>> one, we're seeing an unprecedented attack on the voting rights act. this is our most effective and important civil rights law. and already we've seen challenges coming out of north carolina and georgia, alabama, all aimed at gutting the voting rights act, gutting the heart of the voting rights act the section 5 preclearance provision and undoubtedly one of these cases will come to the supreme court. they are aiming to tear the heart out of the voting rights act at the time we need it most, during redistricting. it is during this part of the decade historically where we have seen the most discrimination against minority priorities and this is so very critical during this time and we are on the defensive and we are on the offensive. this is such a critical time and

i'm so happy that this issue is front and center for us today. the other issue that makes this redistricting cycle unique is, of course, we have president barack obama. and there are many who have prematurely called this the post-racial era but we all know too well voting discrimination remains live and rampant throughout the country. we've heard about the photo id laws being adopted in georgia but all throughout the voting process we're seeing proof of citizenship requirements that have an impact not just on latino communities but on black communities as well. we're seeing cutbacks on early voting. we're seeing rights for ex-felons to get their rights restored and this is an environment that's entirely toxic. for every 100,000 persons in our

country, 3,000 african-americans are behind bars, 1200 latinos and 500 whites. that's a disparity for 6 to 1. tremendous political implications, tremendous implications for black voting access and so this is an issue that we must pay close attention to. again, you have many people saying that we are post-racial but let's look at how the 2008 presidential election actually played out throughout the country. how many folks are here from louisiana, mississippi or alabama. 10% of white voters for president obama, 11 in mississippi and 14% in the state of louisiana. by no means are we post-racial and let me give you the kind of

sampling of the kind of discrimination that we continue to witness throughout the country today. in tara bond, parish, louisiana you have a court where the judges are electric. 5 white judges to a substantially black population and one of those white judges recently turned out to a halloween party in black face, in a jail suit and with handcuffs and he still sits on that court today. redistricting gives us an opportunity to get folks like him out. >> that's right. [applause] >> this is an important part of the justice system in our nation so often these elected courts fly under the radar and we got to make sure that in places like taxpayer bond, places and there's many in the country that we seek a fair map that can get more representative, people who fairly represent our interests on those courts.

lastly, we've become an increasingly diverse nation over the past decade. the growth that we have seen throughout our country was fueled in large part because of increases in the latino, black and asian-american population and we've got to make sure that we recognize that fact as we move into redistricting. in places like florida we've got 675,000 more african-americans in the state today than we did 10 years ago. 600,000 more of us in georgia. 575,000 more of us in texas, 300,000 more of us in north carolina. 225,000 more of us in maryland. we have got to make sure that they respond to the democratic change over the past decade and create a -- fight for them to create new majority black districts that fairly reflect

the complexion of our communities. so again these about democracy. democracy is at date. i applaud the naacp to give us a moment to map out the counter-attack we're seeing on african-americans today. >> cristen space clarke with the naacp legal defense fund. thank you. ms. earls. >> good morning. >> i'm honored to be here and i want to take a couple minutes to elaborate a little bit more on the redistricting issues. i want to give you some of the strategies that are being used against us so that you know what you can do to counter those strategies. basically, what we're talking about is the fact that the population increases that both

kristen talked about that should be turned into political power. we are talking about overcoming a history of discrimination and reverend barber always reminds me tomorrow morning about our history and i want to take a moment to acknowledge the history that beginning in the '70s but certainly after the jingle decision in 1976, it was all of new county and county and other states in the south bringing those section 2 lawsuits that enabled us to have single redistricts in areas that had been at large and had never seen a black elected to public office. it was you bringing those lawsuits, being plaintiffs and suing your local governments that got us to the point where we had representation that is slightly more fair. we are nowhere be where we should be. but it's been called the quiet revolution in the south. the wave of litigation that established those districts.

well, now we're in a period where we're both defending what we've gained but also making sure that the population increases that have occurred really do translate into rightfully and fair political power. so part of this is about overcome past discrimination. where part of it is really about ensuring that one person one vote and that the voting strength of minority communities that are politically cohesive, that's's recognized in our democracy. so why doesn't it happen? why isn't recognized? two of the common techniques that you are probably familiar with are cracking and packing. cracking, that's the majority jurisdiction is divided in several districts so that you have the power to elect your candidate choice in any district and i actually think that what we're seeing this time arch is more frequently this cracking strategy.

