Project 21: Press Releases

Washington, DC –With President Barack Obama's announcement tonight of what he considers to be the end of combat operations in Iraq, members of the Project 21 black leadership network are speaking out about this administration's approach to operations in the Iraq theater and the debt of gratitude owed to our nation's armed forces. Coby Dillard: "As a Navy veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, no one is prouder than I to see our troops return from combat. However, President Obama made his speech tonight more about the fulfillment of a campaign promise than about the brave, honorable and victorious service of ...
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Washington, DC – Members of the Project 21 black leadership network question the sincerity behind the complaints of establishment civil rights leaders' opposition to the talk show host Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28. That date is the 47th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial. "If this place and time is so sacred, why didn't Al Sharpton or the NAACP already have a permit to use the Lincoln Memorial that day before Beck ever sought one?" asked Project 21 member Lisa Fritsch. "Beck's critics ...
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Washington, DC – In covering the Glenn Beck 'Restoring Honor' rally at the Lincoln Memorial, "the professional news media is doing what it does best: select and disseminate the news they agree with and tarnish those they don't," says Project 21's Bob Parks. Project 21 members are critical of extensive media coverage given to Rev. Walter Fauntroy, who represented the District of Columbia as a non-voting Delegate to Congress from 1971-1991 and who is a past chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, for comparing Tea Party attendees to KKK members. Some Project 21 members point to an event at the ...
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Washington, DC –Black conservatives from the Project 21 leadership network do not see much of a difference in the goals of the August 28 "Restoring Honor" rally talk show host Glenn Beck is organizing at the Lincoln Memorial and the 1963 March on Washington that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. held there 47 years earlier. Project 21 members contend that the stated purpose of the Beck event is along the same lines as the values of the 1963 rally and the alleged goals of Beck's critics. According to Beck's wesite, the rally seeks to "celebrate America by honoring our heroes, ...
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Washington, DC –Black activists with the Project 21 leadership network support the right of talk show host Glenn Beck to hold his "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 2010. Because Beck's event takes place on the anniversary and at the location of Dr. Martin Luther King's 1963 "March on Washington" rally, leaders of the establishment civil rights groups oppose the event. "It's my understanding from reading the Constitution that the First Amendment applies to all. And nothing better exemplified that than when Dr. King exercised his First Amendment rights nearly 50 years ago," said Project 21 ...
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Washington, DC - Attorneys at the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) believe new technology that makes it easier for employers to check the criminal and credit histories of applicants is also makes it harder for blacks and Hispanics to find jobs. Members of the Project 21 black leadership network fault this position, noting that it unjustly interferes with the ability of employers to build a trusted and coherent workforce. "Background and credit checks are legitimate hiring and recruitment tools," said Project 21 member Horace Cooper, a former visiting assistant professor of law at the George Mason University School of ...
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Washington, DC - The NAACP is being called upon to make good on its pledge to repudiate slurs made against Project 21 Fellow Deneen Borelli simply because she is an outspoken black female conservative. The pledge was made by NAACP Senior Vice President Hilary Shelton on the July 17 edition of "Geraldo At Large" on the Fox News Channel. During the broadcast, Borelli asked Shelton if the NAACP would issue a statement condemning those who expose her to race-based abuse: Borelli: "I'm a black, female conservative. I'm often targeted by individuals who call me all kinds of names: racist, an ...
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Tom Borelli, director of the National Center’s Free Enterprise Project, is scheduled to appear on the Fox Business Network’s “Money Rocks” program on Tuesday night.  Tom will be talking about government corruption and consumer-unfriendly relationships between government and big business. In a recent press release, for instance, Tom said about General Electric: GE’s success in getting the House panel to vote for its jet engine illustrates its dominance over the legislative process.  Under GE CEO Jeff Immelt’s leadership, GE has become an opportunistic parasite feeding on the expansion of government. The Free Enterprise Project is currently collecting signatures on a ...
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Washington, DC – Mychal Massie, chairman of the Project 21 black leadership network, will be one of the featured speakers at a press conference with other black conservatives who are rebutting claims that the tea party movement is racist. The press conference will be held August 4 at 9:30 AM at the National Press Club (529 14th Street NW, 13th floor) in Washington, D.C. Expected to join Project 21's Massie at the press conference are Lloyd Marcus of the Tea Party Express, Ambassador Alan Keyes, Dr. Timothy Johnson of the Frederick Douglass Foundation and Frantz Kebreau of the National Association ...
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Washington, DC - A bombshell accusation made from the left against fired U.S. Department of Agriculture employee Shirley Sherrod regarding alleged grossly improper labor practices against black farm workers in the 1970s is causing members of the Project 21 black leadership network to speak out. "There has been a mighty effort by liberals to present Shirley Sherrod as a victim -- even a saint-like figure. However, after revelations that her husband, Charles, is an anti-white bigot and that she adheres to class warfare politics, it's now being alleged that Ms. Sherrod presided over the crass exploitation of poor black workers ...
