Maryland Congressman Chosen To Head Troubled Civil Rights Group Rep. Kweisi Mfume Promises To Get Naacp Back On Track

Hoping for a leader to bring it back to fiscal health and political relevance, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Saturday chose Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., as its chief executive.

Meeting in Washington, the civil rights organization’s board of directors chose the 47-year-old lawmaker to fill the NAACP’s top staff job, which has been empty for more than two years since the group’s former executive director, Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., was dismissed after being accused of financial mismanagement and sexual harassment.

Several board members said Saturday’s vote was unanimous.

“I am absolutely honored to have been chosen for this opportunity,” Mfume told reporters after the board vote. He promised to restore organization’s “financial, political and spiritual health.”

The selection of Mfume completes the efforts within the NAACP to revamp its leadership. While the reorganization has often laid bare regional and class divisions within the country’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, the group seeking change has succeeded in the last two years, in ousting Chavis and William F. Gibson, who was replaced as chairman of the board in February by Myrlie Evers-Williams.

Mfume’s giving up a safe congressional seat, to which he has been re-elected by large margins three times, is a signal of how the Republican takeover of Congress has transformed the dreams and strategies of black politicians.

Once considered one of the most powerful black figures in the country and a person who aspired to be the first black speaker of the House, Mfume is taking over a debt-ridden organization whose staff is less than 50 people.

In recent months, as events such as the O.J. Simpson trial, the Million Man March and the debate over affirmative action, have pushed race relations to the forefront of the national agenda, the NAACP has been paralyzed by internal squabbles and financial difficulties.

Officials say the last time the board had a meaningful policy debate was in 1991 when it considered whether to oppose the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.

While the NAACP has turned inward, others group and individuals, including Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam have moved forward, worrying white liberals and angering traditional allies of the civil rights movement, such as Jews.

In accepting the job, Mfume vowed to revitalize the NAACP, which is still staggering under a $3.2 million debt and still recovering from internal bickering.