New L.A. President Has Different Style but Shares Visions of Predecessor : Economic Thrust of NAACP to Continue

The downtown law office of Raymond L. Johnson Jr. has been crowded in the last week with newspaper reporters and television crews, all seeking insight into the man named Wednesday to head the 15,000-member local chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.

“It’s a lot more attention than I’m used to,” said Johnson on Friday, as he sifted through a stack of unanswered phone messages on his desk. “Yes, it’s made things hectic around here. I see now this (presidency) is like taking on another 40-hour-a-week job.”

The sudden death of NAACP leader John T. McDonald, 36, on Dec. 23 has thrust the 33-year-old, soft-spoken attorney into the spotlight, elevating him to the presidency of one of the largest chapters of the nation’s premiere civil rights organization. McDonald, in just two years at the helm, was credited with turning the moribund chapter into one of the most active and aggressive in the nation.

Johnson, who had been elected first vice president early last month and succeeded automatically to the top spot, inherits an organization that bears the mark of its deceased leader in virtually every area.

Although Johnson differs markedly from McDonald in style and demeanor, the two men shared the same vision of the organization’s future, Johnson said.

The economic thrust that McDonald brought to the organization will remain its focus, the new president said, and McDonald’s programs to achieve the goal of economic parity for blacks will be pursued with vigor.

“A lot of people would think that we see things totally differently, John being a banker with a background in finance, and me being an attorney with a background in civil rights,” Johnson explained.

Issue for the Decade

“But John and I both felt that the issue for the 1980s is economic parity--a less traditional approach (for the NAACP) than the issues of the past, like housing, education, police brutality. Our direction is not going to change while I am president.”

Although Johnson has yet to meet with the organization’s other new officers and committee heads, he indicated that the NAACP will continue to pursue campaigns of the last two years, including:

- Its fight against auto insurance “redlining,” which results in higher insurance rates for residents of South-Central Los Angeles.

- Its gang prevention program, which asks major corporations to provide employment for youths and financial support for an anti-gang public relations campaign.

- Its effort to force changes in the Los Angeles Police Department’s deployment policy, and to have more officers assigned to South-Central Los Angeles.

- Its “fair-share” campaign aimed at convincing major companies that do substantial business with black consumers to return a share of their profits to black community ventures and businesses. Under McDonald, the chapter was the most successful NAACP branch in the nation in winning “fair-share” agreements, including a $325-million commitment from the Adolph Coors Co.

The organization will also continue its fight to revive its desegregation case against the Los Angeles School Board--an effort that won support recently in an appellate court decision allowing the NAACP to go forward with the case in federal court. The school board has decided to appeal that decision, so the 21-year-old case will probably continue to drag on in the courts.

While McDonald was a charismatic, shoot-from-the-hip speaker with an ability to inspire his colleagues, Johnson is more thoughtful and considered, and chooses his words carefully.

Under his leadership, the NAACP will “promote blacks’ interests,” instead of “demand change” as it did under McDonald, he said, and the group’s tactics are likely to shift to encouraging cooperation from corporate America rather than winning concessions through intimidation.

“I feel very strongly about what John set out to accomplish and the agenda that’s been established for the NAACP,” Johnson said. “We’ll continue along those lines but we’ll also look for more creative remedies for the problems we face.”

Johnson was born and reared in Los Angeles and received his undergraduate and law degrees from Howard University in Washington where he was taught by some of the country’s most prominent civil rights lawyers.

He is married to former law school classmate Tamara Harris Johnson. They live in Windsor Hills, north of Inglewood, with their 15-month-old daughter, Erica Nicole.

His father was one of the leaders of the NAACP here during the 1960s and 1970s. Father and son now are in legal practice together, along with the younger Johnson’s wife, handling civil and criminal matters, including civil rights and job discrimination cases.

Johnson is no newcomer to civil rights activities, say his family and friends. He has been active with the NAACP since the 1970s and is well versed on the legal and political aspects of civil right concerns.

And Johnson welcomes the chance to demonstrate his leadership ability in his new role as president. In fact, he said, he had planned to seek the group’s top spot two years ago--when McDonald was first elected president--but reconsidered and ran for vice president rather than enter into a possibly divisive election for the presidency.

Concern for Perfection

“Clearly, he’s always been perceived as an individual who was up and coming and who might have been a candidate for that office in the future, when John decided not to run,” said George Mallory, a deputy city attorney who serves on the NAACP’s executive board and has known Johnson since the two were teen-agers.

“Raymond has always been a perfectionist, a very polished individual,” Mallory said. “He doesn’t have the same style as John. He is probably more low-key, but he has a quiet understanding of what needs to be done. People respect him; they respect his ability.”

Johnson has not taken a prominent public role with the organization in the past, but is characterized by other NAACP leaders as a “quiet, behind-the-scenes person” who has worked diligently.

He was unanimously elected first vice president in December, after serving a two-year term as second vice president and working as the group’s legal counsel.

“Raymond is very well thought of,” said Joseph Duff, an NAACP board member and the attorney who has shepherded the organization’s school desegregation case through the courts.

“He speaks plain and he speaks straight, and he’s trusted. He was trusted by John and he’s trusted by the (NAACP’S) executive committee.”

Just as McDonald initially came to office in 1982 amid controversy--he was bitterly opposed by established local NAACP leaders and it was not until after a recount demanded by his opponents that he was declared the winner--Johnson’s ascension to the presidency last week was not without controversy of its own.

Because McDonald’s death occurred only one week after his election to a second term and a month before he was to be sworn in as president, local chapter officials planned to hold a new election for the vacant presidency, with Johnson and second vice president Melanie E. Lomax the announced candidates.

Recommended Procedure

But the day before the scheduled election, local chapter officials received a telegram from the national NAACP headquarters advising them that the December election had been sufficient to establish a line of succession, meaning Johnson should automatically be elevated to the top spot. The local board met Wednesday and unanimously approved Johnson’s elevation.

Despite the controversy, NAACP officials say Johnson will have the unequivocal support of the organization.

“Our No. 1 priority is to continue on in the tradition of John McDonald,” Lomax said. “John took an organization that had been literally still for a number of years and turned it into a dynamic, vital and effective agent for change in the community.

“He is going to be a very difficult act to follow. But I’m sure Raymond Johnson will have the support and loyalty of everyone of us.”

McDonald’s shoes are indeed difficult ones to fill.

With his zest and charisma, McDonald promoted a new agenda of increased economic opportunities for blacks. He attracted to the organization scores of young, successful, black professionals, who now form the nucleus of the NAACP’s leadership here.

But Johnson is confident that McDonald’s legacy will be more a blessing than a burden, as he assumes the mantle of leadership.

“John showed people that it could be done, that his formula could work,” Johnson explained. “People are eager to go forward with what he started because we’ve seen that it’s possible to get the corporate world to bend to meet the interests of blacks.

“It’s important that the community remember John McDonald and what he fought for, but it’s also important to remember that we must move forward. He would not have wanted us to stop here, and we won’t.”