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Washington, D.C. – Members of the Project 21 black leadership group are condemning the left's false use of the accusation "racist" as a political tactic, saying they recognize the strategy from the teaching of left-wing organizer Saul Alinsky. Former U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Chairman Mary Frances Berry, a long-time prominent liberal activist, has admitted in an interview with Politico that the left is trying to smear the tea party movement as "racist" for strategic reasons, not out of genuine concern that the movement is itself racist. Berry called the tactic an "effective strategy" and chose not to denounce it ...
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Washington, D.C. – Calling General Electric an "opportunistic parasite feeding on the expansion of government," activists with the Free Enterprise Project of the National Center for Public Policy Research are calling on the public to sign a petition calling on GE CEO Jeff Immelt to resign. The petition can be found at www.bigbusinesswatch.org. On Tuesday, the House Defense Appropriations Committee in an 11-5 vote approved $450 million earmark for a backup engine designed by General Electric and Rolls-Royce for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The jet engine funding was part of the $681.8 billion spending bill approved by the committee ...
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Washington, D.C. - Project 21 Fellow Deneen Borelli received a pledge on national television from an NAACP senior vice president that the NAACP will issue a statement repudiating racist statements made against her because she is an outspoken black conservative. On the July 17 edition of "Geraldo At Large" on the Fox News Channel, Borelli appeared on a panel discussion about race and politics with NAACP senior vice president Hilary Shelton. During the discussion, Borelli asked Shelton if the NAACP would issue a statement condemning those who expose her to race-based abuse because she is an outspoken black female with ...
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Washington, DC –In appearances on the Fox News Channel this week, NAACP executive Hilary Shelton claimed he attended a major tea party event despite having said three days before that he had not attended a tea party, was “afraid” to go to a tea party rally and had only watched media reports about them. “Did Hilary Shelton lie to me?” asked Deneen Borelli, full-time fellow with the Project 21 black leadership network. “If he can’t give a simple, straightforward answer about whether he has been to a tea party, that certainly calls the truthfulness of his other claims about the ...
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Washington, D.C. -- After seven months of silence, and with controversy growing by the day, the chairman of the Project 21 black leadership network sent President Barack Obama a second certified letter asking for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the Justice Department’s questionable handling of its voter intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party. Project 21 Chairman Mychal Massie wrote a letter to President Obama on December 4, 2009 asking for a special prosecutor that continues to remain unanswered. In his second certified letter to President Obama, dated July 8, 2010, Massie wrote: "During ...
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Washington, DC – As the NAACP plans to use their group's prestige to bash the tea party movement, members of the Project 21 black leadership network are urging delegates at the NAACP's national convention not to turn the NAACP into a pawn for progressive political bosses. "As a frequent speaker at tea party rallies around the country, I can assure the NAACP that the tea party movement's concerns are about President Obama's policies and not his race," said Project 21 fellow Deneen Borelli. "I'm deeply concerned that the NAACP is being used as a political tool to do the dirty ...
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Washington, D.C. — Lawyers for the Obama Administration recently filed a lawsuit to prohibit the enforcement of Arizona's new immigration law. In its filing, the federal government says it is currently targeting "dangerous aliens" and that Arizona's attempt to enforce the full scope of existing federal laws against illegal immigration will — in the words of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder — "only create more problems that it solves." Members of the Project 21 black leadership network are speaking out about this controversial legal move by the Obama Administration. "In suing the State of Arizona over its new immigration law, ...
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Washington, D.C. — On the occasion of “Juneteenth” — the oldest and most recognized annual commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States — members of the Project 21 black leadership network assert the civil rights-themed holiday should be used to reflect on past struggles for freedom and how to expand and protect hard-won liberties and opportunities at a time when they may be on the wane. Project 21 members have commemorated Juneteenth since 1999, urging black Americans to use the observance of Juneteenth to embrace their inherent talents and strengthen ties with family and community. “Juneteenth is ...
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Washington, DC - Members of the Project 21 black leadership network are speaking out about President Barack Obama's nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court. Mychal Massie: "After all of the division he has foisted upon America in his short tenure, Obama had a perfect opportunity to show he could be conciliatory and moderate. With the nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court, Obama failed miserably. Obama condemned his nominee, his colleagues in Congress and himself to a long, hot and bitter summer in which the full radicalism of his agenda will be on ...
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Washington, D.C.: Deneen Borelli, full-time fellow with the Project 21 black leadership network and frequent speaker at tea party rallies, says Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN)'s recent comparison of tea party rally participants to members of the Ku Klux Klan is baseless. What's more, Project 21's Borelli notes, Cohen should know better, as he himself suffered similar charges during his last primary election campaign. Borelli said:  "Representative Cohen's comments seem to be the norm these days in the effort to dispatch anyone opposing the progressives' big-government agenda.  The goal of partisans such as Cohen is obviously to demonize and discredit ordinary ...
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