Project 21: Press Releases

A pilot program injecting controversial "Ebonics" slang into the curriculum of two San Bernardino, California public schools would harm students more than help them, say members of the black leadership network Project 21. The plan to introduce Ebonics into the classroom is part of the San Bernardino City Unified School District's Students Accumulating New Knowledge Optimizing Future Accomplishment (SANKOFA) Initiative. The goal of the program is to improve the academic performance of black students by keeping them interested in their studies. Sankofa, a word from the Akan language of present-day Ghana, is translated as "We must go back and reclaim ...

The selection of Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. is being commended by members of the black leadership network Project 21. "Judge Roberts is a superb pick for the Supreme Court," said Project 21 member Peter Kirsanow. "His integrity, intellect and judgment are unassailable." Project 21 member Lisa Fritsch added: "In selecting Judge Roberts, President Bush has proven once again that polls and ad campaigns are not driving his decisions. This judge is a respected representative of sound and balanced jurisprudence." Project 21 members hope the Senate will avoid the political wrangling that has plagued judicial nominations over the past few ...

Members of the black leadership network Project 21 are demanding that Toyota executives apologize for subsidizing a speech by the Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan at the 2005 annual conference of Reverend Jesse Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and Citizenship Education Fund. Project 21 members also ask Toyota to sever any financial ties to Minister Farrakhan, Reverend Jackson and Jackson's groups. The National Legal and Policy Center is reporting that Toyota sponsored a luncheon titled "Incarceration or Education: The Choice is Yours," at which Farrakhan spoke, in Chicago on June 16. Toyota was listed a platinum sponsor of the conference, a level ...

With tonight's announcement of a Supreme Court nominee, members of the black leadership network Project 21 implore senators to engage in a quick and fair confirmation process that is free of partisanship and political power-plays. "The President has chosen. It is now prudent that this nominee be accorded fair and timely proceedings that are free of the rancorous hyperbole Americans have witnessed in the Senate over the past few years," said Project 21 member Mychal Massie. "This process is not about left or right, but rather about the nominee's willingness to support and defend the Constitution. Let us hope that ...

Today's announcement of a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court provides President George W. Bush with an important duty that has the potential to affect judicial decision-making for generations to come. Members of the black leadership network Project 21 are calling upon the President to ensure that all nominees under consideration will preserve and protect the U.S Constitution. Peter Kirsanow, a Project 21 member and commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, said: "I'm confident that the President will nominate someone with integrity and wisdom who understands that the proper role of a Supreme Court justice is to interpret ...

With the release of startling new government figures on HIV and AIDS showing African-Americans are the "most severely impacted" community, members of the black leadership network Project 21 are repeating a call to black Americans to be more conscious of their behavior as a way to decrease their risk of contracting the deadly disease. "AIDS activists would have us believe that catching HIV can happen to anybody at any time. This is only true if we carelessly opt to have promiscuous, unprotected and random sex with multiple partners or choose to make illegal drugs part of our life. The myth ...

On June 13, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution by a voice vote apologizing to the victims, survivors and descendent of racist lynchings that occurred between 1882 and 1968. The first anti-lynching legislation was introduced 105 years ago. Such legislation passed the U.S. House of Representatives on three occasions, and was championed by presidents and buoyed by overwhelming public opinion. No anti-lynching bill, however, could pass in the Senate due to filibusters led by Southern senators. A group called the Committee for a Formal Apology lobbied the Senate for the resolution, and is also pushing for a formal apology for ...

Activists from the black leadership network Project 21 are praising Senate leaders for their efforts to secure an up-or-down vote on the nomination of California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown for a seat on the federal Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, along with votes on other judicial nominees. While they have not formally taken a position on Justice Brown's confirmation, Project 21 members consider Brown an excellent judge. "The straight up-or-down vote on Justice Brown's nomination is humiliatingly long overdue," said Project 21 member Mychal Massie. "Janice Rogers Brown epitomizes the greatness of America. Unlike ...

Activists from the black leadership network Project 21 are praising Senate leaders for their efforts to secure an up-or-down vote on the nomination of Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen for a seat on the federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, along with other judicial nominees. While they have not formally taken a position on Justice Brown's confirmation, Project 21 members consider her an excellent judge. "Priscilla Owen is one of the finest jurists in the country," said Project 21 member Mychal Massie. "The fact that she has been forced to endure more than four years of public humiliation and ...

Black activists from the Project 21 leadership network applaud President George W. Bush's calls to reform Social Security by allowing people to directly control a portion of their payroll taxes and be able to transfer these funds to others upon their death. In 2017, Social Security trustees expect the funds being paid out of the program will surpass funds paid into it. The program is expected to go bankrupt due to this trend in 2037. In a April 28 press conference, President Bush reiterated his call for allowing younger workers to be able to invest and control a portion of ...

