Charlotte NAACP To Pick New Leader
After a year of sparse activity, leaders of Charlotte's African American community are seeking to revive the local chapter of the NAACP.
Local members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People will go to the polls today to pick a new president they hope can guide the branch out of obscurity and become a uniting voice for the black community.
The vote comes after the previous president was removed in 2008 and the board was restructured.
“Any community the size of Charlotte needs an active and vigorous NAACP chapter,” said N.C. Rep. Kelly Alexander Jr., a former chapter and state NAACP president whose father revived the local chapter in 1940.
Candidates Kojo Nantambu, 57, and Michael Lawson, 64, are running to lead the newly restructured chapter.
Nantambu, pastor of Green Oak Missionary Baptist Church, worked as a former Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools parent advocate. Lawson, a retired businessman, is the chairman of the African American Caucus of the Mecklenburg Democratic Party.
Both pledge strong leadership and a clean break from the past. In 2008, the national NAACP removed local branch President Ken White over questions about his leadership.
Nantambu says he wants to fill the void left by the NAACP. And he wants to recruit young people who have been inspired by the election of the first African American president.
“We need to resurrect (the NAACP) so that it has the same kind of presence and effectiveness that it's had in days gone by,” Nantambu said. “There is still a lot of things in the community that have not been settled, racially and legally.”
Lawson also wants to tap youth.
“Our seniors are the foundation of the organization and the backbone of its membership,” he said. “However, we need the youth to reinvigorate the NAACP, get active, do the legwork, go door-to-door and kick-start an active and progressive agenda for tomorrow.”
Established in 1919, the chapter struggled through several dormant periods until 1940 when Kelly Alexander Sr. revived the state's oldest chapter.
Akin Ogundiran, chair of the Africana Studies department at UNC Charlotte, said a strong local chapter can give the black community more stature and pull. It can focus the many different voices among black leaders.
“The strength is not in having the same opinion,” he said. “The strength is how to define a common goal and using opinions to work out how to reach that common goal.”
Weeks after the inauguration of the first African-American president, the NAACP celebrated its 100th anniversary.
Alexander said the days of marching and demonstrating and demanding access are mostly over because overt barriers have pretty much fallen. He said the focus is shifting toward helping people actually realize the opportunities that are now available.
“It's one thing to be able to integrate a hotel – i.e. the people who operate the hotel can't keep you out because of your race.
“It's quite another thing to be able to check in and be able to pay the tab to check out.”
Members of the Mecklenburg County Chapter of the NAACP can cast their votes from 2 to 7 p.m. today at Little Rock AME Zion church, 401 N McDowell St.
Charlotte NAACP Leader loses his post
(National group cites missed meetings for dismissal; he says critics disliked his quiet style)
National NAACP officials have removed Charlotte-Mecklenburg NAACP President Ken White from office and ordered the local group's executive board to undergo comprehensive training by the end of April.
The moves come after months of controversy within the chapter over questions about the leadership of White, a retired corporate executive who took the reins in 2005.
In late February, the Rev. Nelson Rivers, chief of field operations for the NAACP national office, sent White a letter saying he'd been removed from the presidency for missing six meetings in a one-year period.
White tried to appeal his dismissal, but was rebuffed. He announced his resignation Monday, saying the chapter's problems center more on personality differences than deficiencies in its fight for civil rights.
Quiet strategy criticized
White, a chemist and retired executive for BASF and Goodyear, brought a corporate deal-maker's sensibility to the civil rights post. While some NAACP stalwarts favor street protests, White wanted a seat at boardroom tables, where he figured he could win more ground through quiet negotiation.But that approach brought criticism from others who said he wasn't outspoken enough on issues such as allegations of police brutality.
White blamed his dismissal on what he called a small, vocal group of critics within the chapter. He said he didn't want to get into "mudslinging" for fear it would detract from the NAACP's mission.
"The mission supercedes divisiveness," he said. "It's more important than any individual personality."
He said membership jumped by 35 percent after he took over, and now stands at roughly 500 members.
Terry Belk, a longtime civil rights activist in Charlotte, called White's dismissal welcome news. He said White bickered with other leaders in the group, but didn't speak out forcefully against racial injustice. He cited as an example the lack of public protest from the NAACP over the case of Darryl Turner, a 17-year-old grocery store employee who died last month after being shocked by a police stun gun.
"We've been missing," Belk said. "We haven't been getting out into the community as a result of the infighting."
White defended his record, noting, for instance, that he led a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police task force on racial profiling, and served on panels that helped increase the number of African American police sergeants and majors.
"The (civil rights) struggle has changed," he said. "You've got to have a seat at the table. You've got to be able to talk to people at the level where decisions are made that affect the entire community."
National Office steps in
White said his critics used the NAACP's meeting attendance rule to oust him.
The NAACP's constitution says that if a chapter president fails to make any six meetings within a 12-month period, he or she can be removed from office if at least three members of the chapter's executive committee notify the national office.
The Rev. Rivers' letter, obtained by the Observer, says three members sent a petition to the national office. It doesn't give their names. NAACP national officials couldn't be reached for comment Monday.
Rivers' letter also said the branch has been placed under administratorship -- requiring the local branch's executive board to attend a comprehensive training session by April 30.
White tried to appeal his dismissal, but received a letter dated March 28 from Dennis Courtland Hayes, president and CEO of the NAACP, saying the decision was final.
Under NAACP rules, First Vice President Rosemary Gladden has assumed the presidency. She didn't immediately return a call Monday.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Chief Darrel Stephens said in an e-mail that he was disappointed to hear of White's resignation. He said White had helped the Police Department become more responsive to community issues.
"He is a very thoughtful man who worked hard to strengthen relationships and lead us forward," the chief wrote.
The chapter's recent troubles first gained public notice last fall after the N.C. Secretary of State's office said it was looking into allegations the chapter might have mishandled donated money from its 2006 Ashanti Awards banquet.
But in December, the secretary of state's office sent a letter to the chapter saying it found no evidence that contributions were mishandled. That investigation was separate from inquiries by the NAACP national office, however. Vincent Frisina, a member of the local group's executive committee, said he still has questions about chapter finances. He hopes the national group can get to the bottom of things.
"I do want to see an active, productive NAACP chapter for the community," he said. "This is a positive step."
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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, NAACP, WCNC, Google Maps
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