THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 4, 1995 TAG: 9511040284
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Several months ago, Curtis Harris of the Virginia Southern Christian Leadership Conference set out to obtain the affirmative action policies of the state's municipalities.
Unknown to Harris, NAACP chapters around the state were doing the same in an effort to gauge hiring practices.
The duplication was unnecessary, Harris said Thursday.
``We've worked together in the past, we need to do that now,'' he said during the first day of the 60th annual statewide NAACP conference, which continues today and Sunday at the Howard Johnson Hotel downtown.
``So many of the events of the '60s, the March on Selma, were done when the SCLC and the NAACP worked together. We need to get that back.''
The call for greater cooperation arose as NAACP delegates debated how the organization could help ensure that the concerns and rights of minorities and the poor aren't overlooked in mainstream society and politics.
The first step, said Linda Byrd-Harden, executive secretary of the state NAACP, is to regroup and gather strength from the spirit that has driven the organization for decades.
``The time for individualism is over,'' she said. ``We have some tough times ahead, we've had some tough times before. . . . We need to put all the differences and agendas aside and work together for our people.''
Byrd-Harden and Harris discussed the coalition of the SCLC and NAACP in an early-morning workshop, piquing the enthusiasm of a crowd of about 100. Many were well aware of the two groups' past triumphs.
Martin Luther King Jr. and other Southern ministers began the SCLC in 1957 when the NAACP was viewed as too radical by some white Southerners - an organization of Baptist ministers seemed less threatening. The groups worked closely, however, as the SCLC crumbled segregation through civil disobedience and the NAACP crusaded through the courts.
In recent years, the two lost that connection.
``We should learn from the past,'' Byrd-Harden said. ``We share the same goals but we don't think of calling each other and seeing what the other is doing. We step out there by ourselves and get attacked.''
The delegates nominated several members to form a task force to work with the SCLC and develop a joint agenda for the General Assembly next year. Byrd-Harden said that other groups with similar interests, such as Million Man March coordinating committees, can also join.
There were other workshops Thursday, discussions on institutionalized racism and the necessity of building black businesses to create jobs.
Luncheon speaker Joe Madison, a national board member of the NAACP, stressed that the organization has a powerful source of inspiration: its history.
``Some people ask why we won't change the name `Colored' people, but it is what it is,'' Madison said, ``and is what it has been, an organization for colored people - black and white, people of all colors!''
``As (the NAACP) has advanced, this country has advanced. There wouldn't have been a women's movement without the NAACP. There wouldn't have been an Indian movement if it weren't for the NAACP. . . . That's significant.'' MEMO: HIGHLIGHTS
Workshops and forums today.
Breakfast with guest speaker U.S. Rep. Robert C. Scott, 8 to 10 a.m.
today.
Luncheon with guest speaker Elaine Jones, director of the NAACP Legal
Defense and Educational Fund, noon to 2 p.m. today.
Freedom Fund banquet with keynote speaker Myrlie Evers-Williams,
chairwoman of the national board of directors of the NAACP, 7 to 9:30
p.m. today.
Unity Breakfast, 7:30 to 9 a.m. Sunday. by CNB