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HOW WILL THIS IMPACT OUR COMMUNITY?
The NAACP believes Project 2025 threatens to reverse decades of progress and harm Black and marginalized communities. We deserve a better future!
Project 2025 is a manifesto that seeks to undermine our progress, dismantle democracy, and take us back to a time when we did not have a vote or a voice. We must fight, we must advocate - we must vote - to ensure that Project 2025 does not become our reality. For more information: https://naacp.org/campaigns/our-2025 |
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NAACP dANE COUNTY UPDATES
BRANCH CALENDAR
Executive Committee Meeting (via Zoom)
February 18, 2025 --- ANNUAL Membership Meeting (via Zoom) February 25, 2025 --- Committee Meetings (via Zoom) Please contact your Committee Chair for dates and times |
NAACP DANE COUNTY SPEAKS OUT!

PROTECTING CIVIL RIGHTS BEYOND 2025
Greg Jones, President
NAACP Dane County
Opinion - January, 2025
No matter who occupies the Oval Office, the mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) remains clear. “For over a century, the NAACP has and will continue to champion justice and equity. We are determined to protect and uplift Black and underserved communities. We are loyal not to politicians, but to policies that allow us to keep advancing, no matter what."
Democracy in the modern era includes a number of elements, only one of which is electing leaders at regular intervals through free and fair elections. Other aspects include, once those leaders are given temporary powers to represent us, they are constrained by checks and balances, by the rule of law, and by the protection of individual rights in order to ensure our sovereignty. It has been said that Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Unadulterated power in any branch of government is a menace to freedom, but concentrated power across all three branches is the very definition of tyranny: a dictatorship disguised as democracy.
The system of checks and balances in government was developed to ensure that no one branch of government would become too powerful. Each branch (Legislative, Executive and Judicial) has an effect on the other. An effective checks and balances system depends heavily on citizen engagement to prevent abuse of power. The rule of law requires that all people and institutions are accountable to the same laws. “No one is above the law” or all are equal before the law while the United States Constitution protects individual rights.
Today, we face the promotion of a white nationalist agenda; a rescission of civil rights enforcement; acceleration of the deportation machine; and overt and covert attacks on voting rights. We must be loud and clear that democracy and freedom are the cornerstone values of the United States. We encourage all who share the same goals to join us by raising our voices, our level of advocacy, and supporting democratic principles designed to advance our rights. Project 2025 will radically expand the president’s authority and will reverse the civil rights protections on which Black communities have relied for decades to exercise their full citizenship and to prevent a return to a repressive governmental authority. The NAACP is working to mobilize grassroots efforts to protect and advance the rights and well-being of African Americans; and to build coalitions with other civil rights organizations, policymakers, and community stakeholders
to continue to develop and promote alternative policy solutions that ensure the protection and advancement of civil rights, social justice, and equity.
Call To Action
American democracy hinges on the idea that each branch of government prevents the others from taking too much power. To ensure this value, the following actions are necessary.
1. Renew our commitment to civil rights. Together we must commit to making the “other America” finally a thing of the past. To stay vigilant, to keep working, and in the words of Coretta Scott King, “to remember that the struggle is a never-ending process. Freedom is never really won. You earn it and win it in every generation.”
2. Ensure Martin Luther King’s Dream is a Reality. Create and cultivate a culture of belonging for all: Advance Equity and Inclusion initiatives at all levels; eliminate systems that uphold inequality: fight for a minimum wage for working families, promote effective insurance programs for low income families, reduce the wealth gap, and the gender gap in wages; and actively mobilize to respond to legislative initiatives that promote inequality and injustice.
3. Engage Youth in the new Civil Rights movement. Connect past history with today’s youth serving organizations and programs. Encourage local communities to develop instructional curriculum to study the meaning and purpose of the Civil Rights Movement and apply it to the issues of today. Communities are further encouraged to develop NAACP Youth Councils to provide information to their peers and serve as a means to mobilize young people.
4. Build Community Coalitions as catalysts for change with emphasis on civil rights. This coalition must address the many state sponsored, regressive policies including the unprecedented numbers of anti-DEI legislation, voter suppression bills, anti-truth measures, and book bans that seek to erase Black, LGBTQ+, and other historically oppressed histories from classrooms. A newly focused coalition must be disruptive and address policies with; focused on civil rights; ensure democracy is working for all and that the constitution applies to everyone.
