My Perspective: Celebrating 100 Years of the NAACP but what’s NEXT

Since 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has been an advocate for civil rights and fought for equal opportunities in the public and private sectors. The NAACP prides itself as being the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, advocating for the empowerment of all people of color, especially Blacks. It has a legendary history of being at the forefront of critical issues shaping the lives of ordinary people. In fact, it was founded by the venerable thinker W.E.B. DuBois, who later retired to Ghana, West Africa where he died.

So it is only fitting that this year, the organization that played a leading role in social change in America celebrates its 100th birthday as the country witnessed the historic election of President Barack Obama. “The inauguration of the first African American president represents a magnificent culmination of a century of activism by the NAACP and our allies that have fought for civil and human rights,” said NAACP President Benjamin Jealous. “We have much more work to do. The audacious dream of America, a land where opportunity exists for all and where every person is given a chance to reach their full potential, still remains elusive,” according to Jealous.

On February 12, 1909, the NAACP was founded and 100 years later as the organization celebrated its birthday on February 12, 2009, many still believe that organization is becoming obsolete, a vestigial of its grand post of speaking truth to power. Therefore as the NAACP celebrates 100 years, the question for the nation’s oldest civil rights organization is what’s next. The NAACP image and activism in recent years and over the last two decades has been in a decline compared to where it was in its first 80 years of existence. To date, according to President Jealous, the NAACP has an active presence in 1,200 communities and on 300 college campuses. He said, “It is up to the NAACP and all people of good conscience to keep the fires of justice and equality burning and maintain the mandate for great change.”

Therefore with so much involvement, you would think that the NAACP would be more revered in its efforts to help people of color. However that is the not case and if you look at the NAACP’s involvement in major cities, it is not the organization that many people of colored flocked to because of its involvement in helping so many people. Then if you look at the NAACP’s involvement on college campus, it is poor in many cases and it is even poorer on HBCU’s campuses where you would think the NAACP should be one of the most powerful organizations on HBCU college campuses. This is not the case and if the NAACP is to be stronger going forward, its youngest President Benjamin Jealous must refocus and change the status quo of the NAACP.

In fact President Jealous needs to get the NAACP younger particularly in its national board positions and in positions in its national office if the organization is to move forward and become more active in its civil rights and equal rights fights. If the mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination than it needs to go back to its basics of selling its services to the American people. Since the NAACP is in 1,200 communities than those communities need to be made more aware of what types of services the organization offers and what the vision the organization has for the communities they are currently in. The vision of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure a society in which all individuals have equal rights and there is no racial hatred or racial discrimination. With that being the vision than it needs to be spoken throughout all the college campuses where the NAACP exists and throughout all the communities where the NAACP stands to date.

Those who advocate on behalf of the people must at all times be serious and fully committed in this undertaking. That’s why the commitment of the NAACP has been in question in recent years because so many feel that the organization has lost its focus on grassroots action and has become more like a corporate company rather than an organization committed to getting its hands dirty to fight for civil rights and equal opportunities. The NAACP in recent decades has been an organization of press releases and exists only in signposts rather than in action that is pro-active like it used to be during in its founding years.

As the NAACP celebrated its 100th anniversary, it needs to turn the lights back on for millions because it is losing ground in terms of its relevance. The NAACP needs a major shake-up in terms of ideas and its vision to recruit millions more to the organization. When the NAACP chose Benjamin Jealous as its youngest President a little bit over 2 years ago, it signaled the beginning of a new era for an organization that was struggling. That’s why the time for President Jealous to really put his imprints on the organization needs to start now so that the NAACP can be around for another 100 years.

With a new political dispensation being ushered in by the history making administration of President Barack Obama, and the appointment of Eric Holder as the nation’s first Black attorney general, I am taking the challenge of change to the national NAACP. Many of you may ask why but I say why not? Just as sweeping, unprecedented change has come to Washington with the election of President Obama and Holder set to command the powerful Department of Justice, there is equally a need for change in leadership at NAACP headquarters in Baltimore. It is time for us to see some of its board members relinquish their positions to persons with new ideas and vision who more effectively work with the new, progressive administration.

The first person who needs to step down is the group’s powerful board chairman, Julian Bond, who recently announced he is going to step down as board leader but not as board member. Then a few days later, Bond resurfaced saying he will serve another year because of voluminous e-mails that came in pleading with him to stay on a while longer. That is quite interesting because I for one can’t see why anyone wants Bond to stay on when the organization has not made any strides that have helped the mission and vision come truer in recent years and decades.

It is quite interesting that Bond wants to stay on for at least another year or so but leaders like Bond and some of his colleagues on the board have been integral in the struggle for civil rights. We should salute them and applaud them for the service they have rendered to defend and uplift people of color. Forty years ago the NAACP was at the forefront, leading some of the greatest marches for justice in history. Now the NAACP is 100 years, which means it has been crusading for equality and justice before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Joseph Lowery, Julian Bond and others emerged in the pivotal 1960s. We have all reaped the benefits from the work of King, Lowery, Bond and so many others.

