Two Civil Rights Movements at Republican Convention?

Published September 26, 2008

Dear Editor:

While Star Tribune reporters covered the “Stop the War on the Poor” demonstration organized by the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (“2,000 rally to ‘stop war on the poor,'” September 2), the newspaper neglected to cover another civil rights demonstration unfolding the same day at a St. Paul hotel.

There, co-chairs of the Alliance to Stop the War on the Poor–Niger Innis, national spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and Bishop Harry Jackson of High Impact Leadership Council– held their press conference. This civil rights movement declares “We must stop Jim Crow energy policies that increase the cost of energy and economically enslave those Americans least able top pay.”

Bishop Jackson and Innis plan to organize local churches and faith-based groups “to stop extreme environmental policies that drive up the cost of energy and disproportionately hurt the working poor.” They chastised members of Congress, whom they called “Punishers of the Poor,” for their support for energy policies that keep gas prices artificially high.


Ralph W. Conner ([email protected]) is the local legislation manager at The Heartland Institute.