Advocacy

Civil Rights

Civil Rights, one of the NAACP Detroit Branch’s 10 Strategic Priorities, is dedicated to advocating for the rights of all people regardless of race, color or national origin.  The NAACP Detroit Branch will focus on the following areas:

• Advocating policies and legislation that guarantee equal employment opportunity in the private and public sectors.

• Advocating strong enforcement of fair housing, public accommodation, and employment laws.

• Advocating for improved health care and for equal access to health services and insurance.

• Advocating equitable distribution of public resources.

• Supporting positive images and attitudes about race and about the people of the African Diaspora.

• Advocating for policies and processes that promote equal and fair treatment of all immigrants.

• Improving the criminal/juvenile justice system, with particular attention to:

  • Minimizing the number and disproportionate percentage of African American and other minority youths and adults in the criminal/juvenile system.

  • Holding law enforcement agencies accountable for excessive use of force and abuse of authority.

  • Advocating law enforcement recruitment and training policies that promote equal treatment and opportunity.

  • Advocating equitable treatment at all levels of the criminal justice system.

Climate Equity

As the need for the City of Detroit to transition to a low-carbon economy grows, the NAACP Detroit Branch recognizes that what made Motown and Southeast Michigan successful in the last century, will no longer suffice.

Detroit – like many older, post-industrial urban centers – has aged infrastructure, a high rate of vulnerable and senior citizens with low to moderate income and a disproportionate rate of cancer, asthma and other respiratory ailments among its majority population of color.

In September 2010, with a grant from RE-AMP, the NAACP Detroit Branch rolled out its Climate Equity Plan. Our aim is to assist the City of Detroit in achieving climate equity through equitable response and resource allocation in climate change impact preparedness.

Ultimately, our goal is to help move Detroit toward community vibrancy, economic competitiveness and enhanced life quality.

Criminal Justice

Since its inception in 1912, the NAACP Detroit Branch has been steadfast in the belief that racial segregation and discrimination limit and diminish human potential, ultimately denying the full benefits of freedom to African-Americans. The NAACP Detroit Branch has been at the forefront of the struggle to eliminate racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

African-Americans and America itself are eternally indebted to W.E.B. DuBois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Henry Moscowitz, Mary White Ovington, Oswald Harrison Villiard and William English Walling who answered the clarion “call” for human and civil rights in response to the widespread lynching of blacks that was occurring in 1909 by creating the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Thereafter, when federal, local government and civil authorities failed or refused to stop the daily lynching, the NAACP took action.

In 1925 the NAACP provided legal representation for Detroit, Michigan’s Dr. Ossian Sweet. Dr. Sweet faced a mob of angry whites after moving into an all white neighborhood. When the mob attacked his home, gunfire erupted killing one person in the crowd. Dr. Sweet and his brother were charged with murder. Famed attorney Clarence Darrow, retained by the NAACP, represented Mr. Sweet. The first trial ended in a mistrial when an all-white jury could not agree. The second trial ended in a not guilty” verdict. This early NAACP supported case coined the phrase, “a man’s  home is his castle.”

Racism within our criminal justice system has changed its face, having become more subtle and sophisticated, but just as destructive as in the past. Today, the struggle continues as we combat not lynching, but racial profiling and driving while black.

Economic Empowerment

Economic Empowerment, one of the NAACP’s 10 Strategic Priorities is dedicated to advocating for the rights of all people regardless of race, color or national origin. The NAACP will focus on the following areas:

• Advocating the promotion of actions that will generate the removal of barriers that prevent equal access for minorities to capital for businesses.

• Advocating the promotion of actions that will generate, the removal of barriers that prevent equal access for minorities to credit.

• Promoting investment and building wealth in minority communities.

• Advocating access to economic information, knowledge, technology and training.

Health

The fight for equity and quality extends to health care for African Americans. Long before it became a broad based public concern, efforts were underway to ensure that economic and social barriers would not lead to increasingly severe health crises in the minority community.

Today, the NAACP Detroit Branch’s Health department has been leading the effort to inform and educate the community about health care costs; quality and access; disease prevention; health care professions and training; and youth and elderly health issues. The Detroit Branch NAACP’s Health department works with the National NAACP Health Committee to create and implement projects, evaluate and draft policy statements.

Legal

The law can be a tool for justice or for domination. The law can be used to empower and transform, or to oppress and degrade. It can secure a participatory democracy, or it can preserve tyranny of the majority. The law can imprison or liberate. It can honor the sanctity of life and create strong families and communities, or it can facilitate the destruction of human lives and families in the service of powerful interests.

The NAACP Detroit Branch understands that by harnessing this powerful tool, we can empower all Americans. The NAACP Detroit Branch has historically had many of its most celebrated and powerful victories in the courts. Our legal department works tirelessly in continuing this proud tradition. NAACP Detroit Branch attorneys work on the front lines of the battle for freedom, often at the expense of their own comfort and even personal safety.

NAACP Detroit Branch attorneys not only continue the traditional fight against discrimination – through lawsuits against discriminatory retailers and segregated school systems, but they also help expand the legal rights of people of color through innovative and groundbreaking litigation.

Public Policy

The NAACP Detroit Branch has engaged your local, state, county, and federal elected officials to impact and shape various public policies. The key areas of focus include:

• Black Business Development – Access To Capital
  – Contracting Opportunities
  – Closing The Digital Divide

• Civil Rights – End Racial Profiling
  – Affirmative Action, Preserve And Protect Equal Opportunity Programs 

• Consumer Protection
  – Insurance Redlining
  – Telecommunications, Privacy Protection
  – Mortgage Lending, Provide Credit Protection
  – High Interest Rates

• Education – Small Classes, Technology, Parental Involvement, High Expectations And Professional Development
  – Higher Education
  – MEAP Scholarships/Lawsuits (Rep. Judy Scranton’s Bill)
  – Real School Reform 

• Election Reform – Redistricting And Reapportionment
  – Racial And Political Gerrymandering
  – Motor Voter Law
  – Qualified Voter File, Voting Rights Issues

• Family – Child Care For Low Income Families
  – Youth Development And Mentoring
  – Protect Social Security

• Health – Healthcare Insurance; Managed Care/HMO’s
  – Long term Care And Mental Health Care
  – Access To Health Care
  – Homelessness
  – Aids Prevention And Treatment

• Housing – Affordable Housing and Housing Discrimination
  – Incentives For Urban Dwellers
  – Ending Predatory Lending Practices

• Workforce Development – HB 5997
  – Project Fresh Start
  – Glass Ceilings And Discrimination In The Workforce
  – Quality Employer Supplied Benefits

• Urban Core – Concentrated Poverty
  – Regional Transportation
  – Statewide, Regional, Federal, And Global Issues

Voter Empowerment

Voter Empowerment, one of the NAACP Detroit Branch’s Strategic Priorities is dedicated to advocating for the rights of all people regardless of race, color or national origin. The NAACP Detroit Branch will focus on the following areas:

• Increasing the number of registered minority voters.

• Improving voter awareness of civil rights issues.

• Increasing voter turnout in minority communities.

• Advocating equity in the census process and in reapportionment and redistricting processes.

• Encouraging minority citizens to seek public office, fulfill public roles and hold public officials accountable.

• Advocating policies to simplify and expedite the re-enfranchisement of ex-felons.