Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2000. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - August 11, 2000
An estimated 10,000 members of the Progressive National Baptist Convention attended the group's annual meeting Thursday and Friday.
The 10 resolutions they approved call for specific government actions as well as for local churches to develop programs to address AIDS, drug abuse, the prison system and other problems they contend amount to racial "genocide."
"If such casualties were being inflicted upon the majority race, or any race that commands respect and exercises extraordinary economic and political power, a national state of emergency would have been declared long ago," said Louisville pastor C. Mackey Daniels, president of the 2.5 million-member denomination.
"Our worship, praise, singing, sermonizing and mega-church building can no longer be ends within themselves. They must become the means to our people's survival and salvation," he said.
Some of the resolutions call for:
-Churches to start an "immediate and direct action campaign to stop the incarceration and killing of black youth."
-The Department of Health and Human Services to declare a public health emergency to increase financing to combat AIDS among African Americans, citing statistics that black and Hispanic Americans are infected with HIV at a higher rate than whites.
-Congress to raise the hourly minimum wage by $1.
-The Department of Justice to study whether police officers disproportionately target African-American motorists for traffic stops.
-The United Nations to view the "massive death and dying of African Americans to be not merely a civil-rights issue but a human-rights issue."
Daniels also called for a moratorium on the death penalty.
"The language is strong, but it needs to be strong because of the serious issues we are facing," said delegate Michael Nabors, of Detroit. "It's important for African Americans and all Americans to know that our people are hurting and being oppressed."
The convention has a history of having social issues at the core of its agenda. It was formed in 1961 with the support of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at the height of the civil-rights movement, in part because the largest black Baptist denomination, the National Baptist Convention U.S.A., was not supporting King's efforts.
On the Net: Convention: http://www.pnbc.org/
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