By Lee Cary ——Bio and Archives--August 23, 2017
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"Advancement Project is a multi-racial civil rights organization. Founded by a team of veteran civil rights lawyers in 1999, Advancement Project was created to develop and inspire community-based solutions based on the same high quality legal analysis and public education campaigns that produced the landmark civil rights victories of earlier eras. From Advancement Project's inception, we have worked 'on-the-ground,' helping organized communities of color dismantle and reform the unjust and inequitable policies that undermine the promise of democracy. Simultaneously, we have aggressively sought and seized opportunities to promote this approach to racial justice."
"Advancement Project is a next generation, multi-racial civil rights organization. Rooted in the great human rights struggles for equality and justice, we exist to fulfill America's promise of a caring, inclusive and just democracy. We use innovative tools and strategies to strengthen social movements and achieve high impact policy change."The interview with the AP representative, then working "full-time" in Ferguson, was conducted at least 11 days before the no-bill decision from the Grand Jury. The AP attorney told the interviewer that: (1) There was "absolutely" no cause to indict Officer Wilson because he did nothing that violated proper police protocol; and (2) that what this (clearly referring to the Ferguson saga) was really about was advancing "a new, civil rights movement" in America. This is the closing paragraph of AP's "Theory of Change":
"We choose project activities, whether national or local, with the potential to build power at the grassroots level and to reframe and accelerate the quest for racial justice. We do not shy away from difficult issues and typically are first responders to civil rights crises, as well as on the cutting edge of racial justice issues."Below was one image of Ferguson. The police showed up. And no verbal hostility was aimed toward Obama by the protestors, and certainly not by the media. It was really not about Officer Wilson, or Michael Brown. It was about "a new civil rights movement". Today, we know what the old civil rights movement was about. It was clear then. What is the "new civil rights movement" about? That's not clear. At all.
"Obama defended [Harvard Professor Henry Louis] Gates on Wednesday night, while admitting that he may be 'a little biased,' because Gates is a friend. 'But I think it's fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry; No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, No. 3...that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately.'"His statement that "the police acted stupidly" became famous, or infamous, depending on your perspective. Was Obama "a little biased" because Gates was his friend, or because Gates was his black friend? Years earlier, he had offered evidence at to the most likely answer to that question. Back in his Harvard days, then student Obama was the subject of an article by Fox Butterfield in the February 6, 1990, issue of the New York Times. Here are excerpts from "First Black Elected to Head Harvard's Law Review."
"The new president of the [Harvard Law School] Review is Barack Obama, a 28-year old graduate of Columbia University who spent four years heading a community development program for poor blacks on Chicago's South-Side before enrolling in law school. 'The fact that I've been elected shows a lot of progress,' Mr. Obama said today in an interview. 'It's encouraging. But it's important that stories like mine aren't used to say that everything is O.K. for blacks. You have to remember that for every one of me, there are hundreds or thousands of black students with at least equal talent who don't get a chance,' he said, alluding to poverty or growing up in a drug environment. On his goals in his new post, Mr. Obama said, 'I personally am interested in pushing a strong minority perspective.I'm fairly opinionated bout this.But as president of the law review, I have a limited role as only first among equals.'"As President of the United States, he had a nearly unlimited role to push "a strong minority perspective." But, aside from staffing government positions, did he do that? Doubtful that the black residents of South Chicago would say he did. Now, draw a line to this image from Charlottesville.
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