NAACP Conferees Assess Riots; Director Calls for Jobs Program

Ending a two-day conference on the Los Angeles riots, NAACP Executive Director Benjamin L. Hooks called Wednesday for a New Deal-style jobs program and other initiatives he said would ensure that social problems that led to civil unrest in Los Angeles in 1965 and 1992 are finally addressed.

“Change the word Negro to black or African-American and the McCone report could have been written yesterday,” Hooks said at a news conference at UCLA, referring to the study conducted after the Watts riot 27 years ago. “It is tragic that the words of that report were not heeded, and now we literally have to start from point zero.”

Hooks said the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, would beef up its paid staff in Los Angeles and pressure lawmakers to address the “cycle of hopelessness in cities across this country.”

The conference drew two dozen NAACP leaders to Los Angeles for discussions on the conditions that led the city to explode after the not guilty verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating case. The session was a prelude to the group’s national convention next month in Nashville, Tenn., where delegates will decide on an official plan of action.

“Hope is the only meaningful antidote to despair and social disintegration,” Hooks said. “The great threat to America is . . . the ticking time bombs in our cities, towns and rural communities.”

The group said it would recommend the following efforts:

* Working with Peter V. Ueberroth’s Rebuild L.A. organization as long as it remains a vehicle for change and incorporates the input of blacks. “I can’t say we are completely satisfied with all that’s been done, “ Hooks said, “but we are satisfied that we have access.”

* The promotion of legislation to increase economic vitality in Los Angeles and other urban centers--including a public works program modeled after those started during the Great Depression. Critical to revitalizing the cities are jobs and investment in black business development by pension funds, insurance companies and lending institutions, the group said.

* Launching a voter registration drive for the fall elections to increase blacks’ political voice. The NAACP does not endorse political candidates but it does intend to issue report cards assessing the positions of the three major presidential contenders.

* Raising funds to hire a paid executive director and youth coordinator to work full time on local recovery efforts. Los Angeles will remain an important focus of the NAACP’s work, officials said, because of the city’s rapidly changing demographics and the opportunity for other cities to learn from its experiences.

“We want to . . . bring young people into the structure,” said Jose DeSosa, the group’s California state president. “Without any organization, young people are creating other, destructive means of entertainment.”