... he announces, “This is the President of the United States and I’m here to help you!”

Chairman Julian Bond's Address to 98th NAACP Convention



Remarks of NAACP National Board of Directors Chairman Julian Bond
at the 98th Annual NAACP Convention
July 8, 2007
Cobo Hall
Detroit, Michigan
Copyright 2007 by Julian Bond


~ excerpt ~

The damage done, at home and abroad, is immense.

There is no better way to examine the state of race in Bush’s America than to examine Katrina and the lessons it has to teach us.

Imagine a major hurricane hits New Orleans. Within hours the President of the United States is on Air Force One headed for the stricken city. Upon landing in the no-electricity darkness, with a flashlight held to his face, he announces, “This is the President of the United States and I’m here to help you!” vi

The year was 1965. The President, Lyndon Johnson.

Forty years later a more devastating hurricane strikes New Orleans. Neither the President nor any other federal official is there to help. The city would sustain lasting damage – and so would the President.

Thousands would be stranded, and they would be overwhelmingly black and poor. That was horrendous enough. Even worse was that it would take five days before meaningful help would arrive. Some would say, with no apology to Clarence Thomas, that we witnessed a modern-day lynching.

~ end of excerpt ~


(Julian Bond has been Chairman of the NAACP Board of Directors since February 1998. He is a Distinguished Scholar in the School of Government at AmericanUniversity in Washington, DC, and a Professor of History at the University of Virginia.)

vi Douglas Brinkley, The Great Deluge, at 340, Harper Collins (2006).

The complete address is available @ http://www.naacp.org/about/leadership/directors/chaircorner/2007-07-08/index.htm


{Edited to add: Video is available @ http://www.naacpwebcast.com/naacp2007/player_naacp07_01.asp; Bond's address starts @ approx 53:00}