September 24, 2023

Affirmative Action Supreme Court Ruling in Fisher Today Gives “Reason to Fear the Future” Says Project 21’s Joe Hicks

June 24, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Press Release from the National Center for Public Policy Research:

Los Angeles, CA – Los Angeles political activist and longtime Project 21 member Joe Hicks is joining other colleagues in the Project 21 black leadership network who have expressed disappointment over the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Fisher v. University of Texas, a key affirmative action case, earlier today.

The high court ruled in favor of race-conscious university admissions.

With the Pacific Legal Foundation and others, Project 21 submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in the case in September, and has twice before submitted friend of the court briefs in Fisher (here and here).

“Lacking the towering presence of Antonin Scalia, a majority Court opinion has said today that it is Constitutional to racially discriminate,” said Joe R. Hicks, a political analyst and Project 21 member. “Justice Kennedy, who has become an infamously erratic SCOTUS voice, joined the four reliably liberal justices to opine that ‘… race-conscious admission programs… [are] lawful.’ While voting today for racial preferences, Justice Kennedy (who wrote the majority opinion) scolded the University of Texas, saying the university has a duty to ‘minimize’ its use of race. Good luck on that. Universities around the nation, who literally worship at the altar of diversity, are joyful and will now feel emboldened to increase programs that advantage so-called ‘disadvantaged minorities’ while freely discriminating against all who are not.”

“To say that today’s decision is disappointing would be a serious understatement. Today, the Court has decided in a way that is nothing less than a blow for equality under the law. It panders to the left/liberal mantra of ‘classroom diversity,’ that even the University of Texas was too embarrassed to make in its SCOTUS arguments. With Scalia gone it makes clear the importance of a future president who will have the courage to appoint a voice on the Court who represents an adherence to strict ‘originalist’ Constitutional principles. However, this is a frightening thought. One presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, is poised to populate the Court with liberal nominees who believe the Constitution is a ‘living document,’ while the other, Donald Trump, appears woefully ignorant about the issues involved, is ideologically-erratic, and has boasted that he just might appoint his sister, a leftist Federal District judge. Meanwhile, today the Court has legalized discrimination… and there is reason to fear the future,” Hicks concluded.

Project 21 members Horace Cooper, Stacy Washington, Niger Innis and Darryn “Dutch” Martin all commented on today’s Fisher decision in another Project 21 press release, available here.

Project 21 has released seven other press releases in the Fisher case since 2011 (here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), quoting many of its leaders.

Video and audio recordings of very many Project 21 leaders discussing affirmative action on television and radio can be found on the National Center for Public Policy Research YouTube page. A Project 21 policy luncheon on the Schuette affirmative action case, featuring Jennifer Gratz, can also be viewed on the National Center YouTube page.

The National Center for Public Policy Research, founded in 1982, is a non-partisan, free-market, independent conservative think-tank. Ninety-four percent of its support comes from individuals, less than four percent from foundations, and less than two percent from corporations. It receives over 350,000 individual contributions a year from over 96,000 active recent contributors.

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Black Leadership Group Condemns Attack on Houston Deputy Constable Alden Clopton

April 14, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Project 21 Black Leadership Network Statement on Savage, Senseless Attack on Houston Deputy Constable
 

Washington, DC/Pine Grove Mills, PA – The following is a statement by Project 21 founding member Council Nedd II on the ambush attack on Harris County Deputy Constable Alden Clopton late last night:

I am appalled at the senseless willingness to harm and to risk loss of life. I am especially appalled when a sworn peace officer is wantonly shot in the back, for no other reason than wanting to serve his community.

It’s bad enough when officers are killed or injured responding to the commission of a crime or during an investigation, but to be shot in the back as Alden Clopton was is cowardly. I have no doubt that the Texas justice system will handle the shooter appropriately.

The Right Reverend Council Nedd II, Ph.D., TOSF is an elected Pennsylvania state constable, having been sworn in to the position in January 2016. He is also an Anglican archbishop, and serves as the rector of St. Alban’s Anglican Church in Pine Grove Mills, PA. He is a founding member of the black leadership group Project 21, and has been an active member since its founding.

Project 21 has been a leading voice of black conservatives since its founding in 1992. Its volunteer members come from all walks of life. Contributions to the National Center are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated, and may be earmarked for the use of Project 21.

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Black Conservatives Statement on Supreme Court Vacancy

March 16, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Project 21 Black Leadership Network Statement on President Obama’s U.S. Supreme Court Vacancy Announcement
 

Washington, D.C.  – The following is a statement by Project 21 Co-Chairman Horace Cooper on President Obama’s nomination of a candidate to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court:

The White House believes it can hide behind the notion that the U.S. Senate should “do its duty” and act on his nominee. Perhaps if the President had done his duty to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” he would have a case.

