J. Whyatt Mondesire suggests RPCV Elaine Jones to head NAACP: "We are basically 2,200 local organizations with a national title," Mondesire, 56, says of the factions. "The organization needs a heavyweight with a national reputation who can raise money, who has a vision and who has the connections to push us forward with a modern civil rights agenda."
NAACP members divided over venerable group's future course
By FOSTER KLUG
Associated Press Writer
January 17, 2005, 6:25 PM EST
BALTIMORE -- During his speeches to Philadelphia schoolchildren, J. Whyatt Mondesire, the head of that city's NAACP branch, likes to offer $20 to the student who can decode his group's acronym.
Many of them think he's on a recruiting junket for the NCAA _ the National Collegiate Athletic Association. "I've only had to give away my money twice in seven years," Mondesire says. "That's my challenge."
As the Baltimore-based NAACP searches for a leader to replace outgoing president Kweisi Mfume, the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization is at a crossroads, some say, presented with a chance to redefine its identity with younger black Americans who, unlike their parents, don't immediately think of the group when they think of civil rights.
Some members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, such as Mondesire, think a big name is the answer. A nationally recognized figure, such as hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, would appeal to the next generation. But some members of the old guard are pushing for an insider, a veteran NAACP member who could navigate the treacherous waters of an unwieldy body with disparate agendas.
"We are basically 2,200 local organizations with a national title," Mondesire, 56, says of the factions. "The organization needs a heavyweight with a national reputation who can raise money, who has a vision and who has the connections to push us forward with a modern civil rights agenda."
Mfume, who is credited with bringing financial stability and credibility to an organization reeling from scandal and mismanagement when he took over nine nears ago, announced his resignation Nov. 30, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.
Mfume has dismissed persistent rumors among the organization's membership that he was forced out because of a rift between himself and Chairman Julian Bond. But Mfume has no role in a nine-member committee Bond has assembled to find his successor.
There's been speculation that Mfume will run for political office, but the former Baltimore congressman says he hasn't decided on his future path: "I'm not in any real rush to do anything except recharge my batteries and look around and find something meaningful."
Many NAACP members say they are thrilled with Mfume's accomplishments. He erased a $3.2 million deficit and burnished an image sullied by the revelation that his predecessor, Benjamin Chavis, used NAACP funds to settle a sexual harassment suit.
But there are some who accuse Mfume of losing sight of the issues that made the NAACP the leading voice for civil rights for much of the last century.
Gilbert Jonas, who directed the NAACP's national fund-raising and public relations operations for 30 years, until 1995, and has written a book on the group's early history, says there was "a growing disenchantment (among board members) that they had virtually no new program initiatives" during Mfume's tenure.
As the committee searches for Mfume's replacement, the half-million members will be closely watching, many of them convinced the next leader could remake, or break, the NAACP's reputation.
The search committee consists of NAACP members and staff as well as outsiders, including Jack Kemp, a former Republican congressman from New York and former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and Hugh B. Price, former president of the National Urban League.
Bond didn't return messages left for him. Roslyn Brock, NAACP's vice chairwoman and a member of the committee, says the search is "going well; we have many applicants who have submitted their names, and we're very pleased with the candidates. We hope to have an executive in place by the July convention in Milwaukee."
John Brittain, a law professor at Texas Southern University and longtime NAACP member, says he hopes the process to select Mfume's successor is an open one, where regular members can have input, rather than a closed process conducted entirely by the search committee.
Brittain says Mfume was selected through a closed process, but "people accepted it when they found out the name. I think people were kind of hungry for a credible person to take over what was then a stumbling organization. Now, I think people want a say."
The last three executive directors have come from the outside. Before that, prospective directors worked for years within the group before they were plucked from the ranks and anointed as leader, Jonas says.
"The lesson to be learned is they should search internally for someone who knows the operation, rather than someone who has a name but doesn't know the operation's special nature," Jonas says.
Besides the challenge of smoothly managing this "special nature," the new director will inherit an audit, as the IRS reviews the NAACP's tax-exempt status _ an investigation Bond says stems from a speech he gave criticizing President Bush.
Whomever is offered the job, they'll also have to deal with the sometimes unwieldy NAACP board of directors _ 64 members who meet four times a year. Some say the board may have frustrated Mfume as he tried to make changes: "I publish a newspaper; I wouldn't want 64 editors telling me how to write a story," Mondesire says.
Among Mondesire's suggestions for the next leader are Elaine Jones, the retired head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, an organization that is separate from the NAACP, and Maxine Waters, a Democratic congresswoman from California.
Scot X. Esdaile, president of Connecticut's NAACP chapter, says he hopes someone like Russell Simmons gets the job. He would "bring the young people into the association" and wouldn't be beholden to corporations or special interests, Esdaile says. Simmons didn't return a message seeking comment.
Esdaile, who calls Mfume "a personal mentor," says the former director will be hard to replace: "He'll go down in history as one of the great black leaders. Whatever happens, he's gone now, and it's a big blow to the organization."
