VIDEO - Missouri NAACP President explains travel advisory issued against the state

Posted: Mon 10:34 PM, Jun 26, 2017

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. Missouri's chapter of the NAACP issued a travel advisory against the state Monday.

According to the chapter's president, Rod Chapel, it's about civil rights.

"There's not a walk in Missouri life that will not be affected by this law," he says.

Missouri legislature passed a law that many say will make it more difficult to sue for discrimination.

"Across the nation, when I bring this up to people on local and state leadership, they just don't understand how Missouri has taken this step," explains Chapel.

Chapel says the group has a responsibility to protect the rights of others.

"The reason we did it is because we felt like we had to warn people before they get into the state and frankly, some of the people who are hear now that may not know what's happening," he says.

The group argues that state leaders aren't working towards Missouri's future.

"Missouri ought to be trying to attract businesses and people who are interested in healthy, well-educated, and ready to work people. That's who you want in our work force. Instead we seem to be walking in the wrong direction to figure out how many civil rights we can take away from people, how many opportunities for proper discourse and conduct within society can we eliminate," he says.

Chapel explains that it's not a race issue but a human rights issue.

"Be careful if you are coming here or if you're already here because your civil rights may not be respected as they are now or as they will be in the future and you actually have important rights that you could lose," he says. "If you are in you're in your work place, if you're looking for a home, if you're seeking education or health care or simply just a meal that you are at real risk."

If rights are violated he says there's very little that can be done about it.

"We can't complain. We can't hold people that are accountable to task, that seems simply un-American," says Chapel.

He says he's talked with Governor Eric Greitens about the group's concerns.

"It is my hope that he will offer the veto. He did not tell me explicitly that he would but that he was considering it," he says.

The Missouri NAACP is holding a rally Tuesday at the capitol building in Jefferson City.

Governor Eric Greitens has until mid-July to make his decision on vetoing the bill.