and we can use tools under the voting rights act through the courts through the department of justice to try to combat that but you need to know when you're involved in the redistricting process at your local level looking at proposed maps you need to know what the possibilities are so that you can see is the minority community being divided more than it should be? and if you are united in a single district would you be able to elect your candidate choice? another tactic that i'm surprised to see but is being used in north carolina is the macs and there they are putting more black voters in a district that you need to elect your candidate choice to weaken your influence in the rest of the state and they're using the voting rights act to try to justify that. they're saying the voting rights act is making us do that. that's not correct as a matter of law but it has a really bad impact on your ability to ultimately influence the political process. you remember david has told us in the southern states 75% of

our minority state legislators are themselves in the minority in their legislatures. that's a really important thing to understand because it means that they can't get the votes they need to push forward our agendas. so we need to look at what's only the impacts to allow the black voters to elect their candidate choice but what's the impact on the plaque community more broadly. in north carolina we did a analysis of the congressional districts they've redrawn and we have 13 districts. they packed more than half of the state's black voters into just three districts. so instead of being able to have an influence in some of those other districts, the maps that they have proposed would limit the influence of minority voters of that state. we're want to make sure it's not perverted and use as a jurgs to weaken minority voting strength. the final thing i want to say is

that it's important to be involved in the litigation, to bring forward what you know about the irregularities that happen around voting, the problems at the polling places when your candidates experience, you know, harassment or, you know, their homes are targeted. all of those kinds of discrimination around voting is relevant in a redistricting lawsuit so come forward with that evidence and be prepared to be witnesses or plaintiffs. we're seeing many of these plans going to the dc district court instead of the department of justice and we need people to intervene in the district court and i would also say and i really do want to applaud all of you who are involved in these voting rights cases. you've really made a difference. the final thing is once the districts are in place we need to have people run for office. >> right. >> you need to run political campaigns and not pay your

political fee and put your name on the ballot and get involved in the political process at the end of the stage. mra[applause] >> we're going to to a q & a if you raise your hand our staff will bring your card and you write your question on it and we'll try to get to as many of them as we possibly can. derek johnson. >> thank you. lorraine. it's hard coming behind judy and anita when they write my scripts. what's the solution. we heard over and over about the tea party and them is the conservative and those folks. we are the solution. the naacp has the only infrastructure in our community that goes from coast-to-coast in every little town. >> that's right. [applause] >> the naacp is best positioned to do something that many civil rights and other organizations

cannot do because they do not have people on the ground. one of the things we must do and change in how we function need to gravitate more towards the substance of our work and develop strategy and away from the pomp and circumstance and aggrandized big speeches. what has happened over the past 20 years is the naacp becoming too lax with the way we operate during the election process. [applause] >> and as a result of that other organizations being swooped into our community use money on our units and then they claim work that we do 'cause we have no way to measure our work. so we have to change and shift the paradigm of how we function.

every state is at play this election cycle. there's no states that's not at play in 2012. in 2007, everyone was talking about whether or not -- which political party will win is pennsylvania and florida. nobody talked about north carolina. in 2008 we won north carolina. so we cannot go into an election cycle thinking that because i live in alabama, i live in mississippi and only 10% of the population voted consistent with the african-american community we can't focus on that state. we'll lose if we have that mindset. >> that's right >> georgia is 44% minority. mississippi is 38% african-american, 42% minority. if 10% of whites in mississippi vote consistent with african-american community and we have a high voter turnout,

guess what? we win. so what has happened in the past elections? we wait 90 days out, live picture days out or 30 days out, we then begin to plan on how we're going to turn the vote out. somebody outside of our community come and dump a few dollars in our neighborhood and then we go and buy a few t-shirts. we give our cousins and our children the t-shirts. we walk through the same neighborhoods because they live to because they're the safe neighborhoods not the folks who see our presence and where the election revocation where we have not had a victory at all we've done the same thing we've always done and we've don't the same result. and what happened in 2008 the obama campaign exposed us to say

that the emperor has no clothes because they built the infrastructure in our community using folks that wasn't from our community and turned out our folk and we lost because we didn't build our infrastructure from the ground up using a new method in how we function. [applause] >> i want to commend the chairwoman lorraine and dr. barber because they've been pushing the staff and roger vann says we have to do more different. we have to be more strategic in our thinking. we have to be more deliberative in our process. roger vann now has the technology where we could measure the effectiveness of the units on the ground, not just for 2012 because this process is not about 2012 alone. it's about everything leading up

to 2012 and everything after 2012. but that could won't state conferences and the local units take heed to the new technology and grab hold of the technology and the training. >> that's right. >> so come this fall, every state conference needed to have a plenary session to talk about the strategy of turning out the vote in your state. during that same time the staff will be reaching out to you about identifying your key branch leaders across the state to come in to an eight-hour training on how to use the technology. in that process bringing everybody together to talk about what are the nuances and important things we need to know when we talk about turning out folks be it in oklahoma or new york city? because location by location as we talk about all of the voter suppression methods that are being used as much as it is very similar, their very unique

