NAACP Continues Campaign Against Felony Disenfranchisement in Virginia
The NAACP and Virginia State Conference will hold press conference to continue fighting for the restoration of rights for the formally incarcerated across the country and in states practicing permanent disenfranchisement.
Press Conference
Friday, October 5th @11:00am
Virginia State Conference Headquarters
1214 West Graham Road Richmond, VA
Who:
Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP; Kemba Smith Pradia, Founder and Executive Director at the Kemba Smith Foundation; King Salim Khalifani, President of the NAACP Virginia State Conference; and other members of the disenfranchised community in Virginia
What:
On Friday, October 5th, the NAACP will launch the second portion of its national felony disenfranchisement campaign, Restore the Votes, to advocate for the restoration of voting rights for millions of citizens formerly of felonies. The campaign features billboards of formerly incarcerated citizens from across the country, including celebrity activists Charles S. Dutton and Judge Greg Mathis.
Currently, million of citizens are disenfranchised to do felony disenfranchisement laws and more than 4.4 million of those citizens are no longer incarcerated.
Virginia, Florida Iowa, and Kentucky are the only states that continue to disenfranchise persons convicted of felonies even after they have completed all of the terms of their sentence. There are more than 450,000 disenfranchised citizens in Virginia and only about 64,000 are still incarcerated. More than half of those disenfranchised in Virginia are African American.
Kemba Smith Pradia joins the NAACP in the fight against felony disenfranchisement while fighting to restore her own rights. She was released from prison following executive clemency from President Bill Clinton in 2004. However eight years later, with a college degree, book authorship, marriage, and children, she still cannot vote in the state of Virginia.
This campaign follows an NAACP delegation visit to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. As part of the visit, the delegation held a panel discussion on felony disenfranchisement and the attack on voting rights in states across the nation.
Felony Disenfranchisement: It will take More Awareness and Education of The Black Community,Activism and Town Hall Meetings To Explain Where The Issues Are,and Getting The Academic and Faith Communities To Weigh in on The Problems…”It’s a Way of Organizing Our People and Encouraging Them To Take These International Forums Seriously and Adding That To Their Tools of Raising Issues Related To Various Problems We Have in The U.S..[''They American Officials] Do Not Want To Have These Issues Reach The World’s People…How do you go into Iraq or Afghanistan telling people about their Democracy when you got Black People that are Locked Down in Prison for[30-40]years as Political Prisoners?”If The Governor and Legislature don’t get it right,everyone loses,The Kids,Their Families and Their Communities.
The”F” Word: Life in America with a Felony…From the time the 1st Slave Ship landed in Jamestown Virginia,life in America has been a Rough Journey for Black People.Four Hundred and Fifty-Seven years later,statistics indicate that still is…And if being Black in America isn’t rough enough,try having a Felony on your Criminal Record…Have you ever been Convicted of a Felony?”It’s the line in the Sand”on every job application that Legalizes Discrimination…It’s the line item that often determines whether A Young Black Male will humble himself to Flip Burgers or compromise himself to Hustle Crack…You pay your debt to Society,then you are punished for the Rest of your Life…America must learn that not everyone who has a Felony is a Criminal.And not everyone who is a Criminal has a Felony…The inability to find Gainful Employment is just the beginning.Housing,the right to Vote,even apply for Food Stamps,a Convivted Felon is not even fit to be fed…This is one of the most profound hypocrisies considering the history of this Country…Consider the fact that many if not all,of the Early Europeans who came to America were Felons Themselves.Society refers to them as The Founding Fathers.”Europe emptied her jails and sent her Convicted Criminals here as a way of Ridding herself of The Dreges of Society…America represented new opportunity for its Founding Felons…The nerve of this Nation to be so Unforgiving of ex-felons when she herself,was Founded by Criminals.
We need a Legislative Bill to be sponsored in Congress to Stop Local Law Enforcement,Corrupt Prosecutors,County Board of Commissioners,Judges and Our U.S. Government from Unfairly Criminalizing and Charging our Young Black Men with Felonies.They are implementing simple Misdemeanor Charges as Obstruction Felony Charges,to get Cases to Stick.Our County District Attorneys are Seriously Corrupt.By design,we have more Young Black Men and Latino Men in Jails and Prison…”When you look at the Concept of Recycling and”going green,”it Amazes me how White People can pour Unprecedented Resources into the Recycling of things,but place Very Little Value on the Recycling of The Human Spirit…If The Lord’s Prayer says”Forgive Us Our Trespasses,As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us,”then what chance does America have of being Forgiven of her History if she won’t even Forgive The ”Trespasses”of those who have made Mistakes and paid their debt to Society….Think about it.