On this page:

Announcements and Accomplishments.
Current Newsletter.
Have you been discriminated against?
Have you seen police brutality?
What to do if you are stopped by the police.
Problems with the local criminal justice sytem?
Hate Crimes generally.

Lynchings.
The H.W. Walker Murder in Greenville
Link to The Brutal Murder of James Byrd, Jr. of Jasper
Link to Texas NAACP Hate Crimes Page
Link to A Policymaker's Guide to Hate Crimes
Link to How to Take Action against Injustice
Link to Confederate Battle Flag information.

Standardized Testing
How to get records and documents.
Legislative Events.

Announcements and Accomplishments

Announcements

Support the August 26, 2000 March on Washington.

National

Accomplishments

Worked with H-E-B on their Corporate Diversity Program.
Succeeded in getting the U.S. Attorney and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate the death of H.W. Walker of Greenville, a clear hate crime that has yet to be designated as one.
Originated the idea of an award to capture the contributions African Americans have made to the state of Texas that, in many cases, have gone unrecognized and unrecorded, which today is the Annual Barbara Jordan Historical Essay Competition.
Called for African-Americans around Texas to rally around their black church to ensure its survival and safety when a rash of church burnings struck the South.
Refused to allow racist commentary about minority students at the University of Texas to hide behind the Constitution.
Supported legislation that would increase penalties for people convicted of hate crimes and add more specific definitions of the victims of hate crimes to the law now in place.
Called attention to the segregationist sentiment underlying plaques in the Texas Supreme Court building that honor the Confederacy.
Elicited an apology from the Christian Coalition for a clear example of race-baiting for a political end in sending out a sample voter guide that used a black man to represent candidates opposed to its positions.
Called for caution when a limit is put on the constitutional right of assembly as a way to address gangs.
Criticized school districts that failed to implement educational programs in good faith.
Brought to the attention of the U.S. Department of Education evidence that the exit-level Texas Assessment of Academic Skills is discriminatory.
Stood up for Black children unjustly accused of being "hostile and threatening" at a Valentine's day party in Austin.

Current Newsletter

In process.

Discrimination

Have you been discriminated against? Contact your local NAACP branch or the state office, or use our online forms:

Police Brutality

Have you witnessed police using unnecessary force against minorities? Contact your local NAACP branch or the state office. The website www.policeabuse.com has a wealth of information, including the harassment of a man arrested for walking on the wrong side of the street in Santa Fe, Texas. Here is a Texas example: the case of Jamiah Marquis Milo of Conroe, as reported in the Courier newspaper. About 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 27, 1999 a police officer determined that Mr. Milo was not wearing a seatbelt and signalled him to pull over. The 20-year old Mr. Milo pulled over, then drove away to his mother's house. The officer pulled Mr. Milo from his car despite Mr. Milo's efforts to hold the door closed, then followed him inside the house, where they scuffled. The officer subdued Mr. Milo with pepper spray, then handcuffed him. At that point, two officers carried the motionless and no longer resistant Mr. Milo outside and threw him on the ground.

The sentiment among minorities, in Conroe and elsewhere, is that police officers are more brutal and more suspect of minorities. FBI statistics show that black men nationally are incarcerated at eight times the rate of white men, according to the Courier article, which goes on to note that veteran crime reporters Wallace Westfeldt and Tom Wicker wrote that "not even the most virulent racist could believe that blacks are that much more criminally inclined than whites, particularly when they're only about 12 percent of the national population."

What to do if you are stopped by the Police

To fight police abuse effectively you need to know your rights. There are some things you should do, some things you must do and some things you cannot do. If you are in the middle of a police encounter, you need a handy and quick reference to remind you what your rights and obligations are. The American Civil Liberties Union put together the information you need in both English and Spanish.

Local Criminal Justice Systems

The Problem

Some local communities experience improprieties in the criminal justice or court system ranging from excluding minorities from jury service to a lack of media coverage of minority community issues with the system.

