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candidates night forum canceled
October 3, 2022
Lebanon County NAACP Announces Candidates Night Forum Canceled
The Lebanon County Branch of the NAACP regrets to announce that our Branch and Laura LeBeau, News Director of WLBR-AM 1270, have agreed to cancel the Candidates Night Forum that had been scheduled for Monday, October 24, 2022 at the Lebanon Municipal Building Auditorium.
This decision is based on our receipt of an email from Lebanon County Republican Committee Chairman Bill Bova stating that none of the five invited Republican candidates will participate in the Candidates Night Forum. This refusal is based on the allegation that the Lebanon County NAACP and our proposed forum co-moderator, Branch Assistant Secretary Taelor Norwood, are partisan and politically biased against them, thus creating a hostile environment for the GOP candidates.
We are deeply disappointed in this refusal to participate by the five invited Republican candidates – Congressman Dan Meuser (District 9), PA Senator Chris Gebhard (District 48), PA House member Russ Diamond (District 102), and PA House candidates John Schlegel (District 101) and Tom Jones (District 98).
Our disappointment is rooted in two main reasons. First and foremost, this decision by these five Republican candidates shortchanges the voters of Lebanon County. Democracy requires that voters make informed decisions when they cast their ballots, and candidate forums like WLBR’s have long served as a way for voters to learn more about the candidates and where they stand on various issues. The real injury of this decision is suffered by the voting public.
Second, we forcefully and categorically reject the false claim that the NAACP is a partisan organization. It is not, and neither is our Branch. In his letter, Mr. Bova alleged that our Branch is “an organization financially supporting their opponents.” This is false. In fact, our Branch is not supporting any candidate for office, financially or otherwise. Like the national NAACP under whose organizational umbrella we fall, we are a 501(c)4 non-profit civic organization operating exclusively for the promotion of social welfare as defined by the Internal Revenue Service.
In May 2020, NAACP President Derrick Johnson made our organization’s non-partisan character very clear in a statement issued in response to then-Vice President Joe Biden’s mistaken claim that the NAACP had endorsed his candidacy. It had not.
“The NAACP is a non-partisan organization and does not endorse candidates for political office at any level,” proclaimed President Johnson. “Persons affiliated with the NAACP at the national, state, and local levels are free to make candidate endorsements in a personal capacity,” he wrote, “but they do not reflect support by the NAACP as an organization.” (see https://naacp.org/articles/naacp-statement-endorsement-comment-former-vice-president-joe-biden)
We all, as citizens, wear multiple hats. We belong to or support churches, synagogues, mosques, clubs, associations, teams, political parties, and more. If we take these five candidates’ reasoning to its logical conclusion, the only acceptable moderator for a candidate forum such as this would be an unregistered non-voter or a registered independent who has never been active in the public sphere, and has never donated to or otherwise supported any political party’s candidate. Such restrictive requirements would likely sound the death knell for candidate forums such as the one WLBR-AM 1270 has hosted for many years.
Finally, we take this opportunity to underscore the long and rich history of the NAACP and the crucial role it has played in securing fundamental civil rights for all Americans. Most prominent was the NAACP’s pivotal role in bringing the Brown v. Board of Education case to the Supreme Court, whose unanimous 1954 decision overturning Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) marked the beginning of the end for the national nightmare of Jim Crow. Since its founding in 1909, the NAACP has served as our nation’s premier civil rights organization, and our Branch is proud to be continuing in that long and storied tradition.
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Press release on 3rd frederick douglass community oration
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 20, 2022
Third Annual Frederick Douglass Community Oration on LVC Campus Monday, July 4
The Lebanon County Branch of the NAACP is pleased to announce the Third Annual Frederick Douglass Community Oration of the famed abolitionist’s historic 1852 speech, “What To the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”
This collaborative public oration, to be delivered by 40-some community members over the course of around 90 minutes, will be held under the shade of a copse of trees on the academic quad on the campus of Lebanon Valley College in Annville on Monday, July 4 starting at 12 noon. Audience members, like the community orators, are invited to arrive between 11:00 and 11:30 a.m. so there is ample time for casual conversation before the event begins. The event is free and open to the public.
The date of the event—July 4, 2022—will be one day shy of the 170th anniversary of the first time Frederick Douglass delivered his searing speech in Rochester, NY, on the horrific realities of racialized slavery in America.
“Our Frederick Douglass Community Oration is but one element in our ongoing efforts to build and sustain an antiracist movement here in Lebanon County and South Central Pennsylvania,” said Pastor Tony Fields, President of the Lebanon County Branch of the NAACP. “We as a nation have a solemn obligation to remember our shared history, and so we are grateful to all of our community orators, and to Lebanon Valley College for hosting this solemn and celebratory act of public remembrance.”
As in past years, the event will be video recorded. A video of last year's event can be found at https://youtu.be/du7YfbVqyAw. A few bottles of water will be made available, but it is recommended that audience members bring their own water and snacks. Security will be provided by LVC's Public Safety in collaboration with Annville Police. Ample free parking can be found nearby on N. College Ave. and Walnut St. and in the municipal lot behind the Annville Town Hall at 36 N. Lancaster St.
