March on Washington Aug 24, 2013

March on Washington Aug 28, 1963

Edited press release from NAACP July 30.

‘Trayvon’s Law” Principles for State Legislative Advocacy

(Baltimore, MD) -- In light of the tragic death of Trayvon Martin and the overwhelming national awareness around numerous issues surrounding this case, the NAACP has developed a set of policy principles called “Trayvon’s Law” which embody legislative responses that will greatly reduce the likelihood of another tragedy like the killing of Trayvon Martin.  

The principles of Trayvon’s Law are:

-Ending racial profiling;

-Repealing Stand Your Ground type laws;

-Creating law enforcement accountability through effective police oversight;

-Improving training and best practices for community watch groups;

-Mandating law enforcement data collection on homicide cases involving people of color.

On Saturday, August 24, the NAACP will march on the National Mall for the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. NAACP leaders will be available for comment in the weeks before and after the march. For interview requests, please contact Michelle Nealy at (443)562-4233 or Ben Wrobel at (917) 846-0658. Press inquiries will be honored on a first call, first serve basis.

Fifty years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech, leaders from civil rights, organized labor, housing, media, education and politics will once again convene in the nation’s capital to urge Congress to create more jobs, protect voting rights, and to address the litany of recent attacks on immigration and workers’ rights.

“If this year has shown us anything, it's that the work of the 1963 march is not yet finished,” stated Jealous. “Voting rights are under attack, black unemployment continues to soar and thousands of black children are living in impoverished neighborhoods and attending segregated schools. Black youth are being gunned down each and every day in senseless acts of violence. Trayvon Martin lies in the ground after one such senseless act.”

WHEN/WHERE:
March on Washington – Saturday, August 24
Rally at the Lincoln Memorial begins at 8 a.m. followed by march to the King Memorial.

March Route:
• Down Daniel French Drive to the southern portion of Independence Ave.
• We will march down Independence Ave. to the King Memorial.
• The King Memorial is the official dispersal point. Once there, marchers will be told to go to their buses or the Global Freedom Festival.

The NAACP was formed partly in response to lynching and the 1908 race riot in Springfield, the capital of Illinois and resting place of President Abraham Lincoln.

A group of white liberals that included Mary White Ovington and Oswald Garrison Villard, both the descendants of abolitionists, William English Walling and Dr. Henry Moscowitz issued a call for a meeting to discuss racial justice. Some 60 people, including 7  African Americans (including W. E. B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell), signed the call, which was released on the centennial of Lincoln's birth.

Other early members included Joel and Arthur Spingarn, Josephine Ruffin, Mary Talbert, Inez Milholland, Jane Addams, Florence Kelley, Sophonisba Breckinridge, John Haynes Holmes, Mary McLeod Bethune, George Henry White, Charles Edward Russell, John Dewey, William Dean Howells, Lillian Wald, Charles Darrow, Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, Fanny Garrison Villard, and Walter Sachs.

Echoing the focus of Du Bois' Niagara Movement began in 1905, the NAACP's stated goal was to secure for all people the rights guaranteed in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution, which promised an end to slavery, the equal protection of the law, and universal adult male suffrage, respectively.

The NAACP's principal objective is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of minority group citizens of United States and eliminate race prejudice.

The NAACP seeks to remove all barriers of racial discrimination through the democratic processes.

The NAACP established its national office in New York City in 1910 and named a board of directors and a president, Moorfield Storey, a white constitutional lawyer and former president of the American Bar Association. The only African American among the organization's executives, Dr Du Bois was made director of publications and research and in 1910 established the official journal of the NAACP, The Crisis.