that there is no longer a need for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and that we as a society are post-racial because of the election of our first black president . But we can not be post-racial until we are post-racism . The case of Troy Davis , an African American man set for execution who we believe was wrongly convicted , is an exemplar of the disparities that still rock our nation -LRB- see IAMTROY.com -RRB- . Davis was convicted of killing a police officer and has spent 18 years on death row . There is no physical evidence linking him to the crime and seven of the nine witnesses recanted or contradicted their testimony . His case has sparked an outcry from both proponents and opponents of the death penalty including former FBI director William Sessions and conservative presidential candidate Bob Barr . Yet our laws do n't allow him a new trial to reexamine the evidence that points to his innocence . African-Americans are disproportionately represented on death row . Of the 3,500 people on death row , about 42 percent are black , and virtually all are poor . Studies underscore that
Editor 's note : Benjamin Todd Jealous is the new president and CEO of the NAACP . Benjamin Jealous says the 100-year-old NAACP has an ambitious agenda for civil and human rights . -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Thursday the U.S. Senate passed a resolution apologizing for slavery and for legalized segregation . It arrived more than a hundred years late , but better late than never . Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are expected to pass a similar resolution , and when they do , the bipartisan resolution will acknowledge our nation 's need to take a historic leap out of the shameful past of racial discrimination and toward a future that promises all citizens full access to the legal protections laid out in the U.S. Constitution . But we must go beyond the civil rights guaranteed in the Constitution and advocate for the human rights that will assure that America 's promise is realized for all . While our Constitution mandates equality , for example , there is no constitutional guarantee for an education , let alone a good education . The fight for good schools is a struggle for our human rights . Some have opined