NAACP Ignores Baker Plea to Delay Judgment on Bork

White House Chief of Staff Howard H. Baker Jr. quietly pleaded with the NAACP on Thursday to back off from its opposition to President Reagan’s Supreme Court nominee, urging them to withhold judgment until Senate confirmation hearings.

The thousands of civil rights activists meeting for their annual convention gave Baker a warm reception with only scattered hisses, but they turned a cold shoulder to his appeal, becoming more determined to derail the nomination of Judge Robert H. Bork.

Columnist Cheered

Their defiance was demonstrated minutes after Baker finished his speech and left the packed ballroom at the Hilton Hotel. Syndicated columnist Carl Rowan went to the podium and was cheered wildly when he urged the delegates to never “roll over” and accept the President’s nominee for the high court.

NAACP leader Benjamin L. Hooks, who started the campaign against Bork when the convention opened Sunday, later praised Baker and said he “acted courageously” in coming before the group.

But he said the NAACP would not back down, and he denounced Bork as “an ultra-conservative whose mind is made up” to oppose affirmative action and abortion rights.

Four Democratic presidential aspirants--the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, former Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt and Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis--took up the fight against Bork in speeches this week at the convention.

However, New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo said he wanted to wait until he has heard what Bork says at Senate confirmation hearings, and Baker took up the same theme.

Speaking on the final day of the civil rights group’s annual convention, Baker gave the Administration’s side of the controversy.

“I ask you not to judge Robert Bork upon a fragmented record reflected only by newspaper clippings,” Baker said. “I ask you to consider the full record and Judge Bork’s views as they emerge during the confirmation process.”

The White House chief of staff compared Bork’s potential to that of Justice Hugo Black, who he said was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in his youth but was a champion of civil rights on the high court.

“I ask you not to use the power and prestige of this organization to defeat the nomination of an honorable man who has demonstrated so clearly in his own life the power of redemption,” he said.

There was some mild hissing during Baker’s address, and one delegate stormed out during his speech.

But the NAACP, which has adopted a resolution condemning the nomination, for the most part responded politely to Baker’s remarks.

Jackson, greeted by chants of “run, Jesse, run,” stirred the convention Wednesday with a call for daily prayer vigils outside the Supreme Court to protest Bork’s nomination.