THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 10, 1995 TAG: 9512100086
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
The NAACP, struggling under a mountain of debt as it gropes for its place in the modern civil rights movement, Saturday turned to an influential member of Congress to return the organization to its former prominence: Rep. Kweisi Mfume of Baltimore.
The fifth-term Democratic representative and former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus was unanimously appointed president and chief executive officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a job that will make him the public face of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights group. Mfume said he would resign from Congress and assume his new post Feb. 15.
Mfume, 47, who typically won re-election by huge margins, said he was surrendering his safe seat in Congress because the NAACP post will allow him to pursue issues from a broader platform.
``What pushed me into this was my absolute, utter disdain for the ultra-right-wing agenda that is being foisted on our communities without an equal and opposite grass-roots reaction,'' Mfume said in an interview. ``It was clear to me that I could do much more outside than I could do inside Congress.''
As head of the NAACP, Mfume promised to move swiftly on several fronts: to expand voter education and registration campaigns, to emphasize the value of education and individual responsibility to the black community, to develop a financial rehabilitation plan for the organization and to work on the economic problems crippling much of black America.
``We must, without equivocation or timidity, reclaim our rightful place as the voice of African Americans and others who believe in the power and premise that all persons are, in fact, created equal.''
Mfume is assuming the NAACP post at perhaps the most critical time in the organization's 86-year history. The organization is deep in debt, unsure of how best to fulfill its mission and struggling to recover from problems that emerged during the brief tenure of the Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis as executive director.
When the NAACP board chose Chavis as its leader in April 1993, his task was not much different from the one facing Mfume: to reinvigorate the group's image and membership while broadening its mission and fund-raising clout.
But Chavis lasted less than 17 months. The board fired him for secretly agreeing to pay $332,400 in NAACP funds to a former aide to avert a sexual harassment lawsuit.
Chavis left the proud organization in a shambles, staggering under its increasing debt, paralyzed by the damaging infighting of its 64-member board and abandoned by major benefactors.
Since Chavis's departure, the NAACP has undergone, at best, a modest recovery. Although the debt has shrunk from $4.8 million to $3.2 million, its staff was reduced by almost two-thirds, and the group is embroiled in nasty fights with key local chapters in Chicago, Baltimore and Detroit. They disagree on the internal voting rights of youth members and on rules requiring the branches to split money they raise with the national office.
The NAACP also has lost much of its activist edge. Although it claims 76,000 youth members, it is viewed by many as a stodgy organization for the middle class and the middle-aged.
In February, Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of civil rights legend Medgar Evers, wrested the chairmanship of the NAACP board from South Carolina dentist William F. Gibson in a move that many saw as the beginning of a fundamental change for the organization.
Evers-Williams has traveled extensively, raising money and helping craft the search process that led to Mfume. She and others said Mfume can instantly broaden the NAACP's appeal and help restore its fiscal health, credibility and moral authority.
``There couldn't be a better choice,'' said C. DeLores Tucker, head of the National Political Congress of Black Women.
Mfume will report only to the board's 17-member executive committee, and he won a commitment to explore the streamlining of the board and the consolidation of the NAACP's 2,200 branches. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rep. Kweisi Mfume talks to the press in Washington Saturday after
the announcement that he will become the new president and chief
executive officer of the NAACP in February.
by CNB