Having undermined and disregarded the Constitution (including holding the dubious distinction of being the modern President with the most unanimous losses before the Supreme Court), this President has no moral authority to attack the Senate or to name a new nominee to the Court who would roll back the freedoms the American people cherish.

Horace Cooper is an adjunct fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, co-chairman of Project 21 and a legal commentator. Mr. Cooper averages over 400 talk radio appearances per year representing Project 21, in addition to regular television appearances and interviews by the print media, also for Project 21.

Mr. Cooper taught constitutional law at George Mason University in Virginia and was general counsel to U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey.

Project 21 has been a leading voice of black conservatives since its founding in 1992.

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Congressional Black Caucus: Don’t Tell Us Black Lives Matter!

January 14, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Press Release from the National Center for Public Policy Research:
Black Lawmakers Group May Seek Sanction of Congressman for Ruing High Abortion Rate in Black Community

Lawmaker Sean Duffy’s Remarks Expressing Concern About Lives of Black Babies Called “Insensitive” and “Disgusting” by CBC Members

 

WASHINGTON, DC – Members of the Project 21 black leadership network are rising to the defense of Wisconsin Republican Congressman Sean Duffy, who is under fire from the Congressional Black Caucus for remarks on the House floor expressing concern about the high abortion rate in the black community.

As reported by the Hill, this is what Duffy said:

Duffy during a House floor speech cited statistics showing high abortion rates in African-American populations and suggested black lawmakers aren’t doing enough to reduce them.

“I hear a lot in this institution from minority leaders about how their communities are targeted,” Duffy said, offering the Black Lives Matter movement’s efforts to draw attention to police violence against blacks as an example. “But what I don’t hear them talk about is how their communities are targeted in abortion.”

“My liberal friends, Congressional Black Caucus members, talk about fighting for the defenseless, the hopeless, and the downtrodden. There is no one more hopeless and voiceless than an unborn baby, but their silence is deafening. I can’t hear them. Where are they standing up for their communities, advocating and fighting for their right to life?” he said.

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI), a CBC member, called Duffy’s remarks “offensive,” while CBC Chairman Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) called them “disgusting.”

The CBC is now considering whether to submit a privileged resolution in the House to condemn Duffy for his remarks. Project 21 members, however, say there is nothing to condemn: that Duffy is to be commended for his concern for black babies.

“The Congressional Black Caucus further makes itself irrelevant and a joke,” said Project 21’s Christopher Arps , a St. Louis political consultant and the founder of Move-On-Up.org. “Most black people have no earthly idea that blacks have the highest amount of abortions per capita than any other ethnic group in this country. It’s so bad that in 2014, blacks in New York City and Georgia had more abortions than live births. Now the CBC wants to condemn Rep. Duffy for telling the truth that the CBC doesn’t seem to care by their silence. It seems they’d rather see little black babies aborted than anger the abortion lobby.”

“There is no doubt that abortion providers like Planned Parenthood have cornered the market on aborting black babies,” said Project 21’s Jerome Hudson, a Georgia native and writer for Breitbart.com and other venues. “Non-Hispanic white women account for about 38.5 percent of the population, if you divide the number of all non-Hispanic whites by two. Using census and CDC data, that 38.5 percent of white women accounted for 36.8 percent of abortions in 2010.”

“Conversely,” Hudson continued, “non-Hispanic black women make up about 6.6 percent of the population. That’s the black population divided by two. Using census and CDC data, non-Hispanic black women accounted for 35.7 percent of the abortions performed in 2010. That is a horrific disparity, especially considering less than that 6.6 percent consists of black women of actual childbearing age. These are facts the Congressional Black Caucus is committed to ignoring.”

“I commend Sean Duffy for his comments and for his willingness to recognize that the 21st century holocaust — subsidized abortion on demand — targets all vulnerable babies regardless of color,” said Project 21 Chairman Horace Cooper, a former U.S. House majority leader legal counsel and Virginia legal analyst. “Instead of a resolution of disapproval, the CBC should stand with the pro-life community and Rep. Duffy. Unborn babies are the most innocent, most defenseless category of victim imaginable — and black babies are increasingly the most obvious targets. Even though blacks are only 13% of the population, nearly 40% of our babies are destroyed in the womb.”

Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives for over two decades, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research. Contributions to the National Center are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated.

 

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Black Conservatives Critical of Obama’s State of the Union Address

January 13, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Press Release from the National Center for Public Policy Research:

Puffy, Partisan Speech Further Mires President’s Lamentable Legacy

“You Can’t Put Enough Lipstick on This Pig of His to Make It Look Pretty”

WASHINGTON, DC – Members of the Project 21 black leadership network are commenting on – and available for interviews about – President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union Address.

While starting out talking about alleged areas for potential bipartisan accomplishment, the agenda President Obama quickly pivoted to and championed throughout the rest of his speech to Congress encompassed a big-government agenda he has always sought to enact with or without the support of elected lawmakers – such as relaxing immigration rules, increasing the minimum wage and new energy regulation.

