HUD Secretary Booed At Black Baptist Convention

By JANET McCONNAUGHEYAssociated Press Writer NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Members of the nation’s largest black church group booed U.S. Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson when he said during a speech last Thursday that the Republican Party is committed to helping blacks. Jackson, who is black, appeared at the annual meeting of the National Baptist Convention USA a few hours before Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry was scheduled to appear. A few of the men in dark suits and women in bright dresses, most of them middle-aged or elderly, laughed derisively at Jackson’s comment. Then a quiet chorus of boos started, and went on about a minute. When it showed no signs of ending, the parliamentarian, Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge Wendell Griffen, stepped to the podium. “My brothers and my sisters, let us allow ourselves to be the people of dignity that we are,” he said. “We need not agree,” he continued, to scattered, quiet amens. “But we need not be disagreeable.” The same people said amen again. Jackson spoke only briefly after that. He did not cut his speech short, he told The Associated Press. He said he had expected boos. “I am pleasantly pleased that I didn’t get more,” he said. “I have spoken in churches where I got called names.” The National Baptist Convention USA, based in Nashville, Tenn., has 7.5 million members.