Generation Gap at the NAACP

The problem with the NAACP (“Generation Gap Tears at NAACP,” Column One, Sept. 14) is that it has lost its focus; and a group without focus is a group with no reason for being. Once the laws of oppression it had worked so hard to change were changed the NAACP lost its sense of direction and purpose.

It seems so obvious to me, but for some reason the “Old Guard” at the NAACP keeps overlooking what could be their greatest single contribution yet to African Americans as a group--ensuring that all African-American children get the finest academic, cultural, social, political and economic opportunities that they have the capacity to absorb.

The NAACP cannot be all things to all people. Middle-class blacks who are upset because they cannot move out of their $100,000-a-year job into a $200,000-a-year job may have a problem but I doubt very seriously that it is one the NAACP should be trying to resolve.

The NAACP could have a valuable role to play in the new scheme of African-American progress if it would just stop and remember that advancement must begin at the beginning, and that means it must begin with a dedication not to the past but to our future.

RONALD E. JARRETT, Los Angeles