Convention's opening speaker suggested reinstating law that kept blacks from voting - Exclusive: NAACP calls Tea Party speaker’s quip ‘outrageous, insidious’

from Raw Story Breaking News by Sahil Kapur

Convention's opening speaker suggested reinstating law that kept blacks from voting

WASHINGTON -- Former Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo may have fired up the most zealous conservatives at the first ever National Tea Party Convention, but he hasn't pleased the renowned civil rights group NAACP.

Speaking before a crowd of 600 delegates in Nashville, Tennessee, Tancredo fired away at "the cult of multiculturalism" and claimed President Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country," according to ABC News.

The historical context of Tancredo's comments is important. As the NAACP notes on its Web site, "literacy tests and poll taxes systematically denied African American people their constitutional rights" for nearly a century following the abolition of slavery in 1870.

It wasn't until 1965 when the Voting Rights Act allowed African Americans to participate in the political process.

rest at http://rawstory.com/2010/02/naacp-tancredo-remarks-outrageous-insidious-politics-denigration/