Bush to Speak at NAACP Convention

July 9 -- — Reaching out to African-American voters, Texas Gov. George W. Bush will address the 91st annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Monday — and could gain significant support, according to the group’s president.

“Republicans can make inroads,” said Kweisi Mfume, the NAACP president, during an interview on ABCNEWS’ This Week today. “But they have to mean it. They can’t just say it.”

The convention, which kicked off Saturday in Baltimore, Md., is one of many campaign appearances Bush has been making before minority organizations — groups that in the past have not been considered ‘traditional’ Republican audiences.

The candidate addressed the Congress for Racial Equality in New York and the League of United Latin American Citizens national convention in Washington, D.C., early last week. And on Monday, Bush reached out to Latino voters again at the La Raza conference in San Diego.

Vice President Al Gore, Bush’s Democratic rival, had separate appearances before the same Latino groups, and is scheduled to address the NAACP gathering on Wednesday. But it is the Republican candidate who has the most to gain.

‘The Party of Lincoln’

Bush aides say the governor will focus on racial harmony and economic opportunity in his remarks, and will stress the importance of new cooperation between the “party of Abraham Lincoln” and groups like the NAACP. It’s all part of the more inclusive image Bush, who has described himself as “a different kind of Republican,” is trying to bring to the GOP.

According to Mfume, Bush “has a harder row to hoe” than Gore “because he’s been defined by others. This is his chance to define himself.”

However, Mfume was also critical of Bush for not speaking out during the primary season about South Carolina’s continued use of the Confederate flag above the state capitol, saying “leadership in a different sense was needed” on the matter. Bush had said that the issue was a matter of states’ rights.