differences so you can't have a national strata plan. you can have a national strategy of what you want to do but we got to drill down to those local communities and on a state level and nobody can do that but the naacp. some folks ask me and say well, you know, you over at the state house of mississippi. you got five kids and you're doing that for free. how are you going to feed them kids? and my response is if i didn't do this my kids wouldn't have a future. if i didn't do this, we won't have a future so we have to figure out how we get the best and the brightest in our community engaged to understand the big picture? dr. barder we share an appreciation of historical analysis because historic has taught us because this game is for the about fairness, it's about power. and if we don't understand the power dynamics that's involved in being civically engaged in elections, then we will lose our

ability to have anything. and so if as units across this country, it's our responsibility. the speaker yesterday kept saying i'm not saying that you're culpable but i want to hold you accountable. this process is about the naacp being accountable because for me the tea party can't do any more than what we allow them to do in our community. [applause] >> and as we go back home, all the pomp and circumstance of being called mr. president should go out the door. and that we really need to be talking about in this county, what's at stake. >> yeah. >> in this state election what's at stake. the most significant thing that happened in 2010 was the ticket of state legislators across this country and in the south. in the south there are only two democratic legislative bodies. that's mississippi and arkansas. we fight it all we can to keep

it in mississippi, arkansas come up next and because of that, we're seeing all these vote suppression laws. we're seeing all of the rolling back of our gains but we're seeing all of that not because they're doing it to us, because we did it to ourselves 'cause we was not strategic in getting our folks out in 2010 and as the naacp we bear the responsibility not to repeat that mistake again. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, give our panelists arousing -- arousing thank you. [applause] >> all right. derrick is a picture segue of what we're doing next. so they're giving you the lay of the land. you understand what the problems are, the challenges are, now we're coming to our naacp of

solution. i'm bringing up our very talented, extremely talented coo, roger vann. roger will come and explain to us what we as naacpers are asked to do. roger? [applause] >> yes, roger! [applause] >> naacp repeat after me if you will, many have died for my vote. >> many have died for my vote, >> so i have to respect it. >> so i have to respect it. >> you won't take it away. >> you won't take it away. >> 'cause i'll fight to protect it. >> 'cause i'll fight to protect it. >> i'll push for my issues, no matter who was elected. 'cause when we all participate our democracy is perfected. this is my voice, this is my power, this is my vote, give

yourselves a round of applause. >> all right. [applause] >> all right. let's talk about the work very quickly. i know we want to get to the q & a. what we're planning is an unprecedented large squall national program. the only 50-state nonpartisan electoral process in the country. i want to repeat that. the only 50 state nonpartisan electoral program in the country. tens of thousands of volunteers, all of you plus all of our leaders in local units, hundreds of units, mobilized, state area conferences, branches, youth and college units and in those states where prisoners are able to vote we'll have some prison votes on the branches. media, black radio, television, print online to help us with our psa and communications packages where you can go to your local cable station and give them our electronic psa's and get them on

the air. training technologies in the field as well. people are lining up for us brothers and sisters because of who we are. mou, fraternities, sororities representing 35 million people and if we turn out a fraction of those folks we can have a significant impact on the election next year. let's talk about structure and accountability. from this convention to the next there will be a strict focus on voter rental administration and education. voter registration is self-explanatory. if you went to our workshop on voter empowerment you received a manual that's the best manual we've ever produced on voter education. it will have a couple of phases. we're not only going to be talking about the issues that the panelists have raised today, educating our people about the attack on voting rights on what you need to do on those states where voter id laws are in the states and we'll be talking

about our issue areas the work of the naacp and this is important because this engagement process is not just about an election. it's about building power for the naacp. so that when you go into the streets and register people to vote you're not just talking about the election you're talking about the work of the association. the issues that are important to us. black men and boys the frame that our president and ceo discussed during his speech. the issues related to health and education and criminal justice and other issues. because what we want to do is build an army that can even after the 2012 election help us in fights at the state level, the local level build our membership and build our power. next convention in houston, we will have a strict focus through the election on voter turnout. we'll ask each of our conferences to set aside time for plenaries and extended training on all of this. but particularly to begin with voter registration and

education. next spring at our regional trainings and he will with have regional conferences in every region next year, brothers and sisters, we will train on geotv and election protection as we move to next year's launch at next year's convention of our go tv efforts. they will have a civic engagement plan i'm going to say clear, measurable and realistic goals. everybody say clear, measurable and realistic goals. now, i'll talk about realistic. if y'all can only register 50 people please only tell us you're going to register 50 people. there's no need to tell us you're going to register 1,000 folks and that's not realistic. the days when we oversell and overpromise are gone because we now will have a system to measure everything that you do and hold you accountable for the work. >> that's right. >> accountability through online tracking. each person registered and contacted and we know how many people will be rentaled so that

we can turn those people that we registered and contact out on election day. all right. let's talk about innovation. innovation will come through technology. you've heard about this vann system. it's not the roger vann system. it's the voter actor navigation ,,