NAACP plans voter sign-up drive

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will launch a special summer campaign to register black voters in celebration of the June 29 signing of the Voting Rights Act by President Reagan, Monitor writer Luix Overbea reports.

Action will focus on the 22 states included in the Voting Rights Act extension and target 105 congressional districts, each with 30 percent or more black population. Julian Bond, a Georgia state senator, explained plans for the drive as he opened a series of workshops on voting Tuesday at the 73rd national NAACP convention here.

Benjamin L. Hooks, executive director, flew to Washington to join other civil rights leaders at the White House signing ceremony. ''Without pressure from the NAACP the President would not have offered his full support to voting rights,'' he said.

The NAACP formed a national political task force to work with local branches in a ''block-by-block grass-roots'' effort, says Joseph Madison, director of the national effort. ''Black people have the keys - their votes - to unlock 105 doors to Congress,'' he said. ''We need warm bodies to hit the street and harness the voting potential of black people in the congressional elections next fall.''

Board chairman Margaret Bush Wilson stressed ballot box action. ''Fire your volleys from the voting booths in the primaries and the November elections so that the explosion of our ballots will be felt in Washington,'' she said. The NAACP also will encourage the nation's high school seniors to graduate with ''a diploma in one hand and a voter registration card in the other,'' Mr. Madison said.

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