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Senator Lindsey Graham tweeted

The NAACP now opposes Sen. Jeff Sessions.....though in 2009 they honored him with their Governmental Award of Excellence. #ConfirmSessions

The tweet included an image of an award.

Politico also included an image of it, linked from an article:

enter image description here

There is controversy around this award, the NAACP national chapter themselves are confused on the matter.

The NAACP is composed of more than 2,000 local and state units around the country. Upon learning of the allegation that one of those units bestowed an award on Senator Jefferson Sessions in 2009, the National Office of the NAACP immediately undertook an investigation. While we already have strong reasons to doubt that any such award was given to Senator Sessions, we will continue our investigation until we are confident that we know all of the facts. What remains true and unchanged is the NAACP’s strong opposition to the nomination of Senator Sessions to become the next Attorney General of the United States. The NAACP’s position against Senator Sessions is based on his decades of conduct as a prosecutor and, later, U.S. Senator from the State of Alabama. In matters of civil and human rights, civil liberties, fair policing, voting rights, sentencing fairness, women’s rights, hate crimes and more, Senator Sessions has repeatedly demonstrated that he is clearly unsuited to perform the duties of an Attorney General in these crucial times.” press statement

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    The event was at Mobile Marriott Hotel, 3101 Airport Blvd http://blog.al.com/live/2009/04/alabama_naacp_convention_in_mo.html – DavePhD Feb 09 '17 at 13:45
  • This is the Senator's signed statement saying he got the award: http://static.politico.com/35/46/4810e7d94a4d82973b0152361dfa/sessions-questionnaire.7.17.pdf (although he says he wasn't previously aware of having such an award). – DavePhD Feb 09 '17 at 13:58
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    This is Senator Graham's 6 February 2017 statement that Session's got the award: https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record/2017/2/6/senate-section/article/s825-1?r=18 – DavePhD Feb 09 '17 at 14:06
  • The word "civic" (instead of "civil") seems like and error to me. – DavePhD Feb 09 '17 at 14:10
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    I have no doubt that he got the award from some chapter of the NAACP-- (some of them essentially sell awards like this in return for a certain level of contribution)--what would be surprising was if he was awarded this by the national organization – antlersoft Feb 09 '17 at 15:23
  • Dr. Robert Baldwin probably could answer that since he was there: http://www.newsouthbooks.com/pages/2009/04/02/robert-baldwin-continues-life-and-death-matters-events/ – Some Freemason Feb 09 '17 at 16:45
  • Snopes did a pretty thorough analysis: http://www.snopes.com/2017/02/08/jeff-sessions-award-of-excellence/ (Snopes keeps freezing up on me though, so I can't read it all) – JasonR Feb 09 '17 at 16:45
  • It's hard to imagine that he was the only award winner that year or even years around it. I was wondering if the shape of the award was the same since most other states are just square. I don't think he created the award and anyone who has ordered an award knows that a mispelling (civil vs civic) is very possible and maybe unnoticed – Some Freemason Feb 09 '17 at 16:57
  • i dont see civic being a typo, especially since its looking like it will probably be a local award. – Himarm Feb 09 '17 at 17:00
  • @Himarm but the title of the convention was advertised as "civil" http://blog.al.com/live/2009/04/alabama_naacp_convention_in_mo.html – DavePhD Feb 09 '17 at 17:09
  • @antlersoft this award seems to be from the state level of the NAACP, so between chapter level and national level. – DavePhD Feb 09 '17 at 19:07
  • The backing wood looks like the outline of Alabama, suggesting it might either be a state level award or at least purchased from a maker who often makes state level awards – Henry Feb 10 '17 at 09:05

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Jimmy Gardner, president of the Mobile NAACP branch at the time of the award is quoted as saying he believes the award is real:

Jimmy Gardner, the current mayor of Prichard who was president of the Mobile NAACP chapter at that time, said he believes the award was given by the Alabama state conference.

"There were several governmental folks who were awarded for their work and what they had done," said Gardner, adding that he was unclear as to why Sessions was honored. "It was based on their work."

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