As the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), prepared to hold it’s 93rd annual convention in heavenly Houston, Texas, July 6-11, 2002 at the George R. Brown Convention Center, its president Kweisi Mfume checked out the host citizens and came away with a glowing report. “You have a wonderful diverse population. As goes Houston, so goