NAACP Considers Condemning Tea Party for 'Racism'

William Temple attends a Tea Party rally in the desert outside Searchlight, Nev. Saturday, March 27, 2010. (AP)

The NAACP reportedly is about to take up a resolution to condemn the Tea Party movement for "explicitly racist behavior."

The Kansas City Star reported that the organization plans to vote as early as Tuesday on the language at its annual convention in Kansas City. The resolution reportedly will call on "all people of good will to repudiate the racism of the Tea Parties" and stand against the movement's attempt to "push our country back to the pre-civil rights era."

Tea Party groups have repeatedly denied allegations of racism. Gina Loudon, one of the founders of the St. Louis Tea Party, called the NAACP's charges untrue and said it was a "shame" the NAACP was going down that road.

"I can't believe that the Tea Party is even going to be put in a position of dignifying something like that," she said. "This is sad because this established organization is being used by the left."

She said Tea Partiers generally do all they can to give minority conservatives a platform.

According to the Kansas City Star, the NAACP resolution will accuse the groups of engaging in racist behavior by displaying signs "intended to degrade people of color generally and President Barack Obama specifically."

It will also accuse the activists of abusing black members of Congress -- an apparent reference to an incident in March when Tea Party protesters allegedly hurled racial epithets at black lawmakers on Capitol Hill ahead of a health care vote. Tea Party members afterward challenged that account and no evidence was produced to show any racist actions.