NAACP Statement on the Confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson

NAACP President Derrick Johnson issued the statement below on today's historic senate confirmation vote of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court of the United States:

"Today's vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court is of enormous consequence to our nation and to history. After 233 years, the Court will finally have a Black woman justice deciding our most significant cases with tremendous impact on our lives and the lives of our families. 

This has taken far too long. Fifty-five years ago, former NAACP Chief Counsel Thurgood Marshall broke down the wall when he was confirmed as the first Black American to sit on the Supreme Court. Today, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson shatters the glass ceiling to finally make room for a Black woman on our nation's highest court. 

Judge Jackson is a breathtakingly qualified candidate to make this history. We joined the nation in beaming with pride as we learned about her background and family. She has impeccable credentials and a brilliant intellect. Her work as a public defender and on the Sentencing Commission will bring a perspective to the Court that has been missing since Thurgood Marshall served. Her impressive record as a trial and appellate jurist makes her one of the most prepared and experienced justices ever appointed to the Court. She has an even-handed approach to the law and is committed to fairness and equal justice. Our Supreme Court will be better and stronger with Judge Jackson's presence, her votes, and her voice. 

We greet this moment with joy, hope, and gratitude. We thank President Biden for keeping his promise to nominate the first Black woman justice. We thank the Senate for its bipartisan vote to confirm this historic nominee. We extend special gratitude to Senator Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney, who rejected appeals to partisanize this vote and instead, voted their conscience. 

History is watching this moment. The votes to confirm Judge Jackson will recorded as ones in favor of justice and equality. The votes against her will forever be known as hostile and cowardly, as were the attacks by certain Senators throughout this process. The unjust hurdles Black women like Ketanji Brown Jackson face each and every day were regrettably centerstage during her confirmation. But as Black women do, Ketanji Brown Jackson outshined the hate. Today and every day, we celebrate Black women. 

The NAACP remains committed to tearing down the racist obstacles that continue to obstruct paths for far too many Americans, especially Black women, throughout our nation. While we celebrate today, tomorrow we are back at work tackling student debt, voting and reproductive rights, climate change, and police reform, so that everyone in America can realize their dream."

NAACP General Counsel Janette McCarthy Wallace, who attended today's confirmation of Judge Jackson, released the following statement:

"Today, Black women truly are supreme. Over the past few weeks, it has been an incredible privilege to bear witness to the rise of the first Black woman Supreme Court Justice. The significance of this moment for the Black community, especially for Black women like me who have spent decades in the legal profession, is impossible to overstate. Representation is powerful – now, Black women and girls who dream of reaching the highest levels of our government, or any profession for that matter, can see that it is possible. While soon-to-be Justice Jackson's confirmation did not come without racist, misogynistic attacks on her career and character, it is without question that Ketanji Brown Jackson is imminently qualified to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. Alongside the rest of our nation, I celebrate her confirmation and this stride toward achieving true equity, and look forward to seeing her take the bench."

Alabama plan advances to "change'" the name of the Edmund Pettus Bridge

The Alabama Senate voted 23-3 for legislation that would change the official name of Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge, but not to a name many wanted or to one that many would expect. While I somewhat understand the explanation given I don't like the proposed name change.

George Cook African American Reports.

From the Associated Press:

Alabama lawmakers on Tuesday advanced legislation that would alter the name of Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge to honor those who were beaten on the bridge as they marched for civil rights in 1965.

The Alabama Senate voted 23-3 for legislation that would change the official name to the “Edmund W. Pettus-Foot Soldiers Bridge.” However, the lettering on the famous bridge would remain unaltered. The name “Foot Soldiers” would be on a separate sign that would include a silhouette of the marchers.

The bill, dubbed the “Healing History Act,” now moves to the Alabama House of Representatives with three meeting days remaining in the legislative session.

“Not a single letter would be touched. It would stay intact in its historical context. And at the same time... honor the history that is there and the history that came out of it,” said state Sen. Malika Sanders-Fortier, a Democrat from Selma.

Through the years some have proposed changing the name of the bridge, including a push to name it for the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis. The Georgia congressman was one of the demonstrators beaten on the bridge in 1965.

