In his first convention address the association’s new president, Bruce Gordon, said the NAACP would call upon Blacks not to shop at stores that don’t “hire and invest in our community.”

The House of Representatives renewed the Act on July 13 by a vote of 390-33. It was passed after several restrictive amendments were defeated. The amendments included lifting a requirement that the Justice Department review and approve any changes in voting procedures in states covered by the law. Another would have ended a requirement for bilingual ballots in districts with a high number of voters for whom English is not their first language.

One session of the convention opened with a rally to demand that the Senate renew the Voting Rights Act with no restrictions. Participants then took buses to the capital to lobby senators.

Gordon called on Blacks to stop shopping at Target stores because the company refused to respond to an NAACP questionnaire survey used by the association to rate companies. “If corporations spend their money on us, we’ll spend our money with those corporations,” he said.

Gordon became president of the NAACP a year ago. He is a former executive at Verizon.

Other speakers at the convention included House of Representative members Jesse Jackson Jr., Charles Rangel, and Nancy Pelosi; and senators Harry Reid, Edward Kennedy, Barak Obama, and Hillary Clinton.

President George Bush, who has not accepted an invitation to address an NAACP convention since he was a candidate in 2000, was also scheduled to speak this year.  
 
 
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