A renewed focus on social change, amplifying marginalized voices, and inspiring meaningful action towards a more just and equitable society must be our path forward.
Editorial originally appeared in the January 2025 issue of The Capital City Hues.
IN OUR OPINION
GOP'S LATEST PROPOSAL TO ELIMINATE DEI RECEIVES PUBLIC HEARING

GOP’s latest proposal to eliminate DEI receives public hearing
By: Baylor Spears - Wisconsin Examiner
January 31, 2024 5:45 am
A proposed constitutional amendment limiting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts throughout Wisconsin received a public hearing on Tuesday. The amendment — AJR 109 — would prohibit governmental entities, including the UW System, technical colleges and governmental offices and agencies, from discriminating against or granting “preferential treatment” to people and groups on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in public employment, public education, public contracting or public administration.
As a constitutional amendment, the measure would bypass Gov. Tony Evers but would need to pass the Legislature in two consecutive legislative sessions and receive approval from voters before it would become law. During the hearing, the authors and supporters of the proposal, who were all white men, said it was essential to implement equality and colorblindness in Wisconsin.
Coauthor Rep. Dave Murphy (R-Greenville) told the Assembly Judiciary committee the proposal would “restore merit, fairness and equality, not only to hiring at the University of Wisconsin, but the hiring throughout all governmental entities statewide.” Republican lawmakers have declared their intention to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs throughout the state after winning substantial concessions on the issue from the University of Wisconsin during negotiations on funding. The UW deal, which will freeze DEI hiring and realign some DEI positions, was described by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos as the “first step” towards continuing efforts to “eliminate these cancerous DEI practices.”
Coauthors Rep. Dave Murphy (R-Greenville) told the Assembly Judiciary committee the proposal would “restore merit, fairness and equality, not only to hiring at the University of Wisconsin, but the hiring throughout all governmental entities statewide.”
“Equality is different from equity in the buzzword DEI,” Murphy said on Tuesday. “Equity means everyone’s outcomes have to be the same regardless of their skills or capabilities. Equality, on the other hand, means everyone, and I mean everyone, has an equal opportunity to advance in their job based on their particular set of skills and abilities.”
Democrats on the committee questioned the proposal and the authors’ views on equity.
Rep. Jimmy Anderson (D-Fitchburg) pointed out that there are already protections against discrimination in the law. He also explained to the authors how supporters of DEI view the efforts. “For example, we have these scholarships for individuals based on these classes,” Anderson said. “It’s a recognition of the both past harms that were done because of racism or ableism or any of those issues… but that it’s meant to then help make it so that each individual can participate in our society in ways that wouldn’t otherwise be available.” Anderson spoke about how his mother, who was an immigrant from Mexico, couldn’t help him with his math homework because her education ended in elementary school. “It became incredibly difficult for me to eventually get to the point where I was taking AP statistics. It was a lot harder. I’d have to go to after-school tutoring, and my climb up that hill was very different than some of my other more wealthy, and typically white, classmates that had more resources than I did,” Anderson said.
Anderson said that when he was applying to law school and for scholarships to school that his diversity status played a role. He said the additional help was a reflection of those difficulties and added that he thought some of those things that the authors would call preferential treatment are meant to help make the playing field more equal.
Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez (D-Milwaukee) said that the resolution ignores the fact that there are inequalities within society.
“Everything isn’t equal, so if I’m starting from the 50-yard-line and you’re starting from the 75-yard-line, we’re not all starting in the same place,” Ortiz-Velez said.
Murphy said he didn’t think it was the government’s job to decide what yard line people are on, and added that he thinks there is “an assumption that this bill somehow hinders minorities and I don’t think that’s the case.” He pointed to another Republican proposal that would eliminate race-based scholarships and aid. “I think this bill adds legitimacy to every minority that becomes a high-caliber employee. I want people to not look at those people as somehow being affirmative action hires,” Murphy said.
Nass added that everything should be based on abilities and that he believes past wrongs cannot be remedied with new types of discrimination.
Ortiz-Velez, noting that she has experience working on a local level, asked the authors if they had information or a list of how the bill would affect contracting, employment and other positions, but Murphy said that he didn’t understand or have the information that Ortiz-Velez was asking for.
The amendment is based on one approved in 2006 in Michigan. Following that amendment, there was a notable decline in minority enrollment at the state’s public universities. “For example, African-American enrollment plummeted 33 percent at the University of Michigan/Ann Arbor between 2006 and 2012, even as overall enrollment grew by 10 percent,” noted the ACLU in a statement after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the amendment was constitutional.
