NAACP Looking to Widen Its Agenda

Sometime before the Rev. John R. Williams prepared to launch into his final organ rendition Thursday of “We Shall Overcome” at the NAACP national convention, veteran civil rights activist Joseph Lowery took time to reflect on his five decades in the struggle.

Lowery, a founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and confidant of the late Martin Luther King Jr., made it clear the movement is preparing for new battles that may be as bitter as those fought and ultimately won a generation ago in places like Selma, Ala., and Little Rock, Ark.

“We need to make this the decade when we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the homeless,” Lowery said. “Even with one person, one vote, the system is not providing capacity to change public policy.”

Lowery and other civil rights leaders say Black America is confronting one of the most profound crises of its history. As the crack epidemic spreads and black unemployment rises, civil rights organizations like the NAACP and the SCLC are broadening their efforts beyond the traditional civil rights agenda, which seeks to end legally sanctioned discrimination.

One key piece of traditional civil rights legislation did loom large during the convention of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People--delegates continually monitored news from Washington, where Congress is debating the Civil Rights Act of 1990.

Beyond that, however, during the convention’s five-day Los Angeles run, delegates considered few resolutions directly related to traditional civil rights legislation.

Instead, delegates attended workshops on the “endangered black male,” economic development and a perceived increase in police harassment that many argue is a byproduct of the war on drugs.

And in his keynote address Sunday, NAACP Executive Director Benjamin L. Hooks announced that the association and other major black organizations will hold a summit conference in Washington beginning Aug. 16 “to address the flood of problems that are destroyed our community and weakening us as a people.”

“We must teach our young people that having babies without a job or education or marriage is not a sign of maturity,” Hooks said. “We must let them know that substance abuse is a new form of slavery.”

One topic that inadvertently became a burning issue concerned the lack of opportunities for African-Americans in the entertainment industry, and who should be held accountable.

While most delegates and officials prepared to board planes and return home Thursday, Hooks and William F. Gibson, chairman of the NAACP’s national board of directors, spent much of their time disassociating the association from remarks made by panelists at a convention workshop earlier in the week on “Blacks in the Entertainment Industry.”

During that session, some panelists voiced anger at what they said was the influence of Jewish and other white executives over film and music distribution.

In a letter to Hooks, Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the remarks were “hateful stuff, the perpetuation of an antiquated but dangerous myth.”

Gibson said Thursday the NAACP would accept an invitation made by Jewish groups to discuss the incident. He said “the NAACP unquestionably, undoubtedly doesn’t affirm (the) position” of the workshop participants.

Hooks added that the NAACP continues to believe that blacks are discriminated against in the entertainment industry. “We do have a position there has been racism in Hollywood. White folks run it. . . . Now, if you want to separate it into Italian-American, Jewish-American or Greek-American, they’re all white folks as far as we’re concerned. Now we have to sit down and reason together as brothers and sisters.”

For most convention participants, however, the controversy took a back seat to more pressing issues. Speakers and delegates repeatedly spoke of their concerns about African-American youth and their future.

But those who despaired could take some comfort from Monday night’s awards ceremony of the NAACP’s academic and arts “Olympics.”

More that 1,000 young black artists, musicians and writers--representing NAACP chapters from Worcester, Mass. to San Bernardino--marched into the Convention Center as the ceremony began. For many older, veteran activists, the event was a reminder that there will be more than a few soldiers to fight the new battles well into the next century.

“It’s just overwhelming,” exclaimed Barbara Fields, 43, a member of the Boston branch. “It reflects on the caliber and talent of our young people that is not recognized. . . . They are the hope.”

The NAACP has initiated a campaign in recent years to recruit young people, hoping to close the generation gap between those who marched, picketed and petitioned for civil rights gains in the 1960s and those who will take the struggle through the 1990s and beyond.

“One of the keys to the success of the organization is to replenish the supply of civil rights workers in the trenches, on the front lines,” said John A. Davis, director of the NAACP’s Youth and College Division.

“After the ‘60s, a lot of young people left the organization because they thought they had won something with the civil rights legislation passing in Congress,” Davis continued. “We are beginning to see a resurgence.”

Nationwide, the NAACP claims 50,000 youth members, compared with 30,000 a few years ago, Davis said. There are roughly 500,000 adult members, officials said.

Eric Boone, 16, president of the West Hempstead, N.Y, youth branch, acknowledges that not all young black teen-agers are interested in joining the organization. He has had only mixed results, he said, in his attempts to recruit a few high school friends who have run afoul of the law.

But, Eric said, “I’ll keep on working on them.”