Following the film showing, a written message from Moore was read to the convention. Members of the film’s editing and production team, and U.S. Marine Cpl. Abdul Henderson, also addressed the delegates. Henderson, who refused to return to Iraq for service, appears in the film and is now a member of the Long Beach, California, NAACP branch. Henderson received a standing ovation as he thanked those who supported him in his decision to not return to Iraq. “The most important thing I can tell every young person is to find your way to the ballot box in November,” Henderson said.

Unlike previous conventions, struggles to defend affirmative action, for equal employment, and against police brutality were relegated largely to workshops. A plenary session commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that declared school segregation unconstitutional was conducted as a round table discussion and featured no keynote speaker.

Kerry spoke on the final day of the convention. His main point was to condemn Bush for refusing an invitation to address the NAACP convention for the fourth time since his election in 2000. Initially White House officials had said that Bush could not attend because of a scheduling conflict. But according to a report in the Philadelphia Daily News, Bush told reporters during a campaign visit to Pennsylvania, just days prior to the convention, that his relationship with NAACP leaders is “basically non-existent. You’ve heard the rhetoric and the names they’ve called me.” Bush is scheduled to speak at the Urban League convention July 21-25 in Detroit, Michigan.

Kerry got a standing ovation. At the same time, a number of those present said they backed him as the lesser of two evils. “He said a little more than the last time I heard him,” commented Carolyn Meeks from Richmond, Virginia. “He still needs to get more specific, but we know that what the other guy stands for is unthinkable.”

“We don’t have another choice,” said 20-year old Lekesha Brown, who had come down from nearby Mount Laurel with her sister Casandra.

“If a branch isn’t doing voter registration they ought to turn in their charter,” said NAACP chairman Julian Bond in his opening speech. Getting out the vote to “defeat Bush” has been the central NAACP campaign since the 2000 election. Bond said that so far the NAACP had registered 100,000 voters in 11 of the so-called battleground states, where the contest is considered very close between Bush and Kerry.

One theme that has run through recent conventions is that Bush “stole the 2000 election” through massive disenfranchisement of Blacks, especially in Florida. NAACP president Kweisi Mfume announced that on July 2 the NAACP had asked the U.S. attorney general to stop the Florida election board from removing voters from its rolls. Some 47,000 voters have been removed from the voters rolls according to the Miami Herald—2,119 for felony convictions even though their right to vote had been restored by the state. After a court order, state officials released the list, and later said they would scrap it after their “mistake” had been publicized.

A floor fight did break out at the convention, led by long standing members of the NAACP national board—among them, Hazel Dukes and Leroy Warren— and several state conference presidents. The dispute centered on a proposed amendment aimed at loosening restrictions on NAACP branches initiating “direct action” protests, such as boycotts, pickets, and rallies, without the prior approval of the association’s national office signed by Mfume.

“We need to get timely responses to our request to take action,” said Ishton Matthews of the Cincinnati, Ohio, branch. “Often by the time we get a response to our request everything is over, it’s too late. Young people are telling us our methods are old and outdated.”

“We need the room to take action,” said Keith Brawley of the Haywood branch in Northern California. “We brag about the number of NAACP branches we have but we would be better off with just 400 lean and active branches than 1,700 that aren’t doing anything.”

Although the amendment passed 522 to 301, it was later reversed after Dukes took the stage to appeal to delegates to reach a compromise. The compromise amendment requires branches to submit requests to engage in direct action 15 days in advance. The NAACP national office would then have 10 days to give its decision. “This is ridiculous,” Warren said in objection. “How are we supposed to know 15 days in advance that a police officer is going to shoot a Black child.”  
 
 
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