“Although I didn’t support President Obama’s candidacy either time that he ran, I thought he would be good for race relations. Instead of uniting Americans under the mantle of Dr. Martin Luther King, the president has engaged in a sustained attack on the foundational values that once bound Americans together: family, faith and work.Tonight, the President ignored the persecution of Christians in the Arab world while castigating us all for perceived injustices to Muslims. He further demonized millions of Americans who don’t believe in man-made anthropological climate change. And he pandered to a tiny partisan crowd by promising more free programs on the backs of taxpayers. It’s hardly a speech to be proud of,” said Project 21 member Stacy Washington , host of the “Stacy on the Right” talk radio program on FM News Talk 97.1 in St. Louis. “We can only hope that the next 12 months will be less eventful, less taxing and have fewer transformations. Obama’s campaign slogan was ‘hope and change.’ We’ve been changed for the worse. We can only hope for the remaining term to pass by quickly.”

Black conservatives with Project 21 have offered comments on each and every State of the Union Address during the Obama presidency.

“Since this was his last State of the Union Address, I was looking for President Obama to say something monumental. I was looking for him to finally stop playing politics and show some true leadership. It was all too clear, however, that Obama plans to leave office with the same sound and fury with which he arrived – but now he’s leaving a terrible mess in his wake,” said Project 21 member Council Nedd II, a bishop for the Episcopal Missionary Church of South Africa and an elected constable in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. “Hauntingly, President Obama’s legacy is turning back the clock on race relation and seeing repeated attacks on legal gun owners while exhibiting an apparent ignorance to rampant violence that grips places such as his political hometown of Chicago. Obama has helped foster and foment an environment that brands law enforcement as the enemy and exalts criminals as martyrs. He has coddled ISIS and ignored the persecution of faith abroad to the point where several 2,000-year-old Christian communities have literally been eradicated. What are we to actually make of all this?”

Project 21 member Christopher Arps , a small businessman and political consultant in St. Louis who is now helping with a major presidential campaign in Iowa, said: “President Obama’s final State of the Union Address was supposed to be an effort to help seal his legacy. Unfortunately for him, you can’t put enough lipstick on this pig of his to make it look pretty. His true legacy will be remembered in his $1 trillion dollar failed ‘stimulus,’ the hobbling of the greatest health care system in the world, Islamic terrorism run amok, a feckless foreign policy with a dangerous nuclear deal with the rogue state of Iran, and – last, but not least – an economy growing at a tepid pace that has a record 90 million people out of work. It’s not a legacy he should be very proud of.”

“Tonight’s speech was one that shot for the Moon, but Americans’ hopes remain stuck on the ground due to the partisan bitterness this president has fostered to ram through an often unpopular agenda,” said Project 21 member Kevin Martin , a Navy veteran and small businessman in the Washington, D.C. area. “President Obama opened with the statement that Americans should not live in fear of the future, but too many Americans do fear the future because of the threat of terrorism at home and aboard. And that’s just one thing. In poll after poll, a majority of Americans feel our nation is on the wrong track under President Obama’s leadership. While he stood in the well of the Congress trying to give an optimistic report, the reality is that Americans just aren’t feeling it in their wallets or their lives.”

Project 21 members have logged tens of thousands of interview and media citations. Media that recently sought out Project 21 insight includes on TVOne, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, the Orlando Sentinel, Westwood One, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, SiriusXM satellite radio and 50,000-watt talk radio stations such as WHO-Des Moines, KOA-Denver, WGN-Chicago, WBZ-Boston and KDKA-Pittsburgh. Topics included civil rights, entitlement programs, the economy, voter ID, race preferences, education, illegal immigration and corporate social responsibility. Project 21 members provided substantial commentary regarding the Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and Freddie Gray incidents. Project 21 has also defended voter ID laws at the United Nations.

Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives for over two decades, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research (http://www.nationalcenter.org). Its volunteer members come from all walks of life and are not salaried political professionals.

Contributions to the National Center are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated.

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Black Conservatives React to U.S. Supreme Court Decision

June 26, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Press Release from the National Center for Public Policy Research:

Black Conservatives React to U.S. Supreme Court Decision for Use of “Disparate Impact” in Administration of Fair Housing Act

WASHINGTON, DC — Legal and policy experts with the Project 21 black leadership network are available for comment on today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that allows perceived group racial disparities to be used as a trigger for enforcement of the Fair Housing Act.

“When those statistical differences alone are used as proof of discrimination, freedom and liberty are lost; but worse the constitutional protections provided to every American as an individual are lost too,” said Project 21 co-chairman Horace Cooper, a legal commentator who taught constitutional law at George Mason University and is a former leadership staff member for the U.S. House of Representatives.

