Nigerian Times

Senator Barack Obama An Historic Day Senator Obama has accomplished an incredible first for the African-American community, and for the United States. Barack Obama is the first African American to be nominated for President on a major party ticket. This historic event shows just how far this country has come to healing the racial divides that have plagued our history as a nation. But along the way the campaign provided some painful reminders of just how much further we have to go to achieve true equality for all Americans. This is a day that should make us all proud, and then it should make us redouble our efforts to protect those rights that many have given their lives to secure. And for 100 years, that's exactly what the NAACP has done. As a bipartisan, 501 C3 organization we don't get involved directly with candidates. What we do, I think better than any other organization, is organize the voting efforts of the African American community. This year the NAACP is focused o...

Dear Orikinla, On Friday afternoon, just hours after the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that his sentence amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, Genarlow Wilson was released from prison. In 2005, Genarlow Wilson, a 17-year-old star athlete and top student, was convicted of aggravated child molestation for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old classmate. The NAACP has been involved in the Wilson case since 2003, when the youth was initially charged with sex-attack, working with both the Georgia legislature and the judicial system to free Genarlow. He had been incarcerated for almost three years of a ten-year sentence, even though only months after his conviction, a "Romeo and Juliet" law was passed that would have had a maximum allowable sentence of 12 months. Genarlow remained incarcerated until Friday in spite of June decision by a Monroe County Superior Court judge to void the original sentence on constitutional grounds and reduce it to one year. Cases like Genarl...