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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Office of Public Information NAACP PRESIDENT CALLS FOR CONTINUED COOPERATION IN CIVIL RIGHTS Kweisi Mfume Applauds Public Affairs Group on Race Report February 28, 2000 – Baltimore, MD -- Speaking to hundreds of delegates participating in the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) Plenum 2000 and the Hillel Spitzer Forum, NAACP president Kweisi Mfume congratulated the JCPA for its report "Building One Nation: Race, Ethnicity and Public Policy." The report, which concludes a two-year-long study, describes affirmative action as an "imperfect but necessary tool," a description Mfume said was appropriate. "After 200 years of slavery," he said, "…and after 120 years of Jim Crow--thirty years of affirmative action ought not make people uncomfortable as we try to make it a level playing field." Addressing the need for strong, continued coalition-building, Mfume said, "We don’t ask who we are any longer, …instead we ask what is it that we can all do to ensure a better future." He added that, "through coalitions we have been able to accelerate, one-to-another, respecting our individual beliefs." Responding to whether he thinks all forms of racism will end in his lifetime, Mfume said that we should not think about it in relation to our individual’s lifetimes, but that racism "must end – we all must find a way." In a separate meeting with members of the press after his presentation, the NAACP leader encouraged reporters to read the JCPA report, which he said would inform "us of what we need to do - individually and collectively." ### The Jewish Council for Public Affairs is the public affairs arm of the organized Jewish community and serves as the national coordinating and advisory body for the 13 national and 122 local agencies comprising the field of Jewish community relations. |