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Contact: NAACP Branch 26AA President Tony Fields or Secretary Michael Schroeder, at naacp.leb.co.pa@gmail-dot-com
Press release on Remembering the Victims of Buffalo, NY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 20, 2022
Remembering the Victims of the Buffalo Race Massacre and Condemning White Supremacy: Protest & Rally in Annville, 4-5 p.m. Wed. May 25
The Lebanon County Branch of the NAACP and the Annville Town Square Protesters for Racial Justice have announced a joint protest action and rally from 4-5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 25 in the Annville, PA, Town Square to mourn and remember the victims of the Buffalo Race Massacre and to condemn White supremacy and the poisonous “Great Replacement Theory” that inspired the gunman and that is being promoted by so many extremist right-wing pundits and politicians.
The date of Wednesday’s protest and rally will also mark the two-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police – and the 163rd protest action held by the Annville Town Square Protester for Racial Justice since they began their antiracist protests in early June 2020 in the wake George Floyd’s murder.
In preparation for Wednesday’s protest and rally, a sign-making gathering is being held from 1-3 p.m. on Sunday, May 22 at a private residence on Annville’s west side; please email us for the address, at naacp.leb.co.pa@gmail-dot-com. We’ll have everything for making protest signs – cardboard, markers, paints, paintbrushes. All you’ll need to bring are your fresh ideas and creative energy.
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Contact: NAACP Branch 26AA President Tony Fields or Secretary Michael Schroeder, at naacp.leb.co.pa@gmail-dot-com
Press release on complaint filed against leb. Co. d.a. graf
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEBRUARY 4, 2022
Lebanon County NAACP Files Ethics Complaint against County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf
The Lebanon County Branch 26AA of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has filed a complaint with the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania against Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf, alleging that she has repeatedly violated the Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct and the canons of ethics that apply to her as a county district attorney.
The complaint focuses on what it calls “a clear conflict of interest and appearance of impropriety” in the discharge of District Attorney Graf’s professional responsibilities, most notably in her office’s investigation of the March 16, 2020 killing of unarmed Lebanon County resident Charity Thome by State Trooper Jay Splain in the early morning hours along a rural road near Myerstown.
“Following the review of the case information by both our criminal justice working group and the executive committee of our Branch, the NAACP filed a complaint regarding the investigative actions and processes executed by the Lebanon County District Attorney,” stated NAACP 26AA President Tony Fields. “Lebanon County residents, especially those living with mental health issues and struggling with addiction, have a right to public service that is fair, impartial, aligned with departmental protocol, and, most importantly, non-lethal.”
About one in four Lebanon County adults struggles with mental health issues. The New York Times article of December 30, 2022 outlined four lethal incidents related to the officer investigated by District Attorney Graf in spring 2020. All of the incidents involved individuals with documented mental health or addiction issues (see Kim Barker, Steve Eder and David D. Kirkpatrick, “After 4 Killings, ‘Officer of the Year’ Is Still on the Job,” New York Times, Dec. 30, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/30/us/pennsylvania-trooper-jay-splain-investigation.html).
“A thorough, unbiased investigation of the use of lethal force is in the best interest of the public and the of the officers involved,” said Fields. “Police officers also face job-related risks, and Lebanon County residents owe it to our police force to reinforce systems and protocols that are accountable and focused on public safety."
People with untreated mental health issues are 16 times more likely to be killed in police encounters according to a study released in 2021 by the Treatment Advocacy Center (see https://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/evidence-and-research/studies). Additionally, studies suggest that police officers experience higher than average rates of suicidality (American Police Officers Alliance, 2019, at https://americanpoliceofficersalliance.com/mental-health-statistics-police-officers/). Police Officers are at a higher risk of suicide than any other profession (The Addiction Center, 2019, at https://www.addictioncenter.com/news/2019/09/police-at-highest-risk-for-suicide-than-any-profession/). Lethal use of force is just one of many job-related traumas faced by police officers that can have a lasting impact on mental health.
“It is our hope that opening a complaint regarding the systems and processes related to investigating lethal use of force will help to build a stronger, safer community,” said Lori Burrus, NAACP Executive Committee member and representative on the Lebanon County Criminal Justice Advisory Board. “I am concerned for public safety, but also for the impact on job performance and mental health outcomes for the officers involved in these incidents.”
The mission of the Lebanon County NAACP is to ensure political, educational, social, and economic equality of all citizens by promoting constitutional rights, civic engagement, democratic processes, and clear accessible information related to discrimination and racial bias.
Lebanon County residents who are interested in learning more, or enlisting the aid of the NAACP in addressing civil rights violations, are invited to visit https://lebanonnaacp.org/. The full complaint is included with this press release.
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Contact: NAACP Branch 26AA President Tony Fields, at naacp.leb.co.pa@gmail.com
NOTE: The full complaint against D.A. Graf as submitted to the Disciplinary Board of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is accessible immediately below as a Word document, along with the press release reproduced above.
