ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 18, 1996 TAG: 9602190056
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Associated Press
With a pledge to heal the country of racism and bigotry, incoming NAACP president Kweisi Mfume promised Saturday that ``never again'' will the nation's oldest civil rights group be taken for granted.
Mfume, a Democrat, promised to help the NAACP overcome its financial and internal problems to fight a Republican-led Congress and a Supreme Court that he says are trying to roll back years of civil rights gains.
Hours later, Mfume said the NAACP's board of directors had approved his $200,000-a-year contract. Details were not immediately available as the board met late into Saturday evening.
``I refuse to stand mute when liberty is denied and when justice is deferred,'' said Mfume, who today resigns from Congress after five terms representing Maryland. ``I have come to New York today to ask you not to stand mute, also.''
He is to be sworn into the post of president and chief executive officer of the NAACP during a Tuesday ceremony at the Justice Department. President Clinton is expected to attend.
Speaking at the annual members' meeting, Mfume also restated his plans to make changes in the way the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People operates, and tried to allay members' fears by telling them that some ``change is good.''
The NAACP is trying to regain its focusafter being sidetracked by a debt of $3.2 million, frivolous spending by board members, and allegations of sexual harassment against Benjamin Chavis, its previous executive director.
``Never again will someone take for granted the will of the NAACP to make a change in this nation,'' Mfume said, recalling the association's activist legacy of the 1950s and 1960s. `` We will reinvent ourselves.''
Saying that the NAACP is ``big enough, bad enough and broad enough,'' he also called on young people and members of other ethnic groups, such as Hispanics, Asian-Americans and American Indians to join the fight.
Members also heard good news Saturday about NAACP finances.
Board chairwoman Myrlie Evers-Williams reported that the NAACP ended 1995 with a ``modest'' cash surplus, the first time in six years that has occurred. NAACP treasurer Francisco Borges said the organization also has a plan to reduce the $3.2 million debt to $700,000 by the end of the year.
Borges said $2.5 million of a recommended budget of $6.4 million would be used to erase the bulk of the deficit.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Kweisi Mfume/"I refuse to stand mute.'by CNB