Turmoil at the NAACP A need for consensusPosted: March 09, 2007
The surprise announcement that Bruce Gordon, whose father cofounded the Camden NAACP, will resign later this month as the civil rights group's national president has created a watershed moment for that organization.
Gordon's quick exit in less than two years means the NAACP's unwieldy 64-member board never found comfort in his business approach to tackling the inequities that still limit African Americans. But in rebuffing Gordon's methods, the 98-year-old NAACP may have limited its future.
The board knew when it hired Gordon in 2005 that it was getting a businessman, a former Verizon executive, not an agitator. It knew it was getting someone accustomed to working within a system, rather than fighting it, to bring about change.
Too often, though, Gordon found himself arguing with the board and its chairman, Julian Bond. The biggest fights reportedly concerned whether the NAACP should itself provide more jobs and educational programs. "We want it to be a social justice organization; he wanted it to be more of a social service organization," said Bond.
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To be totally reliant on what government does for us, instead of also doing for ourselves what we have the capacity to do for ourselves, is, to me, too narrow a focus," countered Gordon.
http://articles.philly.com/2007-03-09/news/25236285_1_unwieldy-64-member-board-bruce-gordon-julian-bondAs you can see, one left in disgust with his hands in the air and the other remains in place. Gives a good idea of what the "policy" of the NAACP will be going forward, huh?
Booker T. Washington has to be weeping in Heaven...
