NAACP NOT INVITING TRUMP
TO NATIONAL CONVENTION
IN CHARLOTTE NEXT MONTH
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
For the first time in its 116th year history, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (the NAACP) is not inviting the sitting president of the United States to speak at its national convention, this year being held in Charlotte July 12th - 16th.
NAACP Pres./CEO Derrick Johnson made the announcement Monday afternoon during a press conference in the Queen City.
In a written statement, Johnson said:
"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.
"But right now, it's 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 NAACP Convention has always been a place where people across the country come together to map out our advocacy and mobilization strategies to advance civil rights and democracy for all. Our annual convention is meant to be a safe space for all people — regardless of political ideology — who believe in multiracial democracy and the ideal of building a more perfect union.
"To that end, the NAACP has made the decision to break with tradition and not invite Donald Trump or J.D. Vance this year. This administration does not respect the Constitution or the rule of law. It would be a waste of our time and energy to give a platform to fascism, which would be unacceptable."
Next month’s national NAACP Convention will be held at the Charlotte Convention Center. The theme of this year’s convention is “The Fierce Urgency of Now!”
According to Charlotte Mayor Vy Lyles, thousands of members and delegates from across the country are expected to attend.
Pres. Trump was invited to speak when the NAACP last held its national convention in Las Vegas, Nev. during his first term, but he declined to appear.
The last time the NAACP held its national convention in Charlotte was in 1996. The NAACP Board had planned to hold its convention in Charlotte in 2021, but those plans were dropped because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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REDISTRICTING TRIAL CONTINUES
THIS WEEK IN WINSTON-SALEM
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
A federal trial concerning whether congressional and legislative voting districts drawn by the Republican-led NC General Assembly diminishes Black voting strength, got underway this week in Winston-Salem before a three-judge panel.
The trial addresses two consolidated federal lawsuits, filed originally in December 2023, that challenged redistricting maps then, but were allowed by judges to be used in the 2024 general election.
Plaintiffs argued that the maps were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.
If the court ultimately agrees with black plaintiffs, in addition to the state NAACP and Common Cause, that six of 14 congressional districts, nine of 120 state House districts, and five of 50 NC Senate districts were redrawn so that black voters were eliminated or shifted in order to increase the likelihood of more Republicans being elected, then the three-judge panel could order the NC General Assembly to redraw the voting maps for the 2026 elections.
In the legislative case, some plaintiffs’ claims were thrown out of court in an April ruling, specifically dealing with NC Senate districts in Mecklenburg and New Hanover counties, along with state House districts in Wake and Forsyth counties, but the rest of the plaintiffs’ claims were allowed to proceed.
Republicans “unlawfully diluted the power of black voters on account of race in North Carolina’s historic Black Belt Senate Districts 1 and 2 in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act,” alleged the plaintiff’s brief.
The NC NAACP also alleged in its lawsuit that the racial gerrymandering was “intentional” discrimination in violation of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution.
Per the congressional district map, plaintiffs allege the map “eliminates two Black opportunity districts by cracking and packing Black voters in the Piedmont Triad and in Mecklenburg County.” Plaintiffs further charge that this too constituted Republican lawmakers’ actions “intentionally discriminatory under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA).”
“…[R]ace was a motivating factor in creating the 2023 Congressional Plan (‘2023 Plan’)…,” plaintiffs claimed, “… and in the decisions to move Black voters into and out of former Congressional Districts 6, 12, and 14, which dilutes their voting power and cannot be explained by purely partisan goals.”
But Republican legislative leaders, in their legal briefs to the court, maintained as they always have that race was never a dominate factor in their redrawing the voting maps, calling that argument “implausible.”
Citing a 2019 US Supreme Court decision, Rucho v. Common Cause, attorneys for Republican legislative leaders replied that plaintiffs would “…‘repackage a partisan-gerrymandering claim as a racial-gerrymandering claim by exploiting the tight link between race and political preference’ and thereby ‘sidestep [the] holding in Rucho that partisan-gerrymandering claims are not justiciable, To prevent this, the Court held that racial-intent claims will typically require direct evidence of racial motive and that claims based on circumstantial evidence cannot succeed unless the challenger is able ‘to disentangle race from politics.”
“The General Assembly ‘made the laudable effort to disregard race altogether in the redistricting process, GOP legislative leaders continued. “Plaintiffs cannot prove a motive that did not exist.”
If the three-judge federal panel does ultimately side with the plaintiffs and orders the redistricting maps redrawn for the 2026 legislative races, it will have to mindful of the upcoming election calendar deadlines.
Candidate filing for statewide primary elections begins on December 1st, ending on December 19th. Absentee ballots will be sent out beginning Jan. 13, 2026 for the March 3rd, 2026 primaries.
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FIRST THE STATE HIGHWAY PATROL,
NOW BLACK VICTIM’S MOTHER
INTENDS TO SUE RALEIGH POLICE
By Cash Michaels
contributing writer
Last month, attorneys for the mother of 31-year-old Tyrone Mason, announced that they were suing two NC state Highway Patrol troopers for their alleged roles in the black motorist’s October 2024 death, after he fatally crashed his vehicle in Raleigh subsequent to being chased.
Bodycam footage proved that one trooper was instructed to lie to Raleigh police by the other state trooper, his supervisor. Both troopers still have their jobs, but have been placed on administrative leave since the incident, and ordered by the Wake County district attorney never to patrol in the county again.
The Wake D.A. refused to file criminal charges, but did drop almost 200 previous cases the two troopers made arrests in, citing their dishonesty.
Last week, attorneys for Mason’s mother, Bakari Sellers, Benjamin Crump and Raleigh attorney Sean Cecil, announced that they are suing the Raleigh Police Dept. (RPD), and specifically Raleigh Police Officer K.S. Spaulding, for his alleged role in covering up the truth about Tyrone Mason’s death.
Mason’s mother, Henrietta Mason, alleges that Investigator Spaulding misled her for months about how her son died because of the state trooper’s chase. The attorneys charge that because of that, she suffered emotional and mental strain that required counseling.
The attorneys have filed a notice of claim against Officer Spaulding and the RPD, in effect, confirming that a lawsuit is coming.
Last week, the Raleigh Police Dept. issued the following response to the impending lawsuit:
"The Raleigh Police Department is aware of the Notice of Claim filed by the Tyrone Mason Family, consistent with our established practice, the department does not comment on pending or threatened litigation.”
Now that the RPD has been notified that a lawsuit is pending, it can either settle with Henrietta Mason or go to court to contest it.
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