NAACP says President Trump is not welcome, breaking custom : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2664x1998+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.npr.org%2Fassets%2Fimg%2F2020%2F06%2F30%2Fgettyimages-477234980.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2664x1998+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.npr.org%2Fassets%2Fimg%2F2020%2F06%2F30%2Fgettyimages-477234980.jpg" class="img" alt="NAACP logo featuring the scales of justice and the founding date of 1909 is shown during an event in Washington, D.C. in 2015" fetchpriority="high"/> The NAACP emblem is proven throughout an occasion on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., in 2015. The civil rights group has introduced it will not invite President Trump to handle its conference, breaking a 116-year custom of inviting sitting presidents. Win McNamee/Getty Photos cover caption

toggle caption

Win McNamee/Getty Photos The NAACP emblem is proven throughout an occasion on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., in 2015. The civil rights group has introduced it will not invite President Trump to handle its conference, breaking a 116-year custom of inviting sitting presidents.

Win McNamee/Getty Photos The NAACP introduced it won't invite President Trump to its nationwide conference in July. The civil rights group is breaking from its 116-year custom of welcoming the sitting U.S. president to the annual occasion that pulls NAACP supporters from across the nation.

The group says Trump is the primary president it has declined to ask.

NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson made the announcement Monday at a information convention in Charlotte, N.C., the place the conference is scheduled to be held. The group additionally shared a press release from Johnson.

"Donald Trump is attacking our democracy and our civil rights … The president has signed unconstitutional govt orders to oppress voters and undo federal civil rights protections," Johnson mentioned. "… he regularly undermines each pillar of our democracy to make himself extra highly effective and to personally profit from the U.S. authorities."

The White Home responded sharply on Tuesday to the president's exclusion from the occasion. Trump declined earlier invites throughout his first time period.

"The NAACP is not advancing something however hate and division, whereas the President is targeted on uniting our nation, enhancing our economic system, securing our borders, and establishing peace throughout the globe," White Home spokesperson Harrison Fields mentioned in a press release to NPR. "This is identical imaginative and prescient for America {that a} document variety of Black Individuals supported within the resounding reelection of President Trump."

The NAACP has welcomed each Democratic and Republican presidents to handle the conference over time. Presidents have traditionally used their remarks to construct stronger ties with the Black neighborhood.

President Ronald Reagan addressed the NAACP conference in Denver in 1981 and spoke out in opposition to racism and discrimination. President George W. Bush spoke on the conference in Washington, D.C., in 2006 amid criticism of his administration's dealing with of Hurricane Katrina. The storm disproportionately affected Black residents in New Orleans and the Gulf area. In his remarks, Bush resolved to work with the Black neighborhood to get well from the storm. He had declined earlier invites to the occasion.

The NAACP has filed a quantity civil rights lawsuits in opposition to the administration since Trump's return to the White Home, together with a problem to efforts to chop federal funding to varsities that use variety, fairness and inclusion (DEI) applications. The group has additionally filed go well with to dam plans to dismantle the U.S. Division of Training.

The Trump administration has enacted a collection of considerable modifications that the NAACP says conflicts with its mission of reaching fairness, political rights, and social inclusion for Black Individuals and all individuals of shade. The modifications embody eliminating DEI applications in greater schooling and throughout the federal authorities; eradicating some Black historic figures from authorities web sites; and restoring the names of army bases that initially honored white supremacists and homeowners of enslaved individuals.