[inaudible conversations] let me start with a few preliminaries about todays newsmaker. I am david anderson. A longtime member of the club and member of the clubs newsmaker committee. Im an attorney, years ago i was was correspondent for the cincinnati herald. The there may be a lot of folks who are not journalists in here so do re speak the members of the media, who may be here, and asking questions. And many of those may be working journalists and so please understand that theyre here to do a job. Now, after our guest makes his opening remarks youll have chance to ask questions. When you do please identify yourself, name and affiliation. Before we get started, id like to mention some Upcoming Event test club. On march 21st, a panel on the South China Sea dispute. And that will include various security, economic, and legal issues. On the 22nd, the club will also have a newsmaker on millenials, and on march 24th, the club will host john kot ky nin, commissioner of the irs, and that is like an annual event here at the club where we have the irs commissioner speak right before our taxes are due. So thats pretty standard. The other final item is this would be a good time to make sure your cell phones, iphones, and any other Electronic Device that makes audible sounds is turned off. Arames today is Cornell William brooks, the president and ceo or the naacp, which was founded in 1909, and is the nations oldest and largest grassroots base Civil Rights Organization. On may 16, 2014, he became the 18th person to serve at chief executive of the association, whose members are the most committed advocates for civil rights in their communities. Mr. Brooks was born in el paso, texas, and grew up in georgetown, south carolina. He received his bachelor of arts with honors from jackson state university, and a master of divinity from Boston University school of the ol. At Yale Law School hi was member of the yale law and policy review. His career began with chief judge sam j. Irving iii of the u. S. Court of appeals for their Fourth Circuit in washington he directed the federal Communications Commissions office of communication business opportunities, and served as the executive director of the Fair Housing Council of greater washington. His work continued as a Trial Attorney with the Lawyers Committee for civil rights under law and the u. S. Department of justice, where he filed the governments first lawsuit against a nursing home alleging housing discrimination based on race. Prior to taking the helm of the naacp, he was president and ceo of the new Jersey Institute for social justice working to win the passage of legislation which enabled formerly incarcerated men and women to rebuild their lives as productive and response citizens. Responsible citizens. Mr. Brooks, his wildfire, janice bloom brooks and their two sons are members of the memorial ame church in maryland. Mr. Brooks is happy to address issues such as the situation in flint, michigan, and criminal Justice Reform but ive recently been notified he wanted to focus his initial remarks on the tone and violence of the current president ial campaign. His speech today is entitled democracy awakening trumpism and voter suppression. The National Press club is pleased to welcome to its proceedum, the president of the naacp, mr. Cornell william brooks. Mr. Brooks. [applause] good morning. Good morning. I want to thank david for that very kind introduction and i want to just say how humbled i am to be here, where so many newsmakers so many leaders so many social justice seekers, have spoken and shared their perspective on the world. I also want to express appreciation to the journalists in the room. You provide and create a distance, if you will, that allows people to think chit about the issue. You also critically about the issues and you create intimacy which allows people to draw close to injustice and the kind of injustices the naacp has long sought to eradicate from our republic. This is, i believe, an extraordinary moment in american history. This is not some random date on the gregorian calendar, not a matter of happenstance or coincidence. This is to the month the 51st 51st year of the distance 51st year since bloody sunday, an occasion that is etched in our collective memory as a country. It does not take much effort to call to mind the image of a middle aged woman namedmilesanhour Amelia Boynton who was literally beat ton the pavement on thed mon pettus bridge and does not require much effort to bring to mind the image of a young man who is now an elder statesman, who at that time was known as john lewis, who was beaten to the point of a concussion to the point of near death. That day, bloody sunday, is one that yet resonates in this year, so for a few moment is want to talk about the right to vote, the voices of the 2016 campaign, and the prospect of violence. When we think about the right to vote, it is and should be understood as a civic sacrament in the temple of democracy, this being the first president ial election in 50 years without the full protect of the Voting Rights act. This being a time which africanamericans, latinos, people across the country, feel as though the civic sacrament is being threatened. This is an occasion in wake of the shelby vs. Holder Supreme Court decision where we have seen state legislature after state legislature engage in the macveilan frenzy of voter disenfranchisement. We have over 30 states that have imposed voter i. D. Laws. These voter i. D. Laws on their face seem civically innocuous, but when we keep in mind, when we bear in mind that a substantial fraction, an intolerable fraction, percentage, if you will, of American Voters dont possess these i. D. S, we have reason to be alarmed. Why . When we think about the fact that there is a certain inclusivity to the exclusivity of the moment. That is to say were not dealing with a nostalgic black and white discrimination of yesteryear, we are deal waiving multiracial, multiethnic exclusivity. That is to say in 1965 when the Voting Rights act was enacted into law, in 1965 it was enacted into law by president Lyndon Baines johnson, who used a series of president ial pens to sign this legislation into law. But the Voting Rights act was literally enacted with the blood, sweat, and tears of americans from all across the country. So here we are, 50 years later, dealing with a multihued, multiracial, multiethnic form of bias and discrimination at the ballot box. Consider this. Africanamericans are certainly turned away in significant numbers. In the state of texas, it is estimated that there are half million, half million, citizens, who do not possess the requisite i. D. And whose franchise is in danger. This proportionately affecting africanamericans and latinos. By way of example, we have a law in texas that was previously not previously declared to be statement naker to by the department of justice. A federal court has found that the law is discriminatory. But this law, when first enacted, literally endangered the franchise of half Million People. Think about this. Where you have a law that essentially says, if you have an i. D. That allows you to carry a concealed weapon, it is deemed sufficient democratic and civic proof of identification to vote. But an i. D. At allows you to carry a book of shake pierce, book of engineering, book of chemistry, college textbook, is deemed insufficient civic or democratic proof of identification to vote. Consider the state of North Carolina. At one point the most progressive in the country with respect to Voting Rights, but in a few short years in the wake of she shelby verse holder Supreme Court decision, we saw massive rollback in terms of the franchise. We saw not only africanamericans and latinos having their right to vote curtailed and constrained, but also young people. There is a 90yearold plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging that voter i. D. Law, who voted for 70 years, but because she was born at home, because her name did not match the name on their birth certificate, are so match the name on their voting rolls, her franchise, not withstanning the fact she exercised it for 70 years, is at risk, but as i noted before there is inclusivity to the exclusivity. So its not merely africanamericans or latinos but young people. 26th amendment generational discrimination. That is to say when legislatures decline do Honor College i. D. S, but honor the i. D. Es of those who have i. D. S that are used to carry concealed weapons, that is deemed okay. That is deemed constitutionally sufficient. When you honor the i. D. S of 18yearolds who serve on military bases, who engage in study on a military campus, but when you decline to honor the i. D. S of college students, that is a generational war, if you will, against the young in terms of the franchise. But this is not mere lay matter of the young, not mere lay matter of africanamericans, mott near lay matter of latinos but rule voters. In the state of georgia, when we lose tens thousands, tens of thousands of voter registrations, mysteriously, inexplicably, disproportionately affecting latino votes and africanamerican export rural voters this challenge to the franchise is not mere lay matter of the young or a matter of africanamericans, not mere plater of latinos but also Senior Citizens. Weapon we know that Senior Citizen is disproportionately do not have the photo i. D. S necessary to vote, disproportionately do not have they have conflicts between their birth records, many people being born at home, still in the rural south and find it difficult to vote. An example. My mother, when she was a 16yearold college student, she went to college, she participated in civil rights demonstrations, to assert her right under the american constitution. Fast forward 50 years. As a citizen in the state of georgia, as a woman with a disability, who uses a walker, and a wheelchair, she phones up or calls her son, a graduate of yale law, and poses to me a very simple and straightforward question. She said ive heard about these voter i. D. Laws in georgia. I no longer drive, cant find my passport and not quite sure where my birth certificate is. Youre a law. You tell me what to do. That is in fact the question that citizens all across the country are posing to their legislators, posing to their elected officials, tell us what to do. When we want to exercise the franchise, when we want to exercise our rights as citizens under the constitution, but we, we, that is a country in the wake of shelby vs. Holder have engaged in this macveilan frenzy of voter disenfranchise. This is a challenging moment in the democracy because we are seeing the curtailing and constraining of the right to vote, rather than expanding the franchise. Again, we go back to the state of North Carolina, where only a few years ago we had early registration. We had preregistration. That is to say, 17yearolds who were about to turn 18, in time for a november election, would be allowed to register early. We had sunday voting. Early voting, all of these progressive reforms, these reforms that speak to the civic aspirations of our country, are being curtailed and constrain, not because theres voter fraud. One is more likely to meet the tooth fairy standing next to santa clause at the voting booth rather than encounter on actual instance of voter fraud. We know from styleds that demonstrate out of hundreds of millions of ballots cast, handful of instances of true, verified, voter fraud. This in fact is not the challenge before the republic. What we have before the republic is a group of politicians, a group of elected officials who have arrived in their Office Office via the vote and constraining the vote. In contravention of the constitution in contravention of our highest civic and constitutional and moral values. But theres a flipside, if you will. A mirror image of this