MARYLAND : NAACP Leader Vows to Fight Intolerance

The National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People opened its 87th annual convention with a pledge to tackle new threats to the empowerment of blacks. The NAACP, which last year suffered from a lack of leadership, internal strife and a multimillion-dollar debt, has been renewed by the need to fight the “national scourge of intolerance and insensitivity,” said Kweisi Mfume, its president and chief executive officer. The most prominent examples of that scourge, he said, have been fires at churches nationwide. Mfume also has some good news to share with members: The NAACP’s debt has been reduced by more than half since he came aboard in February--to about $1.5 million.