Mfume Pledges to Revitalize NAACP : Rights: He plans to increase blacks’ political clout, boost their educational excellence and narrow the economic gap between them and whites.

Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.) declared Monday that he will revitalize the NAACP, despite the conclusions of some that the organization is almost beyond salvation.

“I have the management skills to lead the NAACP,” he said during a news conference called to outline his vision and plans for the group. “It’s not dead, nor is it near death. It is where I think a lot of organizations and sometimes individuals find themselves--at the edge of their own existence. You either go overboard and you perish, or you realize the potential that lies before you and you change drastically the ways in which you have lived. This time this organization has started the process” to change.

Mfume’s decision to forfeit his stature as a congressman for a top position with a civil rights organization is not without precedent. In 1991, Rep. William H. Gray III of Philadelphia--who as majority whip was then the No. 3 Democrat in the House and the highest-ranking black member of Congress--resigned his seat to become president of the United Negro College Fund.

Mfume (pronounced OOm-FOOM-ay) said that he will assume his new duties at the NAACP in February 1996 with three goals: increasing black political clout by registering new voters and encouraging them to vote, urging African American youths to aim for educational excellence and creating an infrastructure for blacks to gain economic parity with whites.

In what might be described as a demonstration of the political clout Mfume will wield within the fractious NAACP, he persuaded the 64-member board to name him president and chief executive officer. In recent years, the NAACP president was largely a ceremonial role with no policy-making duties, which fell instead to the executive director. He also secured assurances that he would report only to the board’s 16-member executive committee, not the entire board. Additionally, the board agreed to Mfume’s demand that it be reduced in size.

Mfume hinted that one additional item might appear on the group’s agenda under his leadership: a name change for the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. Many young African Americans strongly object to use of the word “colored” to describe themselves or the organization.

“I used to think that in my more revolutionary days,” Mfume said, adding that he is withholding his “personal opinion” on modifying the name of the 86-year-old group. “I know the board is looking at that and may want to revisit that. There will be debate and discussion.”

Mfume said that he is not leaving the House because the Democrats are the minority party for the first time since he arrived in 1986 but he admitted that GOP control of Congress did enter into his decision. “I could not in many respects go home and sleep comfortably at night, angered and frustrated and disappointed by a plethora of ultra-conservative, ultra-right-wing policies that are draconian and punitive [and] that hurt people regardless of their station in life,” he said.

Rather, Mfume said it is better personally and politically for him to serve the nation by fighting to bring social change from the outside with the NAACP instead of from inside Congress.