill Williams. There will be live performances with food and drink for everyone, and the CD will be playing in the lobby when the performers take a break.

BBRT has had limited programming during and throughout the pandemic and is now struggling to regain continual of operations. Bay Area Jazz Society Executive Director Paul Tillman Smith, has an extensive background in theatre, starting with a stint as musical director for the Oakland Ensemble Theater’s Melvin Van Peebles play, “Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death,” featuring television star Ted Lange of the “Love Boat,” as director.

Tillman Smith is also the co-producer, along with Norman Connors, Levi Seacer Jr., and Nelson Braxton for the new Bay Area CD ‘The Sounds of Oakland: Music from the Streets.” Other artists listed on the CD may be in attendance, including Lenny Williams, Derick Hughes, and Lady Bianca to meet and greet guests.

The Berkeley chapter of the NAACP will also support the fundraiser.

The first 20 individuals attending the fundraiser will receive a free copy of the CD. Thirty percent of the CD sales will go into a fund to help aging artists who don’t have a pension and, in many cases, no social security.

For more information regarding the fundraiser and how to obtain tickets, contact Paul Tilman Smith at 510. 689.3332, or [email protected].

The post Berkeley’s Black Repertory Theater to Hold Fundraiser for Youth Programs first appeared on Post News Group. This article originally appeared in Post News Group.

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia

The Advancement Project and the NAACP have rallied behind North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls, the lone Black justice on the bench, as she faces a litany of Republican attacks threatening her seat on the state’s highest court.

“We are closely monitoring what is happening,” Carmen Daugherty, the Deputy Director of Advancement Project, emphasized on the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s Let It Be Known Morning show. Daugherty said Earls might be the most deeply accomplished voting rights justice in the entire United States, whether federal or state.  “We need her expertise very badly at this time,” she stressed, underlining the urgency of retaining Earls’ invaluable contributions,” declared NAACP President & CEO Derrick Johnson.

“The investigation into Justice Earls is a clear attempt to stifle a powerful Black woman who fearlessly speaks out against injustice,” stated Johnson, who staunchly affirmed the NAACP’s unwavering backing of Justice Earls, lauding her relentless pursuit of civil rights on both state and national fronts. Johnson also decried the assaults on Justice Earls as part of a broader pattern aimed at undermining and discrediting elected Black women, urging the North Carolina Judicial Standards Commission to take proactive measures to enhance diversity within the judiciary.

A coalition comprising the NAACP, Advancement Project, and leaders from 14 other civil rights organizations implored the North Carolina Judicial Standards Commission to cease its investigation into Justice Earls. Instead, they urged the Commission to redirect its energies towards addressing the pressing issues highlighted by Earls concerning racial bias and the glaring underrepresentation within the state’s court system.

“Justice Earls comes to the bench with decades of experience fighting against the very thing that is permeating throughout the bench—the miscarriage of justice due to racism and sexism,” added Judith Browne Dianis, Executive Director of the Advancement Project. “Yet she is being attacked for calling out racial and gender bias in a judicial system that we all know should and must be fully impartial.”

Added Browne-Dianis: “No other group is more scrutinized, targeted, and attacked than the Black woman, especially those in power. Justice Earls has a right under the First Amendment and an ethical obligation to call out bias in the judicial system to guarantee the fair administration of justice in North Carolina.”

The coalition asserted that Justice Earls is being subjected to an improper investigation for criticizing:

• the Court’s lack of diversity and implicit bias within the North Carolina judicial system;
• the manner in which fellow judges and lawyers mistreat her and other Black women within the legal profession and
• the recent rollbacks on court diversity efforts under Chief Justice Paul Newby.

Justice Earls occupies a significant position in the state’s legal landscape as only the seventh African American judge in the history of the North Carolina Supreme Court and the ninth woman to serve on the North Carolina State Supreme Court. In a disturbing trend, the coalition pointed out that similar efforts to investigate and silence Black female leaders are emerging nationwide, as evidenced by the suspension of Florida State Attorney Monique Worrell and the investigation of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in Georgia.

In addition to the NAACP and Advancement Project, a coalition of prominent civil rights organizations stands united in support of Justice Earls. They include The Black Voters Matter Fund, BlackPAC, Center for Constitutional Rights, Color Of Change, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, National Bar Association, National Black Justice Coalition, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, National Council of Negro Women, National Urban League, National Women’s Law Center, Rainbow PUSH, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and UnidosUS.

“By targeting and silencing the only Black female judge on the state’s supreme court, the Judicial Standards Commision would perpetuate the very harm Justice Earls described, eroding public trust in the North Carolina justice system in the process,” the coalition wrote in a letter. “This is compounded by actions taken by the new Chief Justice, Paul Newby. Since taking the post, Chief Justice Newby has disbanded a committee established to review racial and gender bias in the court’s hiring practices and refused to appoint members to the Supreme Court’s Commission on Fairness and Equity, created in 2020, which was tasked with recommending plans to ultimately eliminate disparate treatment, impacts, and outcomes in the North Carolina judicial system.”