NAACP Calls to Action to Address Racial and Ethnic Disparities

WHEREAS, the NAACP was founded to address existing racial and ethnic disparities; and

WHEREAS, today, consistent racial and ethnic disparities exist in education, health, economic empowerment, criminal justice, civic engagement, and international affairs; and

WHEREAS, in 2001, the NAACP developed and launched a National Call for Action in Education document which challenged governors nationwide to reduce the education-related racial and ethnic disparities in their states by 50% over a five-year period; and

WHEREAS, as a result of the NAACP's national call for action in education, NAACP state conferences and local units achieved measurable progress addressing disparities on issues such as class size reduction, fiscal equity, early childhood education, special education, etc; and

WHEREAS, the NAACP must develop a systemic approach to advocacy that aligns the Association's national, state, and local advocacy agendas;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the NAACP launch calls to action in health, criminal justice, economic empowerment, civic engagement, international affairs, and Gulf Coast recovery; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NAACP reaffirms its national call to action in education; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NAACP calls to actions all establish numerical disparity gap reducing benchmarks for state and local systems to achieve over a set number of years; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that all NAACP state conferences are advised to present the calls to action to their respective state officials.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the NAACP calls to action shall be reviewed and evaluated after a five-year period; and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the national office shall provide technical assistance to the units to support the implementation of the national calls to action in order to get state conferences to take appropriate action.