Washington – President Bush, addressing the NAACP after skipping its convention for five years, said Thursday that he knows racism exists in America and that many black voters distrust his Republican Party.
He pledged to improve the GOP’s rocky relations with blacks and work with the NAACP’s new leader to achieve common goals.
“I understand that racism still lingers in America,” Bush told more than 2,200 people at the annual gathering of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “It’s a lot easier to change a law than to change a human heart. And I understand that many African-Americans distrust my political party.”
That line generated boisterous applause and cheers from the audience, which generally gave the president a polite, reserved reception.
“I consider it a tragedy that the party of Abraham Lincoln let go of its historical ties with the African-American community,” Bush said. “For too long, my party wrote off the African-American vote, and many African- Americans wrote off the Republican Party.”
Most of his talk generated a smattering of applause. At other times, the audience groaned, such as when Bush said his family is committed to civil rights. People booed sharply when he praised charter schools. Two men were hustled out by Secret Service agents for heckling Bush about the Iraq war.
But many stood and clapped when he urged the Senate to renew the Voting Rights Act, passed in the 1960s to end racist voting practices, such as requiring poll taxes and literacy tests. The Senate passed the bill Thursday and sent it to the White House.
While the audience was cordial, some expressed dismay that Bush did not offer more substantive remarks about education and the economy.
“There was an amazing gap between the aspirations of his speech and the policy behind it,” said Barbara Arnwine of the Washington-based Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
The president’s relations with the NAACP have improved under the leadership of its current president, Bruce Gordon, a former executive for Verizon. Gordon has met with Bush three times in the year that he has headed the civil rights group.
The feud between Bush and the NAACP started in the 2000 presidential race when the NAACP ran television commercials featuring the daughter of James Byrd, a black Texan who was dragged to death behind a pickup truck, criticizing Bush’s refusal as Texas governor to sign state hate-crime legislation.
The NAACP later charged that Republicans in Florida stole the 2000 election by intimidating black voters and turning some away from the polls.
The Washington Post contributed to this report.
