<font size="5"><center>Next NAACP President Must Lead
on Crucial Issues In Black America</font size></center>
Rev. Joseph Lowery
Black Press USA
by Hazel Trice Edney
NNPA Washington Correspondent
March 28, 2007
WASHINGTON(NNPA) - The weighty issues now facing Black people in America indicate that the next NAACP president must be an aggressive, energetic leader focused on civil rights in the 21st century, says veteran civil rights advocates.
'I'd think they'd be looking for a relatively young person with vision and vigor who understands the mission of the NAACP to work:
Lowery, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Dr. King in 1957, says by 'young person,' he means someone who may have been born inside or outside the civil rights movement, but who is able to vigorously deal with the high level issues of inequality now facing America.
'I mean people who are energetic intellectually as well as physically energetic,' he says.
The nation's oldest civil rights organization, about to celebrate its 100th birthday in two years, is once again without a president after the controversial resignation of Verizon executive Bruce Gordon after only 19 months. Citing irreparable differences with the 64-member board, Gordon resigned amidst a conflict over whether the organization should follow his lead in doing more social services or its stated mission, fight for social justice. Board Chairman Julian Bond insisted that he focus on the latter.
Lowery and other civil rights stalwarts interviewed by the NNPA News Service appear to agree with Bond ' that the organization needs someone who can not only run the organization, but also, give strong voice to the crucial issues at hand. NAACP general counsel Dennis C. Hayes currently serves as interim president as a search committee is formed to seek a permanent leader.
'I think the next leader will have to embrace the absolutely critical agenda of civil rights and racial justice; at the same time, develop new strategies to create enthusiastic interest in the organization among the Hip Hop generation and those who consider themselves outsiders,' says Harvard University law professor, Charles Ogletree, known for his civil rights activism.
That person should also be able to attract like-minded people from the grassroots as well as other leaders back to the organization, Ogletree says.
'The biggest challenge is going to be to convince all of our professional organizations ' fraternities and other groups - to understand that membership in the NAACP is not a luxury, but a necessity. We have to be both lawyers and active NAACP members, both doctors and active NAACP members, both teachers and active NAACP members.'
The organization, cannot afford to stray too far from its roots, says Dorothy Height, president emeritus of the National Council of Negro Women. She recalled people who would work for the organization mainly because of the cause rather than for prestige and big salary.
'To tell you the truth, I think in the civil rights arena, money can't be the first thought,' says Height. 'You have to move forward primarily to serve. And you have to begin with somebody whose primary concern is to move forward our largest civil rights organization.'
The NAACP has a history of conflict between the executives who execute the policy and the board members, who make them. Lowery says the president must be a social justice leader, but the huge board must also make some concessions.
'I think the NAACP needs to, in my opinion, streamline its board and make sure it understands its mission in terms of making policy and the distinction between policy-making and program execution and to clarify those lines so that they don't get in the middle of the stream and find that they are not singing in the same key,' he says.
Resolve Internal Conflicts:
Without change, there will be consistent public doubt, says Ron Daniels, president of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century, an Africa and African-American-oriented think tank.
'I do think that there is some lingering concern that people in the civil rights community might have, including myself, about the ability of anyone to really lead the NAACP. While some people are saying that Bruce wanted to impose a sort of corporate method on the NAACP, I think there were also problems with Mfume.'
Gordon's predecessor, Kweisi Mfume, resigned after 10 years, saying it was simply time to rest, deal with personal matters, and pursue new endeavors. However, it was later confirmed that he too had departed amidst conflicts with Bond.
Whether or not the organization finds someone conciliatory enough to get along with the board, it must get someone who is strong enough to deal with the opponents of justice, rights activists say.
'Now, more than ever, we need someone who is very assertive and linked up to a civil rights agenda, particularly in terms of continuing to fight for whatever vestiges of affirmative action are still there,' says Daniels. 'But, also to resist the kind of work that [conservative activist] Ward Connerly is doing to obliterate affirmative action all together. I think there ought to be an effort to make sure there are not more elections stolen, certainly a critical piece of work to push the notion that institutional racism and individual racism still exist.'
Gordon left the NAACP three weeks ago, saying one of his greatest contributions had been increasing the membership from barely 200,000 to nearly doubling it. Perhaps the greatest asset a new leader could bring would be the ability to enlist even more members to fight alongside him or her, says Ogletree.
'Given what our communities, our children and our families are facing in the 21st Century, we don't have the luxury of saying no to the NAACP,' he says. 'We have an obligation to stand up and be counted among the ranks and file and to help the organization meet its mission for the 21st Century.'
http://www.blackpressusa.com/News/Article.asp?SID=3&Title=Hot+Stories&NewsID=12738
on Crucial Issues In Black America</font size></center>
Rev. Joseph Lowery
Black Press USA
by Hazel Trice Edney
NNPA Washington Correspondent
March 28, 2007
WASHINGTON(NNPA) - The weighty issues now facing Black people in America indicate that the next NAACP president must be an aggressive, energetic leader focused on civil rights in the 21st century, says veteran civil rights advocates.