UW-Madison professor Ryan Owens argued that the bill was necessary to fight against discrimination against white males.
Owens, who is white, pointed to the Target of Opportunity Program at UW-Madison, which focused on helping academic departments recruit faculty who enhance the quality and diversity of the department, after this school year. It was specifically designed to “support the recruitment of outstanding faculty members among historically underrepresented groups, with a particular emphasis on race, ethnicity and gender (in disciplines where women are underrepresented).”
“The TOP program was racially discriminatory because it formally excluded white males,” Owens said. He noted that between 2018 and 2020, UW-Madison hired 25 people through the program, which included several white women but no white men. “That someone would be denied a job or more important the opportunity to compete for a job, because of his sex or the color of his skin is about as un-American as it gets.” The program will be replaced with another program focused on recruiting faculty who have demonstrated the “ability to mentor ‘at risk’ and/or underrepresented students to achieve academic success and who have demonstrated academic and research excellence.” Owens added that he thinks public universities will find a way to “engage in the same discriminatory acts under a different name,” and that the amendment would prevent that.
President of the Dane County NAACP chapter Greg Jones, who was the only Black person to testify, said that supporters of the bill made it seem like race is being used as the single and most prevalent factor when that is not the case. “If they’re taking race into account, it’s one factor among many,” Jones said. Jones also spoke about his past experience working as the administrator of the state Division of Affirmative Action. He said the first year when minorities made up over 10% of new hires for the state of Wisconsin his office received calls across the state asking how that was achieved. He credited targeted outreach to minority communities and a program called a balanced interview panel. “What we noticed was that all the interview panels were basically all white. We began to say to the agency, balance your panels, include women, include people of color,” Jones said. “What we began to see was a different outcome.” Jones called the proposal “out of touch,” adding that it “doesn’t move Wisconsin forward.”
Reprinted from: Wisconsin Examiner
https://wisconsinexaminer.com/category/politics-government
WISCONSIN STATE CONFERENCE STATEMENT ON CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
August 9, 2024
WISCONSIN NAACP REJECTS AUGUST 2024 CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Since the 1930’s Wisconsin’s governor has had constitutional authority to accept and direct federal funds sent to the state. It is the Governor’s responsibility to direct the funds to the appropriate state agency. The Wisconsin NAACP supports, approves, and endorses the current process of receiving federal funds and rejects the constitutional amendments.
Under current law, the governor has authority in certain instances to accept federal funds without participation of the Legislature. Under the proposed amendments, the governor could not allocate federal funds without approval by the Legislature. The Legislature would approve such allocations through joint resolutions or legislative rules that, unlike state statutes, do not require the governor’s
approval.
The proposed amendments to the Wisconsin Constitution could significantly change how federal emergency funds are allocated in the state. Wisconsin has seen money from the American Rescue Plan or COVID stimulus package which provided funding for public health and economic development; the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which includes repairing our roadways and more than 45,000 bridges; CHIPS (semiconductors) and Science Act subsidies for chip manufacturing and funding to boost domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors; Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) which includes tax reforms and investments in healthcare; and federal rental assistance funding to about 25,000 to 30,000 households in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin NAACP President Wendell Harris said “The proposed amendments are not just a power grab; they will deny the citizens of the state the benefit of federal funding opportunities. This is unacceptable.” We must respond to crises, natural disasters, and emergencies in a timely, and nonpartisan fashion.
CALL TO ACTION
The Wisconsin NAACP strongly encourages all eligible voters to reject the proposed constitutional amendments by voting NO at the polls and by absentee. It is our obligation to uphold the principles of effective government in Wisconsin. Maintaining the current process ensures effectiveness and responsiveness and protects the future.
WISCONSIN NAACP REJECTS AUGUST 2024 CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
Since the 1930’s Wisconsin’s governor has had constitutional authority to accept and direct federal funds sent to the state. It is the Governor’s responsibility to direct the funds to the appropriate state agency. The Wisconsin NAACP supports, approves, and endorses the current process of receiving federal funds and rejects the constitutional amendments.
Under current law, the governor has authority in certain instances to accept federal funds without participation of the Legislature. Under the proposed amendments, the governor could not allocate federal funds without approval by the Legislature. The Legislature would approve such allocations through joint resolutions or legislative rules that, unlike state statutes, do not require the governor’s
approval.