What You Can Do

Undertake a program to ensure that minorities are asked to report to jury duty according to law, that they comply with these requests and that information is kept regarding whether or not they are accepted for jury service.
Organize interracial, inter-ethnic and interdenominational exchanges to improve general community attitudes about minorities.
Meet with district judges regarding the selection of grand jurors and grand jury forepersons.
Ask the district clerks to keep information on jury composition, and ask the local bar associations to assist in these efforts.
Ask the Commissioners Courts and/or district judges to adopt standards for court-appointed lawyers.
Organize protracted and calculated peaceful marches to bring attention to these issues.
Meet with editorial boards and media management staff to address these issues and how they are covered by the media.
Seek the creation of Citizen's Review Boards and Human Rights Commissions in local communities.
Support state and national legislative efforts to bring about changes by contacting your local representatives.
Visit the courts often and monitor what is occurring there.

Hate Crimes

Generally

The Problem

Under Federal law (Section 280003(a) of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994), a hate crime is "a crime in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim, or in the case of a property crime, the property that is the object of the crime, because of the actual or perceived race, color, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person." The Texas Hate Crimes Act (Texas Government Code, Chapter 411.046) defines hate crimes as crimes that are motivated by prejudice, hatred, or advocacy of violence. To be convicted of a hate crime, there has to be clear evidence that bias against the victim was a reason for the crime.

According to the Dallas Morning News, there were 360 hate crimes reported in Texas in 1997, which is up slightly from 1996 but still down from the high of 472 in 1992. The number of hate crimes against Hispanics has more than doubled, and blacks and gay people continue to be the groups most often victimized. The Texas Department of Public Safety compiles the numbers collected from local police agencies. Their figures show that 58.5% of hate crimes are motivated by racial bias, with 43% of racial incidents being against blacks. Black people have been the victims of at least 40 percent of the hate crimes reported every year since 1992 although they compromise roughly 12 percent of the state's population. Hate crimes against Hispanics have increased statewide from 4.4 percent of the total reported in 1992 to 9.1 percent in 1998.

The psychological impact of hate crimes is to sow misery, terror and fear, to undermine the ability of a people to be able to use and enjoy their homes, communities, and travelways. A single hate crime takes freedom not just from the victim but from many who may share the victim's heritage, hometown, hue, or habits.

According to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, the primary responsibility for hate crime investigation begins with dedicated state and local law enforcement officials. In some communities, these officials may need additional training to develop the specialized skills necessary for the identification, reporting, investigation and prosecution of hate crimes.

Led by Senators Rodney Ellis and Royce West and Representatives Scott Hochberg, Senfronia Thompson, and Ron Wilson, the Texas Legislature came close to passing hate crimes legislation. However, at the end of a dramatic day in the Senate, it was apparent that there would be no agreement this session and the legislation failed. The NAACP expects legislation to be filed in the 77th Legislature that begins January of 2001; now is the time to be gathering data and information on the daily experiences in Texas.

What You Can Do

Report local hate crime incidents to the police and the NAACP. Become educated on what constitutes a hate crime. Talk to your state elected officials about making the penalties for hate crimes meaningful (see How to Take Action). Please visit with your State Representative and State Senator and encourage them to support hate crimes legislation when it next comes before them. If you can, also drop a note to Governor George W. Bush and Lieutenant Governor Rick Perry.

For More InformationSee the Texas NAACP Hate Crimes Page.

Lynchings

When people hear the word "lynching," they typically picture men on horseback riding away from a tree with a body hanging from a noose. The image is as outdated as the practice, but both persist. A lynching is any slaying committed by a mob, often for racial reasons. According to USA Today, there have been 4,709 lynchings nationwide in 43 states since records began being kept. Totalled from the years 1882 to 1968, Texas ranks Number 3 with 493 lynchings, behind only Mississippi (581) and Georgia (531).

