Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 19, 1995 TAG: 9502220042
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
The decision by the NAACP board came after a stormy 3 1/2-hour session at the group's annual meeting, in which many NAACP members rose to express outrage at the financial practices of Gibson and his management team.
After about 700 delegates overwhelmingly passed a motion of no confidence in the NAACP leadership, the group's executive board, by one vote, ended Gibson's decade-long tenure as chairman. The board installed in his place Evers-Williams, the hand-picked candidate of the NAACP's reform movement. Evers-Williams, 61, is the first woman to head the NAACP in its 86-year history.
As word of Evers-Williams' election spread outside the closed doors of the executive board's meeting room at the Sheraton Hotel, a huge crowd of cheering, ecstatic NAACP members gathered in celebration.
``One word: Hallelujah,'' said C. Dolores Tucker, a delegate from the District of Columbia and one of the committee of prominent black leaders formed last year to oppose Gibson. ``A new day has begun. The people have spoken. Now we can return fiscal and moral integrity to the NAACP.''
``Free at last! Free at last!'' shouted Hazel Dukes, former president of the NAACP board, as she embraced those around her and danced in joy. ``Thank God almighty, we're free at last.''
When Evers-Williams finally emerged from the board meeting late in the afternoon, she spoke first of her 30-year battle to bring her husband's murderer to justice, a battle that ended last year in the conviction of a 73-year-old Mississippi man, Byron De La Beckwith.
``This is the second time in about a year that I've been able to put my fist up in the air and say `Yea,''' she said to a roomful of cheering supporters. ``Medgar died for the NAACP, and I have always said that I will live for the NAACP.''
As Evers-Williams left the room, the crowd began singing the civil rights anthem, ``We Shall Overcome.''
The election of Evers-Williams follows a period of extraordinary turmoil for the NAACP. In August, the group's executive director, Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., was forced to resign after admitting that he had settled a sexual discrimination case against him with NAACP money without consulting the board.
In a federal lawsuit filed last December, angry board members charged that Gibson mishandled $1.4 million in association funds, ran up $500,000 in expenses on the group's credit card and received $300,000 in checks for unexplained reimbursements.
by CNB