National, local civil rights leaders endorse Filner

National and local civil rights leaders gathered before a large crowd at San Diego State University Friday, Sept. 28 to endorse Congressman Bob Filner for mayor of San Diego.

African American Congressman Bennie Thompson from Bolton, Miss., where he once served as mayor, told the crowd that Bob Filner, as a teenager, went down South in the 1960s on the “Freedom Rider Buses” to register blacks and was arrested and imprisoned for two months in then segregated Mississippi.

Stuart Milk, the nephew of the late gay politician and activist Harvey Milk, stated in his endorsement, “Civil rights flowed in Bob Filner’s blood since he was a teenager and he has fought for equality for all Americans ever since.”

Many local long-time civil rights leaders from the Asian, Latino, LGBT and African American communities also spoke in support of Filner’s candidacy.

Woman Hall of Fame honoree and a founding faculty member of the now Thurgood Marshal College at UCSD, Gracia Molina de Peck praised Filner for his decades of service and compassion for the poor, women’s fair pay and his devotion to the Latino community in San Diego.

Founder of the Filipino Cultural Society, Shonee Henry, stated how Filner was a public servant all Asian Americans could always count on.

The moderator for the conference was long-time gay Latino activist and city commissioner, Nicole Murray Ramirez. Ramirez, who has served the last five mayors of San Diego and has known Filner since his San Diego School Board days said, “Bob Filner will be a mayor for all San Diegans, while Carl DeMaio would be a mayor for the Tea Party, Republican right-wingers, fellow millionaires and the downtown business establishment.”

Among others in attendance were Lorena Gonzales, executive director of the AFL-CIO Labor Council of San Diego and Imperial Counties and Jewish leader, Rabbi Laurie Coskey.

The latest KGTV-10 News poll has Filner with 50 percent, DeMaio 38 percent with 12 percent undecided.