NAACP Ruins Their Own Reputation

NAACP Executive Caught on Tape Lying About Tea Party Attendance

If the NAACP Will Lie About This, What Else Might Its Leadership Be Lying About?

Washington, D.C. - In appearances on the Fox News Channel this week, NAACP executive Hilary Shelton claimed he attended a major tea party event despite having said three days before that he had not attended a tea party, was "afraid" to go to a tea party rally and had only watched media reports about them.

"Did Hilary Shelton lie to me?" asked Deneen Borelli, full-time fellow with the Project 21 black leadership network. "If he can't give a simple, straightforward answer about whether he has been to a tea party, that certainly calls the truthfulness of his other claims about the tea party movement into question."

On the July 16 edition of "America's Newsroom" on the Fox News Channel, Borelli and Shelton — the NAACP's senior vice president for advocacy — debated the merits of the NAACP's resolution decrying alleged instances of racism at tea party events. In this debate, Shelton claimed to have attended the tea party rally at the U.S. Capitol on the weekend of the House of Representative's vote on health care:

Borelli: "Have you been to a tea party?"

Shelton: "I was. As a matter of fact I was on Capitol Hill at that tea party rally "

However, on the July 13 edition of "America Live," he had a different answer when asked the same question by Phil Dennis of the Dallas Tea Party:

Dennis: "Have you been to a tea party event?"

Shelton: "I have watched you on TV. I'm afraid to go I have not."

Which is it?

"The increasing politicization of the NAACP is putting the reputation of this venerable civil rights institution at risk. For it to be allowed to be used as a weapon to attack the tea party movement calls its credibility into question, and Hilary Shelton telling two tales of his interactions with the tea party is troubling," added Borelli. "I would suggest he take the time to read the tea party's Contract from America and attend a tea party rally — for the first or second time — with an open mind."

Video of both interviews can be seen at http://tw0.us/Jho.

Borelli has a statement about the NAACP's racism allegations at theBigGovernment.com website at http://tw0.us/Jhh and another at the FoxNews.com website at http://tw0.us/Jhi , has appeared repeatedly on the Fox News Channel to discuss the issue (clips at theSunnyDayAmerica YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/SunnyDayAmerica), and joined in a press release condemning the NAACP allegations with other members of Project 21 in a press release at http://tw0.us/Jhk and in a series of statements atBigGovernment.com.

Project 21, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research, has been a leading voice of the African-American community since 1992. For more information about the history of Project 21, visit the Project 21 website.