NAACP President Writes President, Requests Meeting to Discuss African-American Issues

NAACP President and Chief Executive Officer Kweisi Mfume has written a letter to President Bush requesting a meeting to “put aside past differences” and to discuss issues important to African-Americans. Bush has not yet replied to Mfume's request.

''Mr. Bush has now distinguished himself as the first president since Warren Harding (1920-1923) who has not met with the NAACP. So, we've got a 95-year history and a president that's prepared to take us back to the days of Jim Crow segregation and dominance, an era where dialog is required, not distance," Mfume said after President Bush declined to address the NAACP’s annual convention last summer for the fourth straight year.