Has the NAACP lost its way?
by Carmen Van Kerckhove
Yes, according to Debra Dickerson’s latest article for Salon.com:
Shouldn’t the NAACP have been using its moral authority to extend black influence throughout the nation’s institutions instead of submitting those institutions to unceasing frontal attacks designed merely to expose their racism? Instead of playing the faux martyr on the steps of the Supreme Court, shouldn’t he have been inside, respectfully but firmly lobbying Clarence Thomas and any other justice he could buttonhole? Holding my newly minted law school diploma, I was beginning to think so. It was time for the NAACP to evolve into a problem-solving organization for black America.
That’s why I was thrilled when the NAACP tapped veteran businessman Gordon to lead the black community into the future. Finally, after the organization had spent years clinging to a focus on confrontation without much action, Gordon promised to retool the NAACP to focus on social services and to leverage the civil rights movement’s gains into practical results. A star businessman whose career had been made possible by organizations like the NAACP, he was living proof that black success now requires more pragmatism than protest…
Gordon’s departure was only the beginning of NAACP’s troubles. Now, just three months later, the group has announced it will be “temporarily” closing its seven regional offices and slashing its national staff by 40 percent. It has also had to “delay” moving its Baltimore headquarters to Washington, D.C. The nation’s oldest civil rights organization is on the brink of extinction, defeated by its inability to evolve, a fact that no amount of rhetoric will be able to conceal at its 98th annual convention next month.
Folks, what do you think?
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
dcase wrote:
I mostly agree with Dickerson’s characterization of the NAACP’s inability to be effective in the 21st century. They are too stuck in the sixties model; the world has changed since then. I, like her, thought that the introduction of Gordon as the organization’s leader would help in refocusing goals. However, the intransigent nature of the old heads on the board proved too tough a nut to crack.
Still, I do not believe that the NAACP is on the brink of extinction. The board has too many deep connections and too much respect for that to happen. However, I do believe if they don’t evolve and place civil rights in a model more consistent with today’s paradigm, they will suffer negatively due to their relatively poor membership penetration among the younger cohorts.
Posted 20 Jun 2007 at 10:18 am ¶
Anonymous wrote:
I think Dickerson’s thoughts on the danger of irrelevance rings true. The NAACP is still mired in the activism of the sixties.
I take issue with this statement:
“That’s why I was thrilled when the NAACP tapped veteran businessman Gordon to lead the black community into the future.”
The NAACP doesn’t lead the black community… and thank God for that.
Posted 20 Jun 2007 at 11:43 am ¶
Gunfighter wrote:
I think Dickerson’s thoughts on the danger of irrelevance rings true. The NAACP is still mired in the activism of the sixties.
I take issue with this statement:
“That’s why I was thrilled when the NAACP tapped veteran businessman Gordon to lead the black community into the future.”
The NAACP doesn’t lead the black community… and thank God for that.
Posted 20 Jun 2007 at 11:44 am ¶
Acanthus wrote:
I thank God even more that Debra Dickerson doesn’t lead the black community.
Posted 21 Jun 2007 at 3:59 am ¶
Angela wrote:
My mother and I had this same conversation a few years ago when she approached our local NAACP branch for possible help with a case of discrimination against my brother, only to discover they had two or three people working at the local branch who were strictly volunteers and couldn’t even afford the rent for the office they were based in.
But IMO, not only is the NAACP stuck in the 60s, but black people are, to an extent. The organization, as well as the UNCF, will continue to exist solely because of “black pride”, not out of the next generation of black Americans genuinely wanting to evoke a social change within the community. I see it during Black History Month when Afrocentrism is at its head, and again at celebrations like Juneteenth (which most blacks outside of Texas don’t even know about!). The fact that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are still looked upon as “black leaders” in the community is proof that anything dealing with the black community is stuck in the Civil Rights era.
Posted 21 Jun 2007 at 1:35 pm ¶
Kenda wrote:
I have to disagree with you, Angela. I agree that the NAACP is stuck in the mold of the 60s, but I wouldn’t say that black people are stuck as well.
I (a black person) do not want to see organizations like the NAACP and UNCF fold because I think there is still work to be done. If they were able to refocus and were under strong leadership I believe each of these groups could once again become relavent. I also know for a fact that there are a number of black people who feel the exact same way. To say that black people are stuck in the 1960s is an oversimplification at best.
Posted 22 Jun 2007 at 12:14 am ¶