NAACP Leader Nantambu Criticizes His Critics

Charlotte-area NAACP President Kojo Nantambu has written two letters responding to his critics. Nantambu received a lot of criticism, including here from WFAE commentator Toreka James, when he called for several groups to boycott Charlotte and labeled it a "racist bastion." He did so after CMS announced there would be school on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to make up for a snow day. In the first letter, posted by Qcitymetro.com, Nantambu says some of his critics have lied. He titled it Letter From Off The Plantation (21st Century Letter From A Birmingham Jail). "Some of our community, Negroes included, have lied and said that Dr. King would not want our children to stay out of school for any reason because he loved education. Yes, you are right; Dr. King was definitely for education. But he was against racist, separate, segregated, so-called "neighborhood school" education." You can read a report in Qcitymetro.com here. In the second letter, Nantambu lists what he says are number of disparities in the area. For example, he says minority contractors get less than 1 percent of government contracts. He also says he wants to bring attention to the proposal to reduce the number of cab companies that can pick up passengers at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. "We need to highlight Jerry Orr's attempt (Charlotte Douglass Airport) through City Council to put 144 small businesses out of business. Mr. Orr wants to replace 144 independent minority cab drivers with one major white cab company called Yellow Cab (I'm sure you've heard of it). He wants to make these men go to work for Yellow Cab, that's tantamount to making them share croppers or tenant farmers and they will never get anywhere financially, probably die owing Yellow Cab for the cabs they already own." The Charlotte Observer also reports on the letters here.