“It’s a shame that the majority of justices are willing to allow allegations of discrimination in housing to be painted using a broad brush — sometimes by those who may not even be among the aggrieved — rather than finding and cutting out true instances of abuse with scalpel-like precision,” said Archbishop Council Nedd II, Ph.D., author of multiple books and rector of St. Alban’s Anglican Church in Pine Grove Mills, PA. “The Fair Housing Act was meant to be a scalpel, but the Court has now decided otherwise to our peril. Society is served better by a system that removes specific problems rather than pitting groups against each other.”

On appeal from the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the case of Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, et al. v. The Inclusive Communities Project, Inc, addressed a festering legal problem regarding the Fair Housing Act’s use to address accusations of disparate racial impact instead of enforcing the law on a case-by-case, as-needed basis as was argued by its supporters when it was debated in Congress.

Specific to this case, the Inclusive Communities Project (ICP) claimed the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, a state agency, violated the federal Fair Housing Act by allocating housing tax credits to developers in a manner that they alleged broadly kept minorities in low-income minority-majority neighborhoods rather than allowing access to housing opportunities in wealthier majority-white communities in the Dallas metropolitan area. ICP charged the department’s tax credit distribution policy creates a disparate impact on black recipients of such credits as a class rather than addressing individual instances of alleged abuse.

Project 21 joined a legal brief submitted to the Court that asked the justices to specifically define the legal scope of the Fair Housing Act. In the brief, it was argued that the Act was written “to apply solely to disparate treatment, not acts having disparate impact on protected classes” and that the U.S. Supreme Court must “consider the threshold question of whether disparate impact claims are even cognizable under the Fair Housing Act” since “disparate impact claims do not depend on the intent of the action or policy.”

This legal brief joined by Project 21 was written and submitted to the Court by the Pacific Legal Foundation and was also joined by the Center for Equal Opportunity, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Cato Institute, Individual Rights Foundation and Reason Foundation.

In 2014 and 2015, Project 21 members have already been interviewed or cited by the media over 2,600 times — including TVOne, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Fox News Channel, Westwood One, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, SiriusXM satellite radio and 50,000-watt talk radio stations such as KOA-Denver, WHO-Des Moines, WJR-Detroit, WBZ-Boston and KDKA-Pittsburgh — on issues that include civil rights, entitlement programs, the economy, race preferences, education and corporate social responsibility. Project 21 has participated in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court regarding race preferences and voting rights and defended voter ID laws at the United Nations. Its volunteer members come from all walks of life and are not salaried political professionals.

Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives for over two decades, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research (http://www.nationalcenter.org).

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Black Conservatives Comment on Selma “Bloody Sunday” 50th Anniversary

March 6, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Press Release from the National Center for Public Policy Research:

WASHINGTON, DC — March 7 is the 50th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” when civil rights activists were attacked by Alabama law enforcement as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma at the beginning of a march to the state capitol. Members of the Project 21 black leadership network are commenting on this civil rights milestone that brought increased national attention to the cause of civil rights and in particular helped to secure voting rights protections.

Noting the great strides forward that have been made in the promotion of civil rights for all people, Project 21 members cautioned against using the solemn remembrance of the events in Selma to stir up racial animosity and demand redress for things that should not be blamed on an America that has grown and matured so much so quickly in its attitudes toward race.

“In the 50 years since Bloody Sunday, blacks went from suffering under legalized racial segregation to celebrating the election and reelection of the nation’s first black president. Blacks now head major corporations and are among our nation’s most admired citizens. That was entirely inconceivable back then,” said Project 21 member Derryck Green , a doctoral candidate in ministerial studies. “But those who now maintain a black grievance industry — the bastard child of the civil rights movement — want to make others think America is still like the Selma of decades ago. In doing so, they trivialize how our nation has matured. Racial disparities remain, but many of these pains are self-inflicted on a few while society as a whole enjoys social, economic and political benefits that those who suffered on Bloody Sunday could only imagine experiencing back then.”

“Black historian John Henrick Clarke said ‘history is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day.’ In Selma, the struggle for civil rights prevailed because people of all races came together to show self-determination, integrity, courage and strength in overcoming segregation and institutionalized racism,” said Project 21 member Stacy Swimp , an Apostolic minister and founder of the National Christian Leadership Council. “We need to remember this spirit and history as we check the time. We need to realize there are no permanent boundaries around us we do no place around ourselves. I am confident our predecessors would not appreciate it if we internalized their experiences as if they were our own. We cannot use their pain and sacrifice as an excuse to hate others, accept low standards among ourselves and refuse to commit to the advancement of American exceptionalism. That’s not what they wanted. We shouldn’t want it either.”

