THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 23, 1994 TAG: 9408230387
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: MARC TIBBS
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
In the pantheon of African-American history, the term ``colored'' has gone the way of all flesh.
Among whites it was once a polite way to avoid calling someone ``black,'' back when that was still a disparaging reference. Today, some blacks use the term ``colored'' to refer to docile African Americans who are more concerned about what whites think of them than they are about their self-image.
So imagine the subliminal images conjured up by the term National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. It's a stigma that the NAACP has been trying to cast off for years, particularly with young people.
Ben Chavis Jr., the group's ousted executive director, had been working to change that through youth gang summits and increased recruitment of young people - that is, until calamity struck a few weeks ago.
Chavis didn't notify the NAACP board that he had committed up to $332,400 of the organization's funds to settle a complaint against him by a former employee. Unsubstantiated charges of sexual harassment also have surfaced.
But Farmville lawyer James F. Ghee, the board member who made the motion Saturday to fire Chavis, admitted that he did so out of concern for corporate donations. Mobil Oil Corp. and the Ford Foundation each withheld hundreds of thousands of dollars when Chavis' woes surfaced last month.
Longtime NAACP members say Chavis' association with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan made major donors, and consequently board members, uncomfortable. An attitude - by definition - directly attributable to ``colored'' people.
But Chavis himself contributed to his downfall.
The Greenville, N.C., native's decision to pay $332,400 to settle the lawsuit without telling the board was a bad move.
How could he reach such an agreement? Why the secrecy? What did Chavis have to hide?
The bloated 64-member board said Chavis' financial mismanagement (estimates are that the organization is $3 million in debt) was ``inimical'' to NAACP progress.
Chavis says he inherited the deficit from his predecessor, Benjamin Hooks, and that he had authority to enter into the out-of-court settlement with the disgruntled worker.
``Mr. Chavis thought he could spend our money any way he wanted and not be accountable,'' Ghee said. ``The NAACP is not any one individual.''
Ghee's right. The NAACP is a 64-member board of people from around the country with a history of micro-management. It's long been considered behind the times and reactionary.
Chavis should have been disciplined, perhaps even fired. But if losing corporate money was indeed the reason, then the NAACP board's action is ``inimical'' to the organization's need to appeal to a younger, more progressive generation.
In that case, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is just the right name. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Ben Chavis Jr.
by CNB