NAACP responds to September 11 tragedies

The NAACP TODAY

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., the NAACP was one of the first voices in what would become a worldwide chorus of sympathy and solidarity.

The day after 19 hijackers commandeered four commercial airplanes and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in rural Pennsylvania, NAACP President and CEO Kweisi Mfume and NAACP Director of Religious Affairs the Rev. Julius C. Hope issued a call for three international days of prayer on Sept. 14-16.

"In times like these, which try our souls," Rev. Hope said, "let not our hearts be troubled, neither let us be afraid. Please pray to give light to the families that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death."

On the one-week anniversary of the attacks, Mfume urged solidarity among the people of a grieving nation. "This massive loss to the family of humankind moves all people of conscience to mourn and pray for the dead and all affected by this tragedy," he said. "This is a time for all Americans to stand united and defend the ideals of a free and open society where terrorism has no place."

As the NAACP and the rest of the nation struggled to return to some sense of normalcy in the following weeks, Board Chairman Julian Bond assured NAACP members and supporters that the organization had gained a renewed sense of purpose.

"The NAACP was born to fight for freedom and justice in a nation dedicated to those goals," Bond asserted. "Those twin towers - freedom and justice - still stand. Because we believe in freedom, our work will go on. Because we believe in justice, we know the guilty will be pursued and punished."

That resolve sounded loud and clear at the NAACP national board of directors and trustees meeting in Los Angeles on Oct. 20. Delegates adopted a series of resolutions urging Congress to provide economic relief and benefits to jobless former airline workers, to preserve civil liberties in the pursuit of anti-terrorism laws, and to maintain equity in immigration policies and practices.

The NAACP also announced it would hold its 93rd Annual Meeting of the Board of Directors in February in New York City for the first time since 1998.

"By moving our annual meeting back to New York, the city of our birth," Mfume said, "the NAACP honors the men, women and families touched by the terrorist destruction and stands united with the efforts to restore New York to its full vibrancy and luster as the world's leading city, where freedom and liberty will long live."

Copyright Crisis Publishing Company, Incorporated Nov/Dec 2001
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