Leaders of the Maryland chapter of the NAACP are calling on Maryland?s top elected officials to take a tougher stand against recent acts of racism in the state.
Gerald Stansbury, president of the Anne Arundel County branch of the NAACP, said top elected officials protested a Ku Klux Klan rally in Annapolis in 1998 and asked why officials didn?t do the same with this weekend?s Klan rally in Washington County.
“Why aren?t elected officials and candidates marching with us at the anti-Klan Antietam National Battlefield?” he asked.
State NAACP leaders said they are increasingly concerned about racist incidents in Maryland, particularly Saturday?s rally at the Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg.
Approximately 30 people, some in white robes and swastika armbands, demonstrated Saturday, verbally attacking immigrants,blacks and other minority groups at the battlefield.
Jenkins Odoms, president of the Maryland State Conference of the NAACP, said he was disappointed that candidates for governor, U.S. Senate, comptroller and attorney general have not publicly condemned the weekend?s rally in Sharpsburg. “Where are the voices of outrage from elected officials who want our votes?” Odoms asked.
Howard County experienced eight incidents of white supremacist vandalism this week, while last month in Anne Arundel County, an effigy of a black man with a noose around its neck was hanged from the South River Bridge in Edgewater. Stansbury said Anne Arundel County has had “scores” of racist incidents reported in the last year.
“It is important that those who would seek to represent Marylanders find the courage of their convictions and speak out against the hate crimes and hatemongers,” Stansbury said.