“It’s often been said that the accomplishments of any black American are made by standing on the shoulders of those who came before them. In the face of violence, degradation and inhumane treatment, those who marched in Selma 50 yeas ago did so for a long overdue cause. The march was a tide that truly raised all ships,” said Project 21 member Bishop Council Nedd II , the rector of St. Alban’s Anglican Church. “We cannot now go back to racial exclusivity. I don’t see the events of Selma as an exclusively ‘black’ event. Black Americans certainly gained the most from what transpired, but Americans of all walks of life stood together for what was necessary and right. Everyone cried out for equality. Everyone deserves equality. Yet we now live in a moment in time when people demand that ‘black lives matter.’ They do, but not more so than the innocent unborn or the persecuted Christians dying for their faith. At the end of the day, all lives matter.”

“Fifty years ago, this nation’s civil rights movement staged three marches for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. They resulted in the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965. Racism, violence and discrimination were omnipresent in the lives of all too many black Americans — something that hardly required the flights of fantasies or fertile imaginations driving today’s protests and marches,” said Project 21 member Joe R. Hicks , a former executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles. “In contrast to the those who marched at Selma for realistic goals and objectives back then, those claiming to be today’s civil rights leaders make handsome livings from specious claims that America still has ‘so much farther to go’ in the struggle against racism. Unlike Dr. King and other civil rights greats, this new leadership spends most of its time looking in the historical rear-view mirror. It’s something that blinds them, perhaps opportunistically, to the amazing pace of progress that’s occurred since the awful violence of ‘Bloody Sunday.’ Mired in racial mythology, these leaders and activists insultingly argue black lives don’t matter in today’s society and that racist cops have declared open season on black youth. Drawn to the glow of TV cameras and political grandstanding, this bankrupt leadership turns away from the hard work of redeeming communities in preference to the cheap and easy lobbing of empty charges against white America. Yet the fact is, 50 years after Selma, Birmingham and Montgomery, and after the civil rights victories of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act, a once-oppressed people can hardly be described in that manner.”

Project 21 members were interviewed or cited by the media over 2,000 times in 2014, and have been interviewed or cited over 300 times so far in 2015. Outlets calling on Project 21 for comment have included TVOne, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, One America News Network, the Orlando Sentinel, Westwood One, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, SiriusXM satellite radio as well as 50,000-watt talk radio stations such as WHO-Des Moines, KOA-Denver, WGN-Chicago, WBZ-Boston and KDKA-Pittsburgh. Topics discussed by Project 21 members have included civil rights, entitlement programs, the economy, voter ID, race preferences, education, illegal immigration and corporate social responsibility. Project 21 members have provided substantial commentary regarding the Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner judicial proceedings, and the organization is currently involved in two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Project 21 also defended voter ID laws at the United Nations. Its volunteer members come from all walks of life and are not salaried political professionals.

Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives for over two decades, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research (http://www.nationalcenter.org).

Contributions to the National Center are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated.

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Project 21 Members Call Rumored Federal Lawsuit Against Ferguson Police Department a Misguided Attempt for “Pound of Flesh”

February 20, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Press Release from National Center for Public Policy Research:

Eric Holder’s DOJ Reportedly Plans a Lawsuit Against the Ferguson Police for Racial Discrimination

Any DOJ Lawsuit Would “Ultimately Be a Lawsuit against the Taxpayers”

FERGUSON, MO/WASHINGTON, DC — With the U.S. Department of Justice rumored to be on the verge of filing a lawsuit against the Ferguson Police Department for alleged racial discrimination, members of the Project 21 black leadership network are calling such an act a cynical move by outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder to get a “pound of flesh” before he leaves his post.

“When the grand jury came back with no indictment, and Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department let it leak that they probably would not be able to pursue civil rights charges against former Ferguson officer Darren Wilson, it was clear they were still going to try to get their pound of flesh from somewhere. The obvious place to get it is going to be the Ferguson Police Department,” said Project 21 member Christopher Arps , a St. Louis area resident who attended the initial prayer service for Michael Brown and witnessed the rioting in Ferguson firsthand. “Ferguson will likely settle the case, and Holder will call this strong-arm tactic a triumph for justice. But it’s still questionable that it will satisfy those who, despite overwhelming evidence saying this was a justified shooting, still claim that Michael Brown was assassinated.”

In mid-January, it was leaked that the Justice Department would likely not bring civil rights charges against Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson in the August shooting death of Michael Brown. The shooting, and a grand jury’s decision not to indict Wilson, led to riots in Ferguson and elsewhere. In a February 17 speech at the National Press Club, Holder suggested the results of a federal investigation of the Ferguson Police Department for alleged discriminatory tactics could be released before he leaves office (Holder plans to remain until his successor is confirmed by the U.S. Senate). Failure to comply with the investigation’s recommendations could lead to a federal lawsuit.

