Naacp

Four years after taking the helm of the NAACP and ushering in a generational change for the nation's oldest and most prominent civil rights organization, Ben Jealous arrived as a major force in American politics this year. At a time when restrictive voter identification laws and the purging of voter rolls in some states threatened to disenfranchise millions of minority voters, Mr. Jealous stepped up the NAACP's voter registration and mobilization -- an effor that played no small part in President Barack Obama's victory in November.

Patricia Cook-Ferguson, a longtime Baltimore teacher and president of the Baltimore County NAACP known for wearing multiple hats in advocating for youth education and civil rights advancements, died Wednesday of complications from lung cancer. She was 56. "She was the heart and soul of our chapter," said Tony Fugett, who as first vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People chapter will assume Mrs. Cook-Ferguson's responsibilities. Mrs. Cook-Ferguson had been ill for about a year, and was hospitalized about three weeks ago at Northwest Hospital, where she died in hospice care, said her son, Carlton Ferguson Jr. The NAACP chapter described Mrs. Cook-Ferguson as an "ardent supporter of civil rights and equal justice," and she was lauded as a leader in the Baltimore Teachers Union and the American Federation of Teachers in Maryland, where she had held multiple positions.

The NAACP is vowing to mount in Annapolis its largest-ever effort to abolish the death penalty in a state, saying Maryland's historic role in the civil rights movement makes it an appropriate place for the push. In an interview, NAACP President Ben Jealous said Maryland is the civil rights organization's top priority in its broader campaign to eliminate capital punishment from the American justice system. He said the group will spend more than it ever has in a state as it rallies citizens to pressure lawmakers for repeal.

On a day when campaigning over gambling expansion was otherwise muted by storm cleanup, proponents of a new casino in Prince George's County flaunted the endorsements of police and fire unions and the state NAACP and pointed to their support in a television ad. FOR Maryland Jobs and Schools, the ballot committee largely financed by MGM Resorts International, released letters from the Fraternal Order of Police, Professional Fire Fighters of Maryland...

The Baltimore City branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will honor Chazz Palminteri with a Thurgood Marshall Award for the Arts and Humanities at its Freedom Fund Banquet tonight. In 2011, the New York-based actor opened a restaurant in Baltimore's Harbor East neighborhood, Chazz: A Bronx Original . In announcing the award, the civil-rights organization said, "Palminteri has devoted time to visiting city schools, young people in the juvenile justice system and allowing his restaurant to be used as a venue to raise funds for numerous city charities.

Leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People urged Maryland voters Monday to cast ballots in favor of same-sex marriage, saying it is a civil rights issue, not a theological one. Benjamin Jealous, national president the organization, drew on the history of civil rights, and that of his own family, to make the case for marriage equality. "This is a question of what side of history do you want to be on," he said. He referred to the marriage of his parents, an inter-racial couple.

The local chapter of Baltimore's NAACP has taken an interest in the recent tensions brewing between Baltimore city principals and city schools CEO Andres Alonso's administration, denouncing the recent moves concerning two principals whose school was cleared of cheating, and announcing that it wants to investigate the racial and gender makeup of principals who have been dismissed from the system. The city's NAACP President Tessa Hill-Alston attended a picket protest held by the city's administrators union last week outside of city school headquarters.

It is well documented that African-American and Hispanic men are arrested, convicted and jailed at far higher rates than whites, and that once they enter the prison system they usually serve longer terms as well. That's why the NAACP and the Maryland ACLU among others were right to ask the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights last week to take another look at the systematic racial disparities in the state's criminal justice system. According to the Maryland Division of Corrections, 72 percent of the inmates in Maryland prisons are black, even though blacks make up only 29.4 percent of the population.

It is apparent that the NAACP has lost its moral compass because they feel they must stand with a black president and not their Christian roots when it comes to defining marriage and the rights and privileges associated with it ("Favoring equality," May 29). They have been losing credibility with many of us for years because they are often hypocritical and this one takes the cake. I hope those blacks who disagree with their position consider fleeing their membership and spending their energy and resources with their churches and communities.

Recent polls show that the margin of support for same-sex marriage has increased in recent weeks, with one survey showing that 57 percent of Maryland voters now say they're likely to support the state's same-sex marriage law if, as expected, it is put on the ballot as a referendum question in November. What's notable, however, is that most of the shift has been the result of changing attitudes among African-Americans, traditionally one of the most conservative groups on the issue.