curtailing and constraining of the vote. Its called trumpism. And by that i want to note here, the naacp is a nonpartisan organization, but as was noted in the introduction, we came into being in 1909 in the wake of a horrific race riot in the land of lincoln, in illinois. Inscribed in our constitution is an unapologetic, unalterable opposition to racial hatred. Let me paint for you a picture. There was a picture taken about 1912 or so, a group of five children, of various ethnicities, various hues, suggestive of various heritage. A sepia tone picture of yesteryear, each wearing a letter sweater with the word, the acronym, naacp. Theyre holding a banner. The banner says, our votes the first two words on the banner, racial hatred, or race hate. From the turn of the century, we have committed ourselves to combating racial hatred in any form, anywhere, in this country. We make no apologies. We have a firm resolute commitment. So when we watch apresident al campaign and we talk about erecting a wall on the border between in the United States and mexico, when we hear women referred to in the misogynistic terms that dehumanize, demean and degrade their dignity as human beings, as citizens in this run, when we hear the of citizens citizens of this republic, we understand that what is happening and what has happened in our state legislatures with respect to the constraining and the curtailing of the right to vote, were seeing in the rhetoric of a political campaign, that is to say the marginalization of the citizen, the alteration of the citizens, the suggestion that some people count, some peep dont count, some people can participate, some people can vote. Some people are simply left on the sidelines of our democracy. We are very clear. Trumpism, as a form of demagoguery, is inconsistent with the values of the naacp and inconsistent with the values of this country. Let me note, in 1920, there was an organization that came into being in the wake of the ashes and the embers of the civil war, came into prominencebut in 1920, it experienced a resurgence, four million strong. It was called the klu klux klan. It came into power in 1920, grew massively in numbers with this toxic mix of a public appeal. That mix would be this. A kind of unpatriotic or unamerican patriotism. Number two, a kind of thin christianity, and avirulent antiimmigrant sentiment. Fast forward 2016. We have americans who find themselves in the throes of economic anxiety and economic insecurity in the wake of a rising tide of income inequality. There being a appealed to on the basis an antiimmigrant campaign appeal. In addition to that, 2 corinthian kind of christianity, and lastly, an unamerican patriotism. The naacp is committed to maximizing the vote. We dont argue for campaign for any candidate of any party, but we do campaign against nervelet to any effort to make any citizen feel less than a citizen. That the values we stand for and we are clear about that everywhere we are. In 2 how to, 200 units across the country in hundreds of small towns in prisons, in churches, in synagogues in native american res preservations in hamlets in villages, every corner of the country is represented by the naacp, and in every corner of the country, we have members, we have sympathizers and we have supporters who take a clear, strong, unapologetic stance against any Campaign Rhetoric that undermines the values of this country. But this is not merely about Campaign Rhetoric. That alien yates. Its also about the prospect of violence. Where we have seen the hate crime rate against muslims go up 300 in recent months. I am a methodist and a father, but were i a muslim and a dad, i might be concerned about my daughter going to school with her head covered. Im a christian, and a father, but if i were a sikh and a dad, i might be concerned about my son going to school with his head covered. The point being here is the violence we have seen in these campaigns, in these rallies, in these demonstrations, does not represent the values of this country. We are responsible for the words that we use. And so the suggestion of paying the legal fees of people who engage in wanton acts of violence, this is inconsistent with the values of the naacp. You cannot engage in the apologetics of violence on the stage as people are being suckerpunched in the audience. Again, inconsistent with the values of the naacp. Ill simply note here, the naacp as an organization is committed to not the abstract realization of the values of the constitution. Were committed to the realization of those values on the streets in our communities,en our front porches and on the sidewalks of our communities across the country. Last summer, the naacp inspired by the vulnerability of the Voting Rights act, the fragility of the civic sacrament, we announced what we call americas journey for justice. In a march from selma, alabama to washington, dc, a journey of 1,002 miles. I close with a story of a man i met on the way. His name was middle passage. He was from colorado. We met him in selma, a navy veteran, a veteran of the vietnam war. He walked 900 miles from selma to virginia. In virginia, during a rainstorm, the American Flag that he carried for hundreds of miles, he wrapped it up, but when the sun came out he unfurled it. As he did that, he literally collapsed to the pavement. We took him to the hospital, and there he died. The most difficult day in my short tenure as president of the naacp was listening to sharing with a group of young people that he died at the hospital, that he didnt make it. Most difficult moment of that difficult day was a question that they posed to the grief counselors and posed to me, that would be this question. I if ammann was willing to die for the right to vote, why cant we vote and fight for the right to vote . That the naacp is doing and will do, in midapril, we have something called democracy awakening. We are working with 200 organizations, labor an