“One of this nation’s most racially-polarizing figures, Attorney General Eric Holder, is leaving office with threats that he will sue the police department in Ferguson, Missouri,” said Project 21 member Joe Hicks , a former executive director of the Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission. “Any claims that Ferguson police acted in racially discriminatory ways appear to be based on Holder’s own biased disappointment that white officer Darren Wilson was not found worthy of prosecution by a grand jury for the shooting of a black teenager. And, despite the actions of a willing and compliant Ferguson Police Department, jumping through hoops to comply with the Justice Department’s politically-correct nitpicking, Holder now seems set on punishing the department simply to burnish his image with nihilistic hoodlums, street radicals, anarchists and race hustlers. This only adds to his shocking legacy of racial divisiveness.”

In late November of 2014, after Officer Wilson was not indicted and resigned from the Ferguson Police Department, Ferguson Mayor James Knowles III announced several reforms that included plans for a civilian review board to monitor the police department, scholarships to help recruit more minority officers as well as employment outreach to historically black colleges and universities and an increased stipend for officers who live within city limits. Since then, there have been dozens of applicants for the position vacated by Wilson and another officer, and there are two expected retirements in the near future. It is reported that there are several experienced minority officers among this pool of applicants. Mayor Knowles recently told the local CBS affiliate, “we’ll absolutely continue these efforts to seek out a more diverse pool of applicants.”

“Having failed in his attempt to bring federal civil rights charges against Officer Darren Wilson, Attorney General Eric Holder now threatens charges against the Ferguson Police Department. When will Holder admit this entire event has been a fiasco of this administration’s own making?” asked Project 21 Co-Chairman Horace Cooper , a legal commentator who taught constitutional law at George Mason University and a former leadership staff member for the U.S. House of Representatives. “The ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ narrative was a lie, and the Michael Brown shooting itself provided no insight into law enforcement – minority relations. Instead of going after the Ferguson Police Department, the Justice Department should apologize for presuming the worst before the evidence was known. This shoot first, ask questions later civil rights policy is short-sighted and ultimately undermines overall public support for equality.”

“The American justice system is far from perfect, but it is one of the best in the world. The Justice Department’s imminent threat to bring a lawsuit against the Ferguson Police Department will ultimately be a lawsuit against the taxpayers of that community,” said Project 21 member Carl Pittman, a law enforcement professional who has served as a peace officer in National City, California and Harris County, Texas. “Outgoing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has apparently not done enough damage. His inability to accept a grand jury decision arrived at through facts and evidence will not only serve to further damage the Ferguson community, it will also solidify his place as one of the worst and most racially divisive attorney generals in our nation’s history.

Project 21 has previously issued seven press releases and posted numerous news-oriented blog entries addressing the death of Michael Brown and related events. Project 21 members have completed over 250 interviews on the death of Michael Brown and unrest in Ferguson, Missouri and elsewhere. Several Project 21 members visited the area during and after the rioting, and two members live in the immediate area.

Project 21 members were interviewed or cited by the media over 2,000 times in 2014, including on MSNBC, Fox News Channel, TVOne, the Philadelphia Inquirer, One America News Network, the Orlando Sentinel, Westwood One, St. Louis Post-Dispatch , SiriusXM satellite radio and 50,000-watt talk radio stations including WHO-Des Moines, KOA-Denver, WGN-Chicago, WBZ-Boston and KDKA-Pittsburgh on topics such as civil rights, entitlement programs, the economy, voter ID, race preferences, education, illegal immigration and corporate social responsibility. Project 21 is currently participating in three cases under review by the U.S. Supreme Court and has provided substantial commentary regarding the Ferguson, Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner judicial proceedings and their aftermaths. Project 21 defended voter ID laws at the United Nations. Its volunteer members come from all walks of life and are not salaried political professionals.

Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives for over two decades, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research (http://www.nationalcenter.org).

Contributions to the National Center are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated.

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Black Conservatives Critique President Obama’s State of the Union Address

January 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Press Release from the National Center for Public Policy Research:

Washington, DC – Commenting on President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address tonight, members of the Project 21 black leadership network saw a presidency lacking new ideas that suggested Obama may be “running out the clock” on his presidency without much vision but with plenty of continued class warfare and big government rhetoric.

“President Obama really did not offer anything new in his address to Congress. All he did was present the American people with the same old clunker policies sprayed with a new car scent,” said Project 21 member Kevin Martin , a small business owner and Navy veteran. “President Obama wants more new taxes and more new spending, but he seems unwilling to do anything substantial to reduce our national debt, curtail unfunded liabilities, shrink the bureaucracy or really fight fraud and waste in our government. Conservatives, on the other hand, have preached that it’s the spirit of the individual — and not government — that has made America successful, and it’s that spirit that can once again return us to greatness. Massive, unrestricted government spending will not breed success.”

Members of the Project 21 black leadership network are available for media interviews related to the State of the Union address as well as on other issues.