State	Lynchings	State	Lynchings	State	Lynchings
Alabama	347	Maryland	29	Oregon	21
Arizona	31	Michigan	8	Pennsylvania	8
Arkansas	284	Minnesota	9	South Carolina	160
California	43	Mississippi	581	South Dakota	27
Colorado	68	Missouri	122	Tennessee	251
Delaware	1	Montana	84	Texas	493
Florida	282	Nebraska	57	Utah	8
Georgia	531	Nevada	6	Vermont	1
Idaho	20	New Jersey	2	Virginia	100
Indiana	47	New Mexico	36	Washington	26
Iowa	19	New York	2	West Virginia	48
Kansas	54	North Carolina	101	Wisconsin	6
Kentucky	205	North Dakota	16	Wyoming	35
Louisiana	391	Ohio	26	.	.
Maine	1	Oklahoma	122	Total	4,709

The H.W. Walker Murder in Greenville

The Problem

Mr. H.W. Walker of Greenville, Texas disappeared in early May 1999. On June 2, the decomposed body of a black man was found in a remote, wooded section of Rains County, about 50 miles east of Dallas, and identified as being that of Mr. Walker. Evidence indicates he had been tied to a tree with barbed wire and burned. The day after his body was discovered, police took into custody a sixteen year old white male who was affiliated with a hate group. The circumstances are shockingly similar to those in Jasper, where James Byrd Jr. was dragged to his death behind a pickup.

However, local and state authorities are so far refusing to prosecute the kidnapping and murder as a hate crime, instead characterizing it as a drug deal gone bad.

NAACP calls for federal probe of Walker death The situation is further complicated by the general deaf ear the Greenville police turn to minority complaints. The Greenville NAACP has asked the mayor to dismiss the top three police officials and the city manager due to the near-zero success rate in solving black homicides, the frivolous charges filed against blacks, and the lack of effort in responding to black complaints.

What You Can Do

Support the NAACP in its efforts to bring justice to the community of Greenville and the family of H.W. Walker. As a result of NAACP activism, the eyes of the country are on Greenville, including an interview of Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe by Johnnie Cochran on Court TV, and the United States Attorney and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have agreed to undertake an investigation. However, they have not as yet designated this act a hate crime.

Links to these Texas NAACP pages:

Standardized Testing

The Problem

Standardized testing, such as the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills or TAAS, can be discriminatory against minority students. Read about it on our Standardized Testing page. The NAACP is supporting the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund in its lawsuit against the TAAS tests.

What You Can Do

Contact your state legislators and ask them to support race- and income-level neutral testing. See the How to Take Action page.

Acquiring Records and Documents

The Texas Public Information Act requires certain non-confidential records to be released to you. Read about the requirements of the Public Information Act. You can call the Attorney General's Office toll-free with questions about open government, open meetings, and public records at 1-800-673-6839.

Legislative Events

Federal

The Problem

The Hate Crimes Prevention Act, now in the form of an amendment by Senator Edward M. Kennedy on the Appropriations Bill for the U.S. Department of Justice (S. 1217) and incorporated into H.R. 2670, is a necessary tool to help fight the continuing problem of crimes against people because of race, religion, national origin, gender, disability, or sexual orientation. It would allow the federal government to work closely with state and local authorities to punish hate crimes to the fullest extent possible. The language must pass both the House and the Senate to become law.

What You Can Do

Contact your Congressman and ask him or her to support passage of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. You can find out your Congressman on the Internet by going to http://www.house.gov/writerep/ and following the instructions. See How to Take Action for more tips.

State

The Texas House and Senate are naming interim committees which will study issues of interest to the Texas NAACP. For example, the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice will review the need for legal procedures and programs for children under the age of 10 who commit violent crimes so that they may receive necessary sanctions and treatment sanctions as part of the juvenile justice system. The committee will consider recommending a certification system for such offenders similar to the existing certification system that certifies juveniles as adults. The NAACP is concerned about inappropriately harsh treatment of youth, and the disparate treatment of minority youth, by the criminal justice system. An example is the case of eleven-year-old LaCresha Murray, who was charged with a capital crime after giving a confession to a police officer under at best questionable circumstances. In the legislative session that ended May 1999, the NAACP supported legislation by State Representative Sylvester Turner that became law and will begin to address this problem. In the legislative interim, the NAACP will monitor this and other committees and take action as necessary. You may be called upon to express your opinion.

This page last updated November 8, 2002. Texas NAACP, 1107 East 11th Street, Austin, Texas 78701. Telephone (512) 322-9547 or (512) 322-9992. Fax (512) 322-0757. Email.