A proposal offered by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) to preserve robust debate over judicial nominees is being praised by members of the Project 21 black leadership network. Over the past two years, procedural delays have prevented judicial nominees from receiving votes in the full Senate. Two nominees, Patricia Owen and Terrence Boyle, still await a vote 1,453 days after they were first nominated. Holds and filibusters have helped prolong the nomination of three nominees to the understaffed 6th Circuit Court of Appeals for 1,271 days. Frist proposed a plan to expedite nominations through the Senate Judiciary Committee and ...

Janice Rogers Brown, an associate justice on the California Supreme Court who has been nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, is scheduled for a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 21. Members of the black leadership network Project 21 are calling on the Senate to judge her record based solely on her competence. "The overriding concern liberals say they have about Janice Rogers Brown is the unsubstantiated claim that she is out of the mainstream," notes Project 21 member Donald Scoggins. "If you look at her life and her achievements, she is well ...

Janice Rogers Brown, nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, was approved in the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 21 by a 10-8 party-line vote. Senate liberals, however, imply resumed filibusters will keep her and other nominees from receiving a vote in the full Senate. Members of the black leadership network Project 21 demand a halt to such delaying tactics. "The Senate has a constitutional duty to move forward with fair consideration of judicial appointees," said Project 21 member Darryn "Dutch" Martin. "If they resume the stalling that keeps long-standing judicial vacancies open, they don't deserve ...

Members of the black leadership organization Project 21 are criticizing the NAACP for endorsing filibusters against Bush Administration judicial nominees, calling the NAACP endorsement contradictory to the group's past position, when filibusters halted the progress of civil rights bills. "For decades, the NAACP was vehemently against filibusters because they were employed to oppose and counter civil rights legislation. But the NAACP has now switched position," notes Project 21 member Michael King. "NAACP head Julian Bond has aggressively made verbal attacks on the Bush Administration. Though Bond and the NAACP leadership vociferously deny charges of partisanship, Bond's actions and the silence ...

Recent remarks by Congressman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) calling President George W. Bush's proposal to reform the nation's ailing Social Security system "fraud" and its promotion an "impeachable offense" are condemned by members of the black leadership network Project 21. Reform such as personal retirement accounts (PRAs), counter Project 21 members, will allow black Americans to own secure retirement wealth through the Social Security system that they can transfer to their heirs. "Charlie Rangel is hyperventilating. He should sit down and breathe slowly with a paper sack over his face," said Project 21 member Deroy Murdock. "President Bush is not 'taking ...

In the wake of the hurtful and racially-insensitive comments made by incoming Senate minority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) about U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, members of the black leadership network Project 21 are demanding the liberal senator immediately apologize. They further demand Senate liberals pledge to allow fair and timely hearings and votes on judicial nominees regardless of their race and political beliefs. "Senator Reid has revealed the intolerance found on the political left for minorities who do not reside on their ideological plantation," said Project 21 member Wendell Talley. "Justice Thomas has been in the public eye ...

Members of the Project 21 black leadership network are applauding recent appointments to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights made by President George W. Bush. President Bush selected Gerald A. Reynolds, a former civil rights official with the U.S. Department of Education, and Ashley Taylor, a former deputy attorney general for the state of Virginia, to replace Commission chairman Mary Frances Berry and vice chairman Cruz Reynoso whose terms expired in early December. Reynolds will serve as the Commission's new chairman, and serving commissioner Abigail Thernstrom will become the new vice chairman. Kenneth Marcus, another former civil rights official at ...

President Bush's nomination of Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state has resulted in harsh liberal criticism that members of the black leadership network Project 21 consider racist. Along with their condemnations of offensive commentators and cartoonists, Project 21 members also are critical of self-professed civil rights leaders who are remaining silent on current and previous racial attacks on black Bush Administration officials. Over the past few months, and peaking this week with her appointment, cartoonists have been using Dr. Rice's race as a point of ridicule. Demeaning political cartoons by Pat Oliphant and Jeff Danziger accentuate Dr. Rice's black features ...

I am here today as a representative of Project 21, the African-American leadership network of The National Center for Public Policy Research. Project 21 was formed over a decade ago when it was observed that the vast numbers of conservative African-Americans were being overlooked by the media and misrepresented by those claiming to be the leaders of the black community. There are many members of Project 21 on the panel here with me right now, and Project 21 member Mychal Massie will be speaking at the 3:30 AM press conference on faith and this judicial obstruction. As Mr. Woodson mentioned ...

Links between former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and international terrorists - including Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda - are documented on a new Internet website created by columnist Deroy Murdock, a member of the Project 21 black leadership network. Murdock, who also is a media fellow with Stanford University's Hoover Institution, created the website HUSSEINandTERROR.com based on a September 22, 2004 presentation he delivered at Hoover. It contains footnoted sources and over 60 visual images proving Hussein's support of terrorism. According to Murdock: "Saddam Hussein knew plenty about terrorism. In essence, he owned and operated a full-service general store for ...