“Listening to President Obama outline his plans for the remainder of his presidency tonight, it was clearly demonstrated to me that he was painfully aware he is a lame duck president presiding over an administration that is fresh out of ideas,” said Project 21 member Christopher Arps, the founder of the Move-On-Up.org black social media network. “Obama’s address to Congress contained more alleged freebies that will not, in fact, be free. And there was even more class warfare rhetoric and calls for increasing taxes on the so-called rich. The enthusiasm for hope and change that he allegedly brought to the White House appears to now be reduced to running out the clock until January of 2017.”

Project 21 members have offered rebuttal to all of President Obama’s State of the Union addresses.

“I am glad President Obama highlighted job creation in his address, but the reality is that over 16 million Americans are unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work. Many are black people in communities such as Ferguson, Missouri. What did President Obama say to them that’s really new and innovative?” asked Project 21 Co-Chairman Cherylyn Harley LeBon , a former senior counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. “The percentage of Americans participating in the labor force is at the lowest level since the late ‘70s. Tonight’s rhetoric provided no real encouragement for those seeking decent jobs. It’s a problem for parents nationwide who struggle to get food on the table. In all that Obama had to say tonight, I saw no definitive hope for the young black man who sees that the only person ‘employed’ on his block is the local drug dealer.”

“Having presided over the slowest economic recovery in modern American history using excess government regulation and destructive deficit spending, President Obama now plans to pursue more of the same policies. These policies, if enacted, will dampen whatever fleeting gains the economy is finally exhibiting,” said Project 21 Co-Chairman Horace Cooper , a legal commentator who taught constitutional law at George Mason University and a former leadership staff member for the U.S. House of Representatives. “Full of tax hikes that punish investors and job creators and new domestic spending plans that America can ill afford, the President’s speech epitomizes the triumph of hope over experience.”

“President Obama’s foreign policy is a miserable disaster. This tone-deaf president negotiates from a position of weakness with enemies of the United States while turning on allies such as Israel and France. His foreign policy follies are notable for a series of bad decisions and miscalculations, including the removal of some sanctions against Iran, normalizing relations with Cuba and misjudging the terrorist threat facing America,” said Project 21 member Michael Dozier, PA, Ph.D. , a consultant on national security issues. “Obama’s do-nothing approach, as demonstrated once again by his comments in his State of the Union address, is essentially aiding and abetting the enemy. Obama doesn’t seem to have a plan to defeat ISIS, nor does he appear to have any serious consideration of what it might take to do so. His lead-from-behind philosophy destabilizes the Middle East and has alienated America’s allies to the point that not even James Taylor can convince them that they have a friend in the United States.”

“President Obama’s announced plan for government to pay for a community college education for all takers is not only a typical liberal approach to a problem, but it’s also an example of choosing political pandering over the efficient management of taxpayer dollars. The President was correct that the cost of higher education is too high, but throwing money at the problem and not considering better ways to solve it is typical for liberals,” said Project 21 member Hughey Newsome , a financial analyst. “Why not propose a smaller initiative to connect needy families to scholarships and grants? That would be a less costly solution for taxpayers. That alternative may not get the splash and poll numbers the President needs, but it would be the prudent thing to do.”

Project 21 member Derryck Green , who writes a monthly report on the federal jobless numbers and the state of the economy for Project 21, added: “Mr. President, your economic plans for middle class aren’t working. If they were, more than 92 million Americans wouldn’t be out of the workforce – more than 8 million who left since you became president. The labor force participation is at a 37-year low. Job creation and wages are stagnant. In the last six years, more businesses died than were created. As a result, the middle class is shrinking. If your policies worked, you wouldn’t be relying on divisive political rhetoric about income inequality – inequality that has increased during your presidency – to perpetuate class warfare. And your solution to this problem you preside over is little more than wealth redistribution through increased taxation. Isn’t the record $739,482,000,000 in tax revenues in the first quarter of fiscal year 2015 enough? Mr. President, the nation needs more than the perpetual emptiness of your economic agenda.”

Project 21 members were interviewed or cited by the media over 2,000 times in 2014, including on TVOne, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Fox News Channel, One America News Network, MSNBC, the Orlando Sentinel, Westwood One, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, SiriusXM satellite radio and 50,000-watt talk radio stations such as WHO-Des Moines, KOA-Denver, WGN-Chicago, WBZ-Boston and KDKA-Pittsburgh on topics such as civil rights, entitlement programs, the economy, voter ID, race preferences, education, illegal immigration and corporate social responsibility. Project 21 is currently participating in three cases under review by the U.S. Supreme Court and provided substantial commentary regarding the Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner judicial proceedings and their aftermaths. Project 21 defended voter ID laws at the United Nations. Its volunteer members come from all walks of life and are not salaried political professionals.

Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives for over two decades, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research (http://www.nationalcenter.org).

Contributions to the National Center are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated.

