Mfume Sworn In as President of NAACP at Once-Segregated Site

In the heart of a building where blacks used to be banned, Kweisi Mfume vowed Tuesday to help the NAACP “reclaim its voice” for justice as he was sworn in as the organization’s president and chief executive.

The former Maryland congressman said now also is a time in the life of the nation when it needs the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People.

Racism, sexism and anti-Semitism abound, Mfume said. But he said child and drug abuse and limited access to capital are new scourges threatening equal opportunity for minorities, particularly blacks.

“It is in the interest of all people that we succeed in creating hope, new opportunity, new dignity, a new horizon, a new chance for each and every American,” he said.

The ceremony was in the Great Hall of the Justice Department.

“There was a time in this country when the Department of Justice, the agency charged with protecting the rights of individuals, would not allow you in this door if you were of African ancestry. . . . It was for a very strong symbolic reason that we’ve come here today,” Mfume said.

President Clinton sat beside Mfume on the Great Hall’s stage. They chatted throughout the service’s prayers, songs and tributes and sang, with the audience, “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a spiritual.

Clinton, whose attendance reflected a recognition that the NAACP and other groups representing minorities remain vital, usually Democratic, voting blocs, said that “this country does still need the NAACP.”

Clinton denounced the distribution of leaflets in the Republican presidential campaign that criticized the interracial marriage of Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), who recently quit the race.

“No party should tolerate that sort of thing,” he said.