NAACP: Obama Energized 'Taliban Wing' of GOP

RADFORD (The Roanoke Times) - In a speech Wednesday, NAACP Chairman Julian Bond called on defenders of civil rights to support the country's first black president as he faces what is expected to be tough second year in office.

Bond's remarks at Radford University's fourth annual celebration of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday came a day after the Democratic Party lost the late Ted Kennedy's Massachusetts Senate seat to Republican Scott Brown, and with it, the party's filibuster-proof majority.

The election puts Obama's health care overhaul in jeopardy and has caused speculation that public opinion may be turning against the president.

While "black faces in high places" give reason for hope, Bond, the 70-year-old founder of the storied Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, argued that "racism is alive and well for every nonwhite American, including the president."

Obama's historic election has ironically caused complacency among some civil rights supporters, who see it is a sign that racism in America is dead.

But that same election has energized "the Taliban wing" of the Republican Party, Bond said, from anti-government groups such as the "birthers," who challenge Obama's citizenship, to "tea party" members who call for the dismantling of much of the federal government.