PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 14, 2017…..Santa Maria, CA…….
Our hearts are heavy and saddened by the hatred and bigotry on display this past weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia. We pause to remember the lives of HEATHER HEYER, LIEUTENANT H. JAY CULLEN, AND TROPPER BERKE M. BATES. We also remember the 34 plus individuals injured in the Charlottesville attack. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those who lost their lives as well as those injured.
As we reflect and remember important and peaceful civil rights protests including the March on Washington, Montgomery Bus Boycott, sit-ins, Selma to Montgomery march, other nonviolent peaceful protests, and important civil rights legislation including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, we are deeply disappointed that in this day and age, in the United States of America, we continue to struggle with deep seeded hatred and bigotry.
We strongly denounce the rhetoric that has helped to fuel a climate of hatred, the rise in hate groups, and oppression and division reminiscent of slavery, lynching, the Klu Klux Klan, neo-Nazism, anti-Semitism, racial segregation and discrimination, and the civil rights movement.
We call on all Americans to denounce and reject the rhetoric that has helped to fuel this climate of hatred, division and oppression.
As we continue to STAND in the face of adversity, hatred and bigotry, lettheir deaths and the fight for equality and justice for all,not be in vain.
The NAACP, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, founded in 1909, is dedicated to ensuring the social, political, educational and economic equality of all citizens by removing barriers of racial discrimination and hatred through the democratic processes and enactment and enforcement of federal, state and local laws to guarantee that the civil rights of all people of color remain secure.