'I'd think they'd be looking for a relatively young person with vision and vigor who understands the mission of the NAACP to work:
- to achieve social change,
- to work for increased economic opportunities for African-Americans,
- to fight discrimination at every level,
- to seek empowerment ' economic, political, and social empowerment for Black people '
- to find ways and means of hitting a level of global consciousness, to help organize our people in local communities around these issues, and
- to rise to a new level of dynamism and activism,'
says the Rev. Joseph Lowery, 85, known as the dean of the civil rights movement.- to work for increased economic opportunities for African-Americans,
- to fight discrimination at every level,
- to seek empowerment ' economic, political, and social empowerment for Black people '
- to find ways and means of hitting a level of global consciousness, to help organize our people in local communities around these issues, and
- to rise to a new level of dynamism and activism,'
Lowery, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Dr. King in 1957, says by 'young person,' he means someone who may have been born inside or outside the civil rights movement, but who is able to vigorously deal with the high level issues of inequality now facing America.
'I mean people who are energetic intellectually as well as physically energetic,' he says.
The nation's oldest civil rights organization, about to celebrate its 100th birthday in two years, is once again without a president after the controversial resignation of Verizon executive Bruce Gordon after only 19 months. Citing irreparable differences with the 64-member board, Gordon resigned amidst a conflict over whether the organization should follow his lead in doing more social services or its stated mission, fight for social justice. Board Chairman Julian Bond insisted that he focus on the latter.
Lowery and other civil rights stalwarts interviewed by the NNPA News Service appear to agree with Bond ' that the organization needs someone who can not only run the organization, but also, give strong voice to the crucial issues at hand. NAACP general counsel Dennis C. Hayes currently serves as interim president as a search committee is formed to seek a permanent leader.
'I think the next leader will have to embrace the absolutely critical agenda of civil rights and racial justice; at the same time, develop new strategies to create enthusiastic interest in the organization among the Hip Hop generation and those who consider themselves outsiders,' says Harvard University law professor, Charles Ogletree, known for his civil rights activism.
That person should also be able to attract like-minded people from the grassroots as well as other leaders back to the organization, Ogletree says.
'The biggest challenge is going to be to convince all of our professional organizations ' fraternities and other groups - to understand that membership in the NAACP is not a luxury, but a necessity. We have to be both lawyers and active NAACP members, both doctors and active NAACP members, both teachers and active NAACP members.'
The organization, cannot afford to stray too far from its roots, says Dorothy Height, president emeritus of the National Council of Negro Women. She recalled people who would work for the organization mainly because of the cause rather than for prestige and big salary.
'To tell you the truth, I think in the civil rights arena, money can't be the first thought,' says Height. 'You have to move forward primarily to serve. And you have to begin with somebody whose primary concern is to move forward our largest civil rights organization.'
The NAACP has a history of conflict between the executives who execute the policy and the board members, who make them. Lowery says the president must be a social justice leader, but the huge board must also make some concessions.
'I think the NAACP needs to, in my opinion, streamline its board and make sure it understands its mission in terms of making policy and the distinction between policy-making and program execution and to clarify those lines so that they don't get in the middle of the stream and find that they are not singing in the same key,' he says.
Resolve Internal Conflicts:
Without change, there will be consistent public doubt, says Ron Daniels, president of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century, an Africa and African-American-oriented think tank.
'I do think that there is some lingering concern that people in the civil rights community might have, including myself, about the ability of anyone to really lead the NAACP. While some people are saying that Bruce wanted to impose a sort of corporate method on the NAACP, I think there were also problems with Mfume.'
Gordon's predecessor, Kweisi Mfume, resigned after 10 years, saying it was simply time to rest, deal with personal matters, and pursue new endeavors. However, it was later confirmed that he too had departed amidst conflicts with Bond.
Whether or not the organization finds someone conciliatory enough to get along with the board, it must get someone who is strong enough to deal with the opponents of justice, rights activists say.
'Now, more than ever, we need someone who is very assertive and linked up to a civil rights agenda, particularly in terms of continuing to fight for whatever vestiges of affirmative action are still there,' says Daniels. 'But, also to resist the kind of work that [conservative activist] Ward Connerly is doing to obliterate affirmative action all together. I think there ought to be an effort to make sure there are not more elections stolen, certainly a critical piece of work to push the notion that institutional racism and individual racism still exist.'
Gordon left the NAACP three weeks ago, saying one of his greatest contributions had been increasing the membership from barely 200,000 to nearly doubling it. Perhaps the greatest asset a new leader could bring would be the ability to enlist even more members to fight alongside him or her, says Ogletree.
'Given what our communities, our children and our families are facing in the 21st Century, we don't have the luxury of saying no to the NAACP,' he says. 'We have an obligation to stand up and be counted among the ranks and file and to help the organization meet its mission for the 21st Century.'
http://www.blackpressusa.com/News/Article.asp?SID=3&Title=Hot+Stories&NewsID=12738
I wonder if Lowery ever considered the hip hop generation might not be interested in becoming insiders? I don't know they are interested in things like assimulation and co-extistance at the terms laid out by the NAACP.