But today we are in the midst of a very different dispensation, of that includes Facebook, YouTube, Myspace and iPods, where the civil rights group can no longer continue to use old tools to protest to solve age-old and entrenched civil rights and racial problems. Indeed, it is a dispensation represented by a new mindset. Displaying elegant placards with empty pockets on the streets will not solve the problems of the Black community and the economic tsunami afflicting our communities. It will require a new approach, bold vision and a renewed commitment to calling attention to issues of justice and racial entanglements. But I do not see a heartfelt desire at the top brass of the NAACP to purse causes of economic justice and educational opportunities for its constituents.

I’m calling for the NAACP to become a social service agency, which is antithetical of its founding vision. I am simply asking the NAACP to change leadership and step up to the plate and do what it was created for and show people that it is meeting the new challenges facing our communities of color. Before his demise, King was putting together the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign to address economic disparities and bring the plight of sanitation and garbage workers to the attention of those in government. When was the last time the NAACP embarked on a real campaign to call attention to economic disparities and issues remedies before Congress?

Wake up people and realize that every statistic that has been released in the last decade shows that Blacks are at the bottom of every national area, including economics, education and health care. Yes, we know that these disparities are not in accidental. Some, if not the majority, of these disparities in health, education, economics and the judicial system occur because of inherent institutional biases against people of color. To correct such problems will require an NAACP that is not asleep at the wheel, but, rather, one that show courage and determination to tackle the multiplying problems in 21st Century America.

President Obama handed down a challenge to the NAACP in Cincinnati while he was campaigning for the presidency. “When we are taking care of our own stuff, then a lot of other folks are going to be interested in joining up and working with us to take of America’s stuff,” he said. The NAACP cannot sit down and wait for a handout. It must go to work. Waiting for media blitz opportunities to make a national splash on issues not the way to solve the problems of the Black Community and communities of colored people.

While the annual NAACP IMAGE Awards ceremony in Hollywood is an excellent idea for recognizing our best talents in the performing arts. But, the truth be told, the image of our communities leaves a lot to be desired. Moreover, it is a shameful indictment for those of us who are not willing to use our resources and institutions to correct the matters. The Black community is on fire. Groups and organizations tasked with the job of transforming and advocating on behalf of the masses of our people can no longer be a social club or another version of the Bohemian Grove. You cannot expect the local branches to avoid the country to function at maximum effect when the national office does not know where to start. You cannot expect the college campus branches to lead movements on college campuses and throughout the college communities when the Youth & College Division at the national level is not doing its part to properly train the youth to be the future of the NAACP.

The NAACP should not wait for the media to determine what cases it ought to pursue. Too often that has been the case, where groups like the NAACP are only involved in cases that have attracted national media attention. What about cases where the victims do not have the clout to bring national media attention? Are they doing to suffer in silence because the NAACP chooses an ivory tower approach to confronting systematic racial problems? We cannot afford leaders who use media-driven issues to reinvent themselves on the national stage, instead of tirelessly working for the rights of the millions who feel abandoned and disenfranchised. While Benjamin Jealous election as President of the NAACP welcomed a break from the past but how can Jealous promise and execute change if he has board members who have been there for 25 years and are fiercely holding on to old tools to fight new battles.

The nation’s oldest civil rights organization and its members must demand more from itself. We expect the NAACP to not just criticize through press releases with little or no subsequent action. Talk is cheap. The NAACP must propose and implement solutions for the betterment of our communities. The national office needs to adopt a “Meet the Neighborhood” tour of urban cities that have been so economically disparaged and educationally ripped off. That will give them a sense of the “urgency of now.” The NAACP can lay claim to many challenges and victories in the past. In the area of voting rights, for example, it has done an excellent job. But the problems of Black America are beyond voting rights, the sacredness of voting notwithstanding. Too many Black people cannot afford to put food on the table, are losing their homes due to foreclosure, cannot afford needed medicines, etc. Yet, we have not heard any concrete solutions from the NAACP on these and many issues.

The NAACP must now lay out an outline for the future of the organization that goes beyond just voting rights. President Benjamin Jealous must lay out a plan that deals with how the NAACP will improve the economic, educational and health care issues people of colored are facing. At a time of economic peril with our communities on the edge, and as families continue to struggle, the NAACP must become more pro-active in promoting its social services and in doing social services for its people. The NAACP must now more than ever give solutions. The NAACP must address the life and death issues the people they say they represent are facing. The NAACP must show that they are creative enough to come up with solution-orientated programs instead of waiting on protest at media events with plenty of photo ops. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People must change in its totality and it must strengthen its social services by going by to its grassroots efforts of door to door walking as well as utilize what technological advancements they have at its finger tips today.

Celebrating 100 years of the NAACP is great but what’s next for the NAACP will define the nation’s longest civil rights organization for the next 100 years. The NAACP must change if it is going to help the very people its mission and vision says it was created to help. America needs the NAACP to live up to its mission and the communities where the NAACP has branches need them in order to make America as well as the communities of America better. There are so many things that the NAACP can do to help the very people it was created to help but it all begins at the national level and until the national level accepts change than the future of the NAACP will be in limbo.

History’s verdict depends on the action you take—now. That’s why the NAACP celebration of 100 years is incredible but it is what’s next for the organization that will determine the future of the organization going forward. President Jealous and others will have to play a larger role in determining what the NAACP will focus on and how it will address those issues. Change is definitely needed for the survival of the NAACP in terms of the organization leaving up to its mission and vision the way its founder W.E.B. DuBois wanted for the National Advancement of Colored People.