Sanders-Fortier said many who marched for civil rights in her community do not want the bridge name changed entirely because of what the bridge has come to represent.

Sanders-Fortier said it is important to honor all of the state's history and “to heal from our past so we can move forward as a state.”

“Many of the events in our state’s history have been traumatizing, been traumatizing to African-American folk to Indigenous folk to white folk," she said, adding that healing means considering the "hurt of each group.”

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Black Women of Influence in Hillside, NJ, and the Making of American History

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Black Women of Influence in Hillside, NJ, and the Making of American History

By Dr. Christopher Michael Jones

On Monday, April 4, 2022, U.S. Senator Bob Menendez along with a strong contingent of politicians, clergy, business owners, community activists, union leaders, and heads of organizations assembled on the grassy front lawn of First Baptist Church of Hillside to pray. The focus of that prayer centered on the well-being of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson and the Senate Judiciary Committee vote scheduled to take place later that afternoon.

Having been given this task to pray four days before, I considered the magnitude of the moment. There will never be another time in history when a U.S. Senate Judicial Committee gathers on the 54th year of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination to affirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s candidacy to be presented to the U.S. Senate as the first African American female Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. In many regards, Judge Jackson is an existential representation of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech declared on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., on August 28, 1963. Judge Jackson is a dream come true, and the full embodiment of the hopes and dreams of so many black and brown girls who look just like her.

The thought hasn’t escaped me that Hillside, NJ is undergoing a bit of its own renaissance as it relates to dynamic black women serving and leading the local community. The Township of Hillside is the only municipality in the state of New Jersey currently being led by an African American female mayor, police captain, city councilwoman, district leaders, board of education president, and founder and president of a local NAACP chapter simultaneously. Each of these dynamic leaders work in tandem with an African American female county commissioner who is also a former Hillside mayor. This is history. This is our history. The story needs to be told about how Mayor Dahlia Vertreese, Commissioner Angela Garretson, Captain LaShonda Burgess, City Councilwoman Andrea Hyatt, Board of Education President Kimberly Cook, District Leaders Val Mayo and Monique Fletcher, and NAACP President and Founder Nicole Graves-Watson strive to lead ethically from a place of compassion as black women in power. They too share in the story of black women like Judge Jackson and have overcome some of the same systemic barriers which have made Judge Jackson’s ascension to the Supreme Court so improbable.

I stated in my prayer on Monday morning, “America has been afforded another opportunity, “to let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” As the U.S. Senate prepares to take their vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first African American female Supreme Court Nominee in its 233-year history, I pray for the fulfillment of Dr. King’s prophetic words: “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.” Let’s make history. In making history, let’s also make sure the whole story is being told.

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The Reverend Dr. Christopher Michael Jones is the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of Hillside, NJ and Co-Mentor at United Theological Seminary, Dayton, OH.

No charges will be filed in killing of Amir Locke

The Hennepin County Attorney announced Wednesday that no criminal charges will be filed in the death of Amir Locke, a 22-year-old man who was shot and killed by a SWAT team during a no-knock raid in February.

County Attorney Michael Freeman and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said in a statement that there is "insufficient admissible evidence" to file charges in the case.

"Specifically, the State would be unable to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt any of the elements of Minnesota's use-of-deadly-force statute that authorizes the use of force by Officer Hanneman," the statement said. "Nor would the State be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt a criminal charge against any other officer involved in the decision-making that led to the death of Amir Locke."

Ellison said at a press conference Wednesday morning that it would be "unethical" for prosecutors to file charges in a case they know would not prevail in court.

"And still, and yet, a loving promising young man is dead," Ellison said. "His death leaves us with a wound in our community, but that is small in comparison to the wound his family is suffering from."

[SOURCE; CBS NEWS]

NAACP wants President Biden to cancel student loan debt

The Biden administration is planning to extend a pause on federal student loan repayments through August 31, according to an administration official familiar with the matter.

Wisdom Cole, National Director of the NAACP Youth and College Division, released the following statement in response to President Biden's student loan repayment extension.

"President Biden, student loan debt is a racial and economic justice issue that stains the Soul of America. With each and every repayment extension, you make a stronger case for canceling it.

At this point, just cancel it. $50,000 is the bare minimum. $10,000 is not enough."