Michelle Obama Rouses NAACP Before Vote Condemning 'Racist' Elements of Tea Party

Tea Party Leaders Say Political Motivation Driving NAACP Agenda

By HUMA KHAN

July 12, 2010

First Lady Michelle Obama brought renewed energy to the NAACP today, delivering the keynote speech at the annual convention one day
before the nation's largest civil rights group is expected to condemn
what it calls racist elements in the Tea Party movement.

Michelle Obama Rouses NAACP Before Vote Condemning 'Racist' Elements of Tea Party

The Taxpayer March on DC proceeds down Pennsylvania Avenue towards the Capitol on Saturday, Sept....

(Bill Clark/Getty Images)

The nation's largest and oldest civil rights organization will vote on the resolution Tuesday during its annual convention in Kansas City, Mo.

In her speech, the first lady focused on the issue of childhood obesity and her "Let's Move" initiative, but outside of her remarks, anti-Tea Party activism has been a key focus of the
gathering, which conservative leaders say is driven solely by a
political agenda.

Tea Party members have used "racial epithets," have verbally abused black members of Congress and threatened them, and
protestors have engaged in "explicitly racist behavior" and "displayed
signs and posters intended to degrade people of color generally and President Barack
Obama specifically," according to the proposed
resolution.

"We're deeply concerned about elements that are trying to move the country back, trying to reverse progress that we've made," NAACP
spokeswoman Leila McDowell told ABC News. "We are asking that the
law-abiding members of the Tea Party repudiate those racist elements,
that they recognize the historic and present racist elements that are
within the Tea Party
movement."

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in coordination with 170 other groups, including labor
unions, is planning a protest march in Washington, D.C., Oct. 10 as the
next step in building momentum against the Tea Party.

The "One Nation" march is designed as an antithesis to the Tea Party, and it's about "pulling America together and back to work," McDowell said.

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"We see it as a threat to democracy. We see it as a threat to human rights. We certainly see it as a threat to civil rights," McDowell said,
adding that the resolution will likely pass when it's voted upon
Tuesday.

Supporters of the Tea Party movement have frequently faced charges of racism.

The most notable case is that of DL-analyze" href="http://topics.abcnews.go.com/topic/Kentucky"">... GOP
Senate hopeful Rand Paul , who came under fire in May for
criticizing the 1964 Civil Rights Act. DL-analyze" href="http://topics.abcnews.go.com/topic/Rand-Paul"">...
said he supports the act and opposes discrimination, but added
that the government doesn't have a right to tell private restaurant
owners who they can and cannot serve.

"If we want to harbor in on private businesses and their policies, then you have to have the discussion about, 'Do you want to abridge the First
Amendment as well,'" Paul said on DL-analyze" href="http://topics.abcnews.go.com/topic/MSNBC"">MSN...
Rachel Maddow
show. "If you decide that restaurants are publicly owned and not
privately owned, then do you say that you should have the right to
bring your gun into the restaurant, even though the owner of the
restaurant says, well, no, we don't want to have guns in here."

In March, Tea Party protesters opposing the health care bill were alleged to have shouted racial slurs at black House members in the halls
of Congress, a charge that Tea Party supporters say has not been
proven. Liberal blogs have also seized on signs that have appeared in
Tea Party protests, comparing President Obama to a monkey.

Tea Party leaders say the charges are misguided and are being fertilized by the left for the sole purpose of gaining political ground.

The Rev. C.L. Bryant, a former president of NAACP's Garland, Texas, chapter who is now a leading Tea Party activist
said the idea that the Tea Party is racist or is trying to instigate a
racist climate is "simply a lie."

"I have seen posters ... where every president from Reagan to Obama has been called a fascist," Bryant, who serves as a contributor to FreedomWorks, which
organizes Tea Party groups, told ABC News. "Why is it that just because
we have a black president, we are hyper-sensitive to posters at
rallies?"

The NAACP wants to "create a climate where they can say that those on the right are in fact racist and those on the left are their saviors,"
he added. "This is very much what the liberal agenda is about."

Dale Robertson , a Tea Party activist who runs TeaParty.org and has himself been at the center of a race-related
controversy, said the NAACP is merely pandering to the Democratic party.

"I find that the NAACP should be standing against the new Black Panther and their stance and yet instead of doing the right thing, they're doing
the wrong thing by attacking people who feel government should be held
accountable," Robertson
said..

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