At its annual meeting, the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Branch NAACP issued a statement calling for fairness in the judiciary.
The statement says:
The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Branch NAACP deplores recent actions of the Ferguson and New York Grand juries in their failures to let normal justice prevail, and also notes the failures of many other grand juries across our Country, particularly, where those with a legacy of slavery and segregation based on color and race, now generally and for too long have exhibited and accepted discrimination based on these factors.
The branch also has great concern over District Attorneys' actions, or lack thereof, in such cases since they issue the indictments, summonses and instructions to the grand jurors, and instructs them on matters to be heard by such bodies.
These are primarily elected and as such should be accountable at election time.
In our local judiciary, the Branch calls for the hiring of more Black Attorneys within our local District Attorney's office. It also notes that in the history of Hamilton County elections of County Judges, the election of judges who are Black has been nil because of the at-large system of electing Hamilton County Judges. The branch also notes that the County Commission over the years has failed to fill vacancies with Black Attorneys when the opportunity presents itself.
In view of these facts (five General Session Judges sit today with no blacks) Dr. Tommie F. Brown v. the City of Chattanooga and others in which Judge R. Allan Edgar declared that at-large voting is in violation of the Voting Rights Acts and ordered district voting seems to be appropriate in this instance and under these circumstances. The Branch calls for district voting to correct this violation of the Law.
Respectfully, James R. Mapp, President