Jackson Considers Top NAACP Post, Sources Say

The Rev. Jesse Jackson is seriously considering a move to the soon-to-be-vacant leadership of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights group, the NAACP, informed sources say.

The National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People’s secretive selection process Friday yielded a short list of executive director candidates that a search committee is to submit to the 64-member NAACP board today in New York. The names were winnowed from an original pool of more than 75 people interested in succeeding Benjamin L. Hooks, who retires March 31 after 15 years as executive director.

A potential Jackson move from the National Rainbow Coalition, which he founded in 1984, has been the subject of speculation within civil rights circles. Some NAACP members--most prominently Percy Sutton, a Jackson ally--are pressing the two-time Democratic presidential candidate to seek the NAACP job.

“He’s torn,” said a source close to Jackson. “I know for a fact that many people on the (NAACP) board are pushing him to do it and others” who are not members of the NAACP “are saying: ‘You are crazy.’ ”

Sutton, a New York City businessman and member of the NAACP search committee, said: “The NAACP needs him (Jackson), and he needs the NAACP.”

Jackson has refused to discuss the issue, as have Ernest Green, head of the search committee, and William F. Gibson, NAACP board chairman.

Hooks, the organization’s fifth executive director, said earlier this week that his $135,000 job has been the subject of such interest that “I can’t go 24 hours without getting four or five phone calls about who’s it going to be, have I heard or is it done.” Hooks said he is not part of the selection process.

Harvey Gantt, the former mayor of Charlotte, N.C., has been mentioned for the post but said he is “absolutely not” seeking it. Delano Lewis, president of C&P; Telephone Co., said he is interested but would not discuss whether he has had discussions with the NAACP board.

One official applicant is the Rev. Benjamin Chavis, executive director of the United Church of Christ’s Commission for Racial Justice. He said he welcomed the competitive atmosphere surrounding the position, but added: “I hope that the decision is not a popularity contest.”