The proposed amendments to the Wisconsin Constitution could significantly change how federal emergency funds are allocated in the state. Wisconsin has seen money from the American Rescue Plan or COVID stimulus package which provided funding for public health and economic development; the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which includes repairing our roadways and more than 45,000 bridges; CHIPS (semiconductors) and Science Act subsidies for chip manufacturing and funding to boost domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors; Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) which includes tax reforms and investments in healthcare; and federal rental assistance funding to about 25,000 to 30,000 households in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin NAACP President Wendell Harris said “The proposed amendments are not just a power grab; they will deny the citizens of the state the benefit of federal funding opportunities. This is unacceptable.” We must respond to crises, natural disasters, and emergencies in a timely, and nonpartisan fashion.
CALL TO ACTION
The Wisconsin NAACP strongly encourages all eligible voters to reject the proposed constitutional amendments by voting NO at the polls and by absentee. It is our obligation to uphold the principles of effective government in Wisconsin. Maintaining the current process ensures effectiveness and responsiveness and protects the future.
NATIONAL NAACP REACTS TO THE SUPREME COURT'S EXTREME DECISION TO REVERSE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 29, 2023
WASHINGTON – Today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued extreme decisions reversing decades of precedent on affirmative action. The court's rulings in Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. University of North Carolina jeopardize hard-fought progress for Black Americans in classrooms and beyond. NAACP President & CEO Derrick Johnson released the following statement reaffirming the Association's commitment to tools that support equal access to higher education for Black students: "Today the Supreme Court has bowed to the personally held beliefs of an extremist minority. We will not allow hate-inspired people in power to turn back the clock and undermine our hard-won victories. The tricks of America's dark past will not be tolerated.
Let me be clear - affirmative action exists because we cannot rely on colleges, universities, and employers to enact admissions and hiring practices that embrace diversity, equity and inclusion. Race plays an undeniable role in shaping the identities of and quality of life for Black Americans. In a society still scarred by the wounds of racial disparities, the Supreme Court has displayed a willful ignorance of our reality. The NAACP will not be deterred nor silenced in our fight to hold leaders and institutions accountable for their role in embracing diversity no matter what."
Later today at noon, NAACP National Director of Youth & College Wisdom Cole, will lead a group of students and activists in a mobilization starting at the Supreme Court steps. Cole said of today's decision: "This is a dark day in America. Affirmative action has been a beacon of hope for generations of Black students. It stood as a powerful force against the insidious poison of racism and sexism, aiming to level the playing field and provide a fair shot at a high-quality education for all. Students across the country are wide awake to the clear and present danger encroaching on their classrooms. We will continue to fight, organize, mobilize and vote against all attempts to hold us back. We will hold the line against this clear pattern of hate. We will thrive!"
NATIONAL NAACP NEWS
NAACP National President, Derrick Johnson
NAACP President Condemns Trump Administration’s Roll Back of DEI Programs
PRESS STATEMENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 22, 2025
WASHINGTON - In a flurry of Executive Orders enacted on President Trump's first day in office, the controversial Administration has chosen to roll back all federal programs promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. The move represents a significant regression from the previous Administration's approach to centering racial equity and remedying the systemic racism deeply entrenched in our nation's governing practices.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson released the following statement condemning President Trump's Executive Order Rolling Back DEI in the Federal Government:
"It is outrageous that the President is rolling back critical Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. DEI programs help ensure that everyone can prosper. It's clear that President Trump does not value equal opportunity.
His appalling executive order will only worsen America's racial hierarchy and benefit the oligarch class. This executive order threatens public services that benefit all Americans; it's an attempt to consolidate power and money to a few wealthy individuals. And poor and working-class people will pay the price.
This is all part of a calculated strategy to redefine the role of government, privatize essential public services, and further discrimination. Elections have consequences and it's clear that this election has put a target on Black America's back."
The data makes it clear: organizations with diverse workforces have a strategic advantage over those who don't. According to McKinsey, Companies in the top quartile for being ethnically and culturally diverse are 36% more profitable than those in the bottom quartile.

With your help, we can put an end to the horrors of police brutality and reform a criminal justice system that fails to properly hold law enforcement officials accountable.
ACTION ALERT: CONTRACT FOR BLACK AMERICA

As the world faces unprecedented times and new realities during this global pandemic, and incidents of hate and domestic terrorism are perpetuated leading to routine brutalization of Black Americans, the health and safety of our people are at an unparalleled risk.