'It's not a boycott:' NAACP warns the nation about traveling in Missouri
Gregory J. Holman
NAACP's national delegates Wednesday voted to issue a "travel advisory" stating that people of color, women, LGBT people and people with disabilities should "travel with extreme caution" while in Missouri because "they may not be safe," according to the text of the resolution signed by top NAACP officials.
"It is not a boycott," said Marla Marantz, a member of Springfield's unit of the NAACP, who helped draft a version of the advisory.
Rather, said Cheryl Clay, Springfield's NAACP president, it's a warning and a response to recent legislation.
"Our ongoing issues of racial profiling, discrimination, harassment and excess violence towards people of color have been further exacerbated by the passage and signing of (Senate Bill) 43," Clay said in a statement emailed to the News-Leader.
The bill, which Gov. Eric Greitens signed June 30, modifies the Missouri Human Rights Act to make it more difficult to prove discrimination in housing and the workplace in courts of law.
It "rolls back civil rights protections for employees and whistleblowers," Clay said.
She added, "It makes it nearly impossible to file and win a discrimination lawsuit."
Earlier this year, the bill prompted strife between Missouri's NAACP unit and some state legislators.
During committee testimony on the House version of the bill, the committee chair shut off the microphone being used by Nimrod "Rod" Chapel, Missouri NAACP president, after he characterized the bill as "nothing but Jim Crow," the News-Leader reported Feb. 13.
Chapel later requested a meeting with Greitens.
The News-Leader reached out to a spokesman for Greitens seeking comment but has not yet received a response.
The News-Leader also reached out to Chapel and the national headquarters of the NAACP but has not yet received a response.
Chapel told the Associated Press Thursday that the advisory was adopted on the statewide level in June. He said the NAACP's national board will decide whether to ratify the advisory in October.
The travel advisory denounces the Show-Me State on a number of counts going back to the Missouri Compromise of 1819, in which the U.S. Congress admitted Missouri into the Union as a "slave state."
Among the advocacy group's other accusations were the following:
- "Racial and ethnic disparities in Education, Health, Economic Empowerment, and Criminal Justice"
- A "long history" of "violent and dehumanizing" racial discrimination and harassment
- Racially charged incidents at the University of Missouri in Columbia in recent years
- The shooting of two men from India last year, one of whom later died, because a white patron in a bar thought they were Iranian Muslims — an incident which took place in Olathe, Kansas, not Missouri.
- Comments made in May by a lawmaker on the House floor asserting a "distinction between homosexuality and just being a human being"
The NAACP also criticized Missouri for data released May 31 by Attorney General Josh Hawley's office showing that African-American drivers were 75 percent more likely to be pulled over by law enforcement than white drivers during 2016.
In Springfield, the data show, there were 26,159 stops in 2016. Of those, 22,497 involved white people, approximately on par with the white proportion of the city population.
There were 2,597 stops involving African-Americans, about 10 percent of the total stops.
But African-Americans make up only 3.75 percent of Springfield residents, according to the attorney general's data.
Clay said the Springfield NAACP unit has been working closely with Springfield Police Chief Paul Williams.
"We as a city need to recognize that we have to be able to attract and keep quality officers," she said in her statement.
"Not all the communities have the desire or the will to do the right thing for people in their community," she added. "Thus, this is why Missouri has earned the travel advisory for the whole state."
The News-Leader reached out to Williams, who was busy with new officer training Friday afternoon, said police spokeswoman Lisa Cox.
In 2016, Williams told the News-Leader that the attorney general's annual report provides numbers that are a "starting point" to solving racial issues with police stops.
A disparity does not necessarily mean discrimination occurred, he said at the time.
He said the police department holds anti-bias training sessions every few years and that department leaders review individual officers' track records. They hold meetings with police officers who pull over a disparate proportion of minority drivers.
Springfield-based experts on issues surrounding diversity and political communication said that the NAACP's travel advisory is unlikely to bite Missouri's economy with the type of consequences North Carolina faced after it passed a so-called "bathroom bill" in 2016.
That bill forced anyone at a government-run facility in North Carolina to use restrooms and locker rooms matching the gender listed on their birth certificate.
The state soon faced international backlash. Some businesses exited North Carolina. Some sporting events and concerts were canceled.
Instead, local experts said, the NAACP resolution on Missouri is mainly a way to focus public attention on race relations.
"I don't know if it will be effective," said Eric Morris, a Missouri State University professor and expert in political communication and debate. "But if its primary goal is to draw attention to the situation, it may be effective."
"I think it's really harkening back to the legacy of the Green Book," Morris said, referring to a series of guidebooks widely used during the 1950s to inform African-American travelers where they could find safe lodging and what places to avoid when going through segregated parts of the United States.
"(The NAACP travel advisory) is drawing attention to the idea that we seem to be moving backwards," he said, citing what Morris perceives as an erosion of American taboos against overt racism.
The passing of SB 43 "seems to suggest tolerance for racial behavior that was considered to be taboo just a few years ago, by at least most people," Morris said.
Morris said the change is partly driven by the contentious national election last year, partly through backlash against the Black Lives Matter movement formed in the wake of unrest in Ferguson.
"You also had people aggressively celebrating the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman," Morris said, referring to the death of an African-American 17-year-old in 2012. Zimmerman, who shot Martin, was acquitted by a jury.
Wes Pratt, MSU's chief diversity officer, also said the travel advisory draws attention to cross-cultural issues. He said that these problems aren't limited to Missouri.
"It's just another clarion call that we need to be intentional about addressing issues of race and difference not only in our state, but in America," Pratt said.
"All of us need to be about the business of inclusion and diversity," he said, "with fairness, justice and equity throughout all we do. And unfortunately, on a national, state and sometimes on a local level, that doesn't always appear to be the case."
Related:AG's report: Black drivers more likely to be pulled over in Missouri
Lawmaker cuts off NAACP president during hearing on employment discrimination bill