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Black Conservatives Available to Discuss Importance, Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

January 16, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Press Release from the National Center for Public Policy Research:

Washington, DC – Black activists with a conservative political perspective are now available for media interviews to discuss the importance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s thoughts and actions. With the national holiday approaching marking the late civil rights icon’s birthday, members of the Project 21 black leadership network can discuss Dr. King’s legacy and how they feel others have honored and dishonored that legacy.

“The holiday celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. King should cause us all to pause and reflect on his historic importance. One of Dr. King’s most important contributions was that he exhorted Americans to resist the gravitational pull of racial identity and famously challenged us all to value the content of character above skin color,” said Joe R. Hicks, a Project 21 member and former executive director of the Greater Los Angeles chapter of Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. “Some contemporary ‘race leaders’ seek to limit Dr. King’s legacy by ghettoizing his impact and identifying him as a black leader. But he was far more than that. He was a great American leader. The value of his wise counsel has outgrown racial limits. Dr. King’s historical contributions stand in stark contrast to the racial divisiveness of today’s self-proclaimed black leaders. In a nation that has passed them by, they now stand as redundancies — living in the shadows of great men such as Dr. King while huffing the fumes from a bygone era.”

“I find myself constantly wondering what Dr. King would think of the current state and condition of America. Clearly, great strides were made in race relations and providing educational and employment opportunities for all. Watching the current devolution of civility, however, I wonder if Dr. King’s dream has become a nightmare,” said Bishop Council Nedd II, the rector of St. Alban’s Anglican Church in Pine Grove Mills, Pennsylvania and the author of the new book Does America Hate God? Faith Under Fire “Racial tensions are certainly higher now than they have ever been in my lifetime. Economic indicators also suggest black Americans are suffering under Barack Obama’s reign, with black unemployment still high despite overall unemployment falling and black home ownership in decline. President Obama has championed special rights for Hispanics crossing our southern border and gays seeking to marry, rather than truly protecting civil rights and ensuring our borders are secure. And I’m certain Dr. King would not have envisioned a world where the black community would be renouncing, undermining and ignoring the major theological foundations that helped them survive slavery, Jim Crow and segregation.”

“As our nation remembers the birthday of one of America’s favorite sons, let us also remember the faith that compelled Dr. King to action. It was his faith that gave him the boldness and freedom to stand for justice and demand equality,” said Project 21 member Demetrius Minor, a youth minister and the author of the upcoming book Preservation and Purpose: The Making of a Young Millennial. “It is also impossible to commemorate the life of Dr. King without having adoration for the Creator who enabled him to live such a fulfilling life.”

Project 21 member Derryck Green , who is currently working on a doctorate in ministerial studies, added: “Year after year, as we lovingly commemorate Reverend King, it seems that character matters less and color matters more the further we move away from his death. Many of the so-called and self-appointed leaders of the racial grievance industry are guilty of bastardizing his mission. They use his legacy as an instrument to contribute to racial hostility under the false guise of racial justice. Black Americans should acknowledge the extraordinary racial progress we’ve made in such a short time. We should also courageously condemn people — regardless of color, but especially those in our own communities — who seek to disparage and overlook that progress in favor of racial solidarity. Our credibility and Reverend King’s legacy are at risk if we don’t. We would do well to remember Reverend King’s own words: ‘[I]f first-class citizenship is to become a reality for [the black man], he must assume the primary responsibility for making it so. [Blacks] must not be victimized with the delusion of thinking that others should be more concerned than himself about his citizenship rights.’”

“I believe Dr. King’s legacy today would reflect the principle that freedom cannot exist without morality. The folly of immoral and free men and women makes about as much sense as dry water! Without sufficient character and moral fortitude, we cannot govern ourselves,” said Reverend Steven Craft, M.Div., a Project 21 member and prison minister. “When morality declines, the abuse of our rights increases and people believe more government is necessary in order to control the population. Dr. King’s legacy teaches us that if we abandon our righteous character and embrace the law of the jungle, we forfeit our freedom.”

Project 21 members were interviewed or cited by the media over 2,000 times in 2014, including on TVOne, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Fox News Channel, One America News Network, MSNBC, the Orlando Sentinel, Westwood One, St. Louis Post-Dispatch , SiriusXM satellite radio and 50,000-watt talk radio stations such as WHO-Des Moines, KOA-Denver, WGN-Chicago, WBZ-Boston and KDKA-Pittsburgh on topics including civil rights, entitlement programs, the economy, voter ID, race preferences, education, illegal immigration and corporate social responsibility. Project 21 is currently participating in three cases under review by the U.S. Supreme Court and has provided substantial commentary regarding the Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner judicial proceedings and their aftermaths. Project 21 defended voter ID laws at the United Nations. Its volunteer members come from all walks of life and are not salaried political professionals.

Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives for over two decades, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research (http://www.nationalcenter.org).

Contributions to the National Center are tax-deductible and greatly appreciated.

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