PASADENA : Bereal Elected President of NAACP Branch
Charles (Buddy) Bereal, a 48-year-old youth worker, has been elected president of the Pasadena branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.
Now a counselor with Community Youth Gang Services, an anti-gang program operated by Los Angeles County, Bereal will head the 750-member NAACP branch for two years beginning in January. He received about 90% of the votes cast by members Sunday at the Jackie Robinson Center in Pasadena.
A former Pasadena city employee, Bereal in 1975 filed a discrimination lawsuit against the city that resulted in an overhaul of hiring policies, enabling more blacks and Latinos to gain entry level jobs in police, fire and skilled trades. In October, the city’s police and fire departments were cited in an American Civil Liberties Union study as being the most ethnically and gender diverse in Southern California.
The Pasadena branch of the NAACP began in 1919. It has an office in the Japanese Cultural Institute in Pasadena and a yearly operating budget of nearly $100,000. It is one of 22,000 branches nationwide of the 85-year-old civil rights organization.
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