Parker charts new direction for NAACP
- Details
- Category: Pittsburgh
- Published on Wednesday, 13 February 2013 10:06
- Written by The New Pittsburgh Courier
- Hits: 129
Page 1 of 2
NEW DIRECTION—New NAACP Pittsburgh Unit President Constance Parker announced the reformation of the unit’s Legal Redress Committee during a January press conference. (Photo by J.L. Martello.)
Constance Parker, elected President of the NAACP Pittsburgh Unit in November, met with the New Pittsburgh Courier Editorial Board and said the unit has failed to communicate with and for the Black community in recent years, and that will change.
“We need to disseminate information much better,” she said during the Feb. 6 meeting. “The lack of communication in the community, with multiple organizations that don’t talk, that don’t like each other and tear each other down is a problem because we can’t afford business as usual.”
Parker said, as president, her agenda will focus on three main areas; health, education and employment, and she added she is very pleased to have a new Legal Redress Committee to address discrimination and abuse in those and other areas where African-Americans are being slighted, or worse.
“We have to take a legal approach on a lot of these issues,” she said. “We’re investigating two complaints of racial abuse at the Post Office on the North Side. Back in the day, that was enough to get some action taken. It will be again.”
Parker added that the legal team, which volunteered their services without her asking, would also be looking at the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police.
“That incident where the woman called 911 and then was killed when the officer left is horrible. If the law can’t perform its job, the law should be changed,” she said. “I don’t think there’s a strong enough handle on the control of the police force.”
