The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the nation’s oldest African American civil rights group, voted Saturday to support a resolution endorsing same-sex marriage at its board meeting in Miami, Fla.
“The mission of the NAACP has always been to ensure political, social and economic equality of all people,” said Roslyn M. Brock, chairman of the Board of Directors of the NAACP, in a statement. “We have and will oppose efforts to codify discrimination into law.”
And Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement, “Civil marriage is a civil right and a matter of civil law. The NAACP’s support for marriage equality is deeply rooted in the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and equal protection of all people. The well-funded right wing organizations who are attempting to split our communities are no friend to civil rights, and they will not succeed.”
The 103-year-old NAACP, whose primary objective has been to fight for and support civil rights for African Americans, now finds itself on the opposite side of the gay marriage issue than many of the nation’s most influential black clergymen who have called on President Obama to denounce his support of same-sex marriage.
Long-time civil rights leader the Rev. Bill Owens has organized the Coalition of African American Pastors. The coalition is asking the president to reverse his recent decision to support same-sex marriage and encourages more black ministers to speak out in support of traditional marriage.
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article courtesy of BCNN1.com
