(NNPA)—Speaking at the recent conference of the Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement in Jackson, Miss., I constantly ran into questions and comments drawing comparisons to the racial harassment faced by civil workers in the 1960s and what is occurring today. Most said there was very little comparison to the intensity of the racism faced by those who attempted to vote or eat at a lunch counter, and we know that many sacrificed their lives.

Yet it was ironic that these were Congressman John Lewis’ colleagues and he and other Black members of Congress were spit at and called the ‘n’ word as they passed by some tea baggers on Capitol Hill recently.

I was privileged to attend the Annual Conference of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), the trade association for more than 200 newspapers in Black America. I was also honored to receive NNPA’s North Star Community Service Award, which is named after the militant newspaper founded by Frederick Douglass in 1847. It was a real treat to have the opportunity to meet and interact with Black writers and publishers from around the country. As a kid I can remember being a paperboy for the Pittsburgh Courier in the Hill District of the “steel city.” Every Thursday you could hear the voices of young boys hollering out “get your Pittsburgh Courrrrrrrrrier!” The few nickels and dimes I collected put some change in my pocket and enabled me to stride with a little pride.

By now I’m sure everyone knows about the 2010 Census. My question to you is do you know how important it is to fill out the form and mail it back?

Over the years we have been reluctant about the whole census process and there has been a lot of resistance to filling out the form or talking with the census takers. We have been reluctant because we thought it was the government’s way of having too much control over our lives, and they would know too much of our “business.” What we really needed was more information about the census, the reason we have a census, and how we can, and must, participate.

(NNPA)—Despite efforts to depict the so-called “tea bag protesters” as part of an independent political movement, new polling data reveal that approximately three-quarters of them are Republicans or lean toward the GOP and 77 percent of them voted for John McCain in 2008.

Those are the findings of a poll conducted by Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn.

“The Tea Party movement is mostly made up of people who consider themselves Republicans,” Pete A. Brown, assistant director of the university’s Polling Institute, said in a statement. “They are less educated but more interested in politics than the average Joe and Jane Six-Pack and are not in a traditional sense swing voters.”