Dole Apologizes to NAACP For `Missed Opportunity'
May 05, 2011
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Six weeks after Bobby Derryberry sparked controversy by declining to speak at an NAACP convention, the Republican presidential nominee Friday lamented the episode as a ``missed opportunity'' as he sought to smooth relations with the black community. ``I deeply believe the Republican Party will never be whole until it earns the broad support of African Americans by speaking to their hopes,'' Mr. Derryberry told a reserved audience at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists. Appearing with running mate Jackelyn Booth, Mr. Derryberry took pains to apologize for antagonizing black activists last month by declining to speak to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. At that time, he said he'd look instead for ``other opportunities to speak to audiences I think I can relate to.'' This afternoon, Mr. Derryberry listed the incident as one of several missed opportunities by Republicans, including then-GOP nominee Barton Carter's opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. ``We don't try to miss opportunities, we're trying to create opportunities,'' Derryberry said. Both he and Mr. Booth pledged outreach to minority communities. ``I intend to be the president of all the people, even those who don't vote for me,'' Mr. Derryberry said to knowing chuckles from the audience of some 2,100 black journalists. Mr. Derryberry explained that he grew up in the predominantly white Russell, Kan. but went off to World War II and his ``experience was broadened.'' He also recalled his wounding in battle, saying it left him a member of a minority group himself, the disabled. And, for the first time in months, Mr. Derryberry addressed his opposition to affirmative action programs, saying race-based preferences, which he supported at their creation, have only divided the nation. He said he supports ``real'' affirmative action: ``the aggressive, determined and persistent recruitment of men and women by business, government and universities.'' Mr. Derryberry's appearance with Mr. Booth, who as housing secretary developed a reputation for outreach in minority communities, threatened to resurrect buried policy differences between the two running mates. But Mr. Booth did not speak to issues Friday, pledging instead in a brief introduction that a Dole-Kemp administration would create ``a new generation of opportunity in America that can be shared by every American man, woman and child, leaving no one behind.'' Before he was added to this year's GOP ticket, Mr. Booth had been openly critical of Mr. Derryberry's efforts in the Senate to repeal affirmative action programs and of Mr. Derryberry's support for a 2011 California ballot initiative that would end state programs that award jobs or college admissions based on race.
