Pacoima Man Elected State NAACP President

A Pacoima man has been elected the first statewide president of the NAACP.

Jose de Sosa, 51, said Sunday that the new post will allow the organization to speak with greater force and unity on civil rights matters statewide. As president, De Sosa will lead 78 local NAACP chapters located throughout the state.

He said the two-year post was created as part of a national restructuring of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. Previously, the civil rights organization in the state was divided into three conferences representing Northern, Central and Southern California.

De Sosa was elected at a conference attended by more than 100 NAACP members over the weekend in Burlingame. He was sworn in Saturday.

Works at Pacific Bell

An engineer with Pacific Bell, De Sosa has served as president of both the NAACP’s Southern California conference and its San Fernando Valley branch.

De Sosa, a native of Panama, said he would try to use his black and Latino heritage to build working relationships between both groups.

He also said in a telephone interview that he would use his statewide office to draw more attention to the efforts of local NAACP branches. One of his first concerns, he said, will be to follow up on a lawsuit filed against Six Flags Magic Mountain by a black family that accused a park employee of shouting racial epithets at them.

De Sosa called on Magic Mountain to improve the training of its employees and said the NAACP would look into the hiring and treatment of minorities at the Valencia amusement park.

De Sosa also has been an outspoken critic of tactics and procedures used by the Los Angeles Police Department.

In June, 1982, he charged that police had used chokeholds as a retaliatory tool against blacks. Three months later, he helped organize a seminar on police brutality.

Protested Battering Ram

De Sosa was among nearly 100 protesters who asked the Los Angeles Police Commission to limit the use of a motorized battering ram after the device smashed down the wall of a suspected drug-sale house in Pacoima in February, 1985. He asked the commission to reprimand Police Chief Daryl F. Gates for what De Sosa called the chief’s “reckless and unreasonable decision” to deploy the battering ram.

Last March, De Sosa called on Moorpark Mayor Thomas C. (Bud) Ferguson to resign after he was quoted in a local newspaper as making racist remarks. Ferguson, who also was under fire because of allegations of political corruption, later resigned his post as mayor and, in November, was recalled by voters from his City Council seat.

De Sosa, born in Panama City, came to the United States in 1955 and has lived in Pacoima since 1960. He and his wife, Juanita, have six children.