THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 17, 1995 TAG: 9501170312
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY IDA KAY JORDAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
The NAACP will survive and will continue to be ``watchmen guarding the legacy'' of Martin Luther King Jr. and other black leaders, says the strife-ridden organization's acting administrator, Earl T. Shinhoster.
Shinhoster, a staff member, was named interim leader of the national NAACP when Benjamin Chavis was fired in August amid power struggles on the board and the revelation that the organization was virtually broke.
Monday, he was the main attraction of a three-hour celebration of King's birthday Monday at Fourth Baptist Church on Effingham Street. He spoke matter-of-factly about the NAACP troubles.
``High deficits are not an image, they're a fact,'' Shinhoster said. ``We're trying to raise $5 million now.''
Almost 700 African Americans packed the new downtown church building for the celebration and filled two large baskets with cash to support the national organization. No numbers were available on how much money was raised.
Shinhoster said he came to Portsmouth for this important African-American holiday ``because they asked me.'' He stopped en route to Atlanta for a celebration with the King family.
``It's the first time since the 1950s that we have had a national leader from the NAACP here with us,'' said Ed Joyner, a past president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The Rev. Joe B. Flemming, president of the local chapter, has vowed to ``make the NAACP alive and well in this city.''
His message to Portsmouth, Shinhoster said, is that the NAACP is not dead and the struggle for justice is not over.
``Living the dream requires struggles,'' he said. ``The dream is not over, but we better wake out of this deep sleep we're in.''
Race relations are at ``the lowest ebb'' in the United States, he said.
``Racism is alive and well - in Portsmouth and everywhere,'' Shinhoster said. ``It's festering like a sore, and our response is conditioned by lack of information.''
In the midst of progress, he said, ``so many people have forgotten it's always a struggle.''
Remembering aloud some of King's desegregation efforts, he said it ``hurts so bad to relive those days.''
``But it's going to hurt worse if we don't remember them,'' he said. ``There's no respect for life among young people because we haven't been taught to respect the life of all people.''
One of the contentious points during the 16 months Chavis headed the national NAACP was his concept of the organization as ``a big tent under which both integrationists and separatists could meet'' and his public embrace of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.
``The tent always has been big enough to deal with all people,'' Shinhoster said. ``There has been no exclusivity, and we were always open to all people.''
The NAACP debate over whether to integrate or separate goes back to the beginning of the century. But no one else has been as vocal about the schism in the past few decades as Chavis was.
Shinhoster said the focus of the national organization will be ``direct action,'' especially in the courts, where the NAACP has won many national battles for black people.
The NAACP leader was not optimistic about national politics.
``We must stay on the case in Washington today,'' Shinhoster said. ``This Congress is unlike any we've had in 50 years.''
The NAACP, he said, is ``stepping up and appealing to you to come to our aid.
``We will be responsible not only financially,'' he said, ``but for the spirit of this organization.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
MARK MITCHELL/Staff
Earl T. Shinhoster, interim leader of the national NAACP
MARK MITCHELL/Staff
Brooke Clark, 5, was among the 700 people who celebrated the
birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Fourth Baptist Church in
Portsmouth.
[For a copy of the INFOLINE box, see microfilm.]
by CNB