Members of the Broadband Opportunity Coalition: How the NAACP is Promoting Broadband Adoption
This article was cross-posted from the Broadband & Social Justice Blog.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is working to bring broadband to homes in the African-American community and beyond. For over 100 years, this dynamic civil rights organization has worked for equality for people of color nationwide. Recently, the NAACP, in partnership with other organizations, has increased efforts to promote broadband deployment and adoption in African-American homes.
The thought of civil rights often brings to mind images of historic marches and boycotts. A generation ago, such undertakings brought attention to unequal treatment, encouraging action among those who could work to promote equality.
In the age of information, inequality doesn't look the same as it did in the 20th century. Today's civil rights challenges include digital inequality.
A study by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies found that high-speed Internet, commonly referred to as broadband, is enjoyed in 75 percent of homes nationwide, 69 percent of which are white, but only 59 percent of which are African-American. The NAACP is working to increase these numbers by promoting digital equality, which is often called the civil rights issue of the 21st century.
Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest and largest grass-roots civil rights organization, with over a half-million members and supporters throughout the United States and the world. Today, the NAACP promotes civil rights nationwide, with the belief that all citizens "have the right to participate in our democracy regardless of social or economic status. Our policies establish robust access to broadband Internet as an extension of this right."
Tools for education, jobs, and even civic engagement have moved online, making the old way of doing business inefficient at best and unsuccessful at its worst. This is where the NAACP, in conjunction with the Broadband Opportunities Coalition (BBOC) and One Economy, is working today.
The BBOC is a historic alliance of civil rights groups that have joined with One Economy Corp., a non-profit technology firm, to expand broadband adoption in underserved communities. The BBOC includes organizations serving African-American, Asian, and Hispanic communities as well.
In April 2010, the BBOC and One Economy were awarded $28.5 million in federal stimulus funds from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's (NTIA) Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP). The BTOP program was designed to increase broadband adoption in communities with low broadband use.
The NAACP recognizes the importance of bringing these communities online through broadband. "Empowering our communities means providing them with the best tools we have to offer," said Hilary O. Shelton, Washington bureau director and vice president for advocacy for the NAACP, upon announcement of BTOP funds. "We are extending and expanding technology to reach our constituents, meeting them where they are in life, and creating lasting networks that will ensure economic success into the future."
The NAACP knows that broadband enhances the ability of communities of color to engage in their traditional civic participation roles and more. By encouraging broadband use in the home, the NAACP promotes opportunities to close not only the digital divide, but the gaps in education, employment, and health care as well.
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