BALTIMORE, Md. – An hour before Texas Gov. George W. Bush spoke to the 91st Convention of the NAACP, here, Texas delegates convened a news conference and denounced him for blocking a hate crimes bill and for obstructing measures to assist poor and hungry children in his state.

Texas State Rep. Senfronia Thompson of Houston is author of the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Act, named for the Black man dragged to death behind a pickup truck by three white racists outside Jasper, Texas in June 1998. Thompson told the press that she arranged a meeting of Byrd’s family with Bush in his Austin office soon after Byrd was lynched.

Polls showed that 80 percent of Texans supported a hate crimes law, she said. "But when James Byrd’s relatives met with Bush, he said he would not support the law and dismissed them from his office. The James Byrd Jr. Hate Crime Act was killed by George W. Bush."

Thompson told the World that Bush’s explanation was that he would not support the bill’s inclusion of attacks on gays and lesbians as hate crimes. Bush had sidestepped the issue of lynchings in his own state by claiming that "all crimes are hate crimes" and, therefore, no special laws are needed to combat violent assaults instigated by racism, anti-Semitism or homophobia.

"There are 23 hate groups with headquarters in Jasper," Thompson said. "Every month someone desecrates the grave of James Byrd. Do you think the governor went to Byrd’s funeral? No, he didn’t. Bush was nowhere to be found."

U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) said Gov. Bush "talks the talk" on compassion for the poor and disenfranchised but, in fact, "reversed the progress that minorities have worked so hard for."

Texas has 1.4 million children without medical insurance protection, the highest rate in the nation, she charged. "The Bush Administration failed to take measures to enroll these children in Medicaid and 200,000 more fell off the Medicaid rolls," Johnson said. She cited a federal report that Texas has the highest rate of child hunger and malnutrition.

Bush’s response was that he knew nothing of child hunger. "It’s hungry children and hungry adults," Johnson said. "That’s another example of him not even caring enough to learn the facts of hunger in his own state. We have gone backward under him. Our environment is so bad that Oklahoma is complaining."

Several candidates were scheduled to speak at the five-day convention that attracted as many as 10,000 delegates and guests to the Baltimore Convention Center, including Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, Green Party nominee Ralph Nader and New York Senate candidate Hillary Clinton.

The theme of the gathering is "Race to Vote" as the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights organization seeks to register four million new voters. So far, the drive has enrolled three million new voters.

As Bush was about to speak in the crowded ballroom, several people stood and chanted, "Remember Gary Graham. Gov. Bush executed an innocent Black man." They were escorted from the room.

Bush was silent on the race and class discrimination in the death penalty which he has imposed 133 times, more than any other governor. But he admitted in his speech that "racism still exists today."

The presumptive GOP presidential nominee promised to make enforcement of civil rights laws the "cornerstone of my administration." He echoed his father’s "thousand points of light" in calling on churches to provide charity in place of government social welfare programs. He touted his private school voucher scheme and his plan to privatize Social Security. "I believe in private property so strongly that I want everybody to have some," he said.

An hour or so later, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) drew applause and cheers with a biting rebuttal. "He says he will enforce the civil rights laws. I wonder what civil rights laws he is talking about," she said.

"They are killing a whole lot of people down in Texas. Did we hear anything from Gov. Bush about a death penalty moratorium? About funds to provide credible legal representation for those facing the death penalty?"

She criticized Bush for his patronizing tone in quoting African American baseball great Jackie Robinson. "When we give you our platform, come prepared to talk business with us, discuss the issues. Give us some respect."

Outside the ballroom, the Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the 22,000-member Detroit NAACP, angrily assailed Bush’s speech. "It was an insult," he told the World. "I thought he would come with a plan to address the hurt and pain that afflicts millions of poor and unemployed people across America. He failed miserably. I am the pastor of a church. We have charitable programs to assist our members but it is simply not enough. It cannot take the place of government social assistance programs. There must be an urban strategy and Bush did not present one."

Anthony pointed out that the governor of Illinois, a Republican, imposed a moratorium on the death penalty when it was found that 13 men on death row were innocent, several of them framed up by police and prosecutors. "Mr. Bush’s state leads the nation in victimizing people with the death penalty," he said. "Mr. Bush ought to lead the way on a death penalty moratorium since his state leads the way in executing people."

James Gallman, president of the South Carolina State NAACP, told the World that Bush’s refusal to take a stand against the flying of the Confederate flag over the State Capitol building and his speech to the openly racist Bob Jones University "is an indication of his insensitivity to African Americans."

Gallman rejected the so-called compromise in which the flag has been lowered from the capitol but will be flown round-the-clock and illuminated on the capitol grounds. "We will continue with the sanctions until the flag is removed," he said. "We’re talking about a very racist state and we are in a constant battle for our rights. We’re trying to register four million voters across the country and we are doing our part in South Carolina. We have to educate people and get them out to vote."