St. Paul, MN – Niger Innis, National Spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality, will make a nationally televised speech on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008, at 6:43 Central Time, during the Republican National Convention.
Innis will speak to the delegates assembled in St. Paul. The speech will be carried live on C-SPAN and other networks covering the convention.
Innis will address how Dr. Martin Luther Kings concept of "content of character" – given in his famous "I Have A Dream" speech – relates to the two presidential candidates.
"I’ve noticed that Barack Obama likes quoting Dr. Martin Luther King when he justifies higher taxes, when he justifies government-run health care, when he justifies his opposition to affordable energy," Innis will said. "The truth is this: Dr. King wasn’t about bigger government. He was about the content of one’s character."
"If we are to fulfill the dream, we cannot select a candidate because of his color," he will say. "In fact, the dream demands that we select him for his character."
Innis will then lend his personal endorsement of Senator John McCain's candidacy minutes before the presumptive nominee gives his acceptance speech.
“I am honored to make this statement in support of Sen. John McCain," Innis said. "John McCain has the personal integrity and content of character to lead our nation into a stronger and more secure future for all Americans, especially people of color."
Innis noted that his endorsement of McCain was personal and did not represent an endorsement by the Congress of Racial Equality, which operates on a strictly non-partisan basis.
Last week, Innis debated the head of the Sierra Club, Carl Pope, on the issue of how rising energy prices discriminate against poor families. That debate can be seen here:
Niger Innis is national spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality and co-chairman of the national “Stop the War on the Poor” campaign.
