NAACP moves away from civil rights

Staff Reporter | Posted July 15, 2009 9:36 AM

Incited by lynching, segregation, and racial violence, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was launched in a fight for civil rights and the eradication of segregation. One hundred years later, from Brown vs. Board of Education to the election of Barack Obama, the NAACP is faced with re-defining its role in the 21st century.

Some argue that with a black president we are now living in a time that moves beyond race. Basheer Jones, a 24-year-old host of Cleveland's Newstalk 1490 AM, said the NAACP needs to catch up with the times. "This new generation of leadership has to be different. We have to have the same courage and enthusiasm, but we have to unite a little bit more despite your religion, your socioeconomic status," said Jones, who believes today's struggle is class-based.

Civil rights historian David Garrow argues that the shift away from the traditional notion of black civil rights is due to the growth in black civic involvement. When asked if the NAACP was at the end of the civil rights era, Garrow replied, "It's just sort of a definitional question. It's a conundrum of the label...The transition from one era to another in terms of African-American civil rights is really marked by the movement of African Americans into civic life and government." He said, "we could say that the election of Barack Obama marks the end of an era. It signifies the complete inclusion of black people at all levels of politics."

Despite progress, incidents such as the racial discrimination at the Valley Swim Club in Philadelphia, where black day-camp children were told to leave a pool because white parents said, they "changed the complexion and atmosphere," suggest racism still exist.

At 36, NAACP President Ben Jealous, the youngest person to ever head the organization, revealed plans to change the organization's mission. In a speech at the organization's centennial, Jealous said, "We have succeeded in many ways - Obama and [Eric] Holder are examples of that - but we are very much focused on the work ahead."

The organization plans to broaden its mission to transcend racial barriers, becoming less civil rights focused and more human rights centered. "We are a very black organization, but we are not a black organization. There is a difference. It's the difference between being able to play the black position on the field and being able to play any position," Jealous said. "We are from our origin a multiracial, multiethnic human rights organization."

Is the transition plausible?

Rinku Sen, president of the Applied Research Center, a think tank on race, said the NAACP's decision is timely, but may be hard. "People have the urge to come together but often find it difficult to build staying power for those alliances, and quite a lot of that loops back to racial dynamics and our inability to resolve them." The Oakland activist said "there are real differences in how groups pushing for racial justice experience the problem. African Americans, Latino immigrants and South Asian Muslims don't fit in exactly the same place in the hierarchy."

While the NAACP works to broaden its scope and goals, it is becoming more technologically savvy and accessible to its constituents. On Monday, the organization launched its "rapid response system." The system incorporates new-age technology, which allows people who snap photos or video of incidents of alleged police misconduct on their cell phones to immediately upload it through a Web browser to the organization. The sender then receives a form, in which they can elaborate on the incident. The NAACP then decides if it's a situation that warrants immediate attention or if it should be added to a database to illustrate discriminatory patterns.

Incorporating new technology to report on discrimination and expanding the organizations mission, the NAACP plans to enter a new era that goes beyond racial and ethnic lines and focus on national human rights issues.


Articles written by a Staff Reporter are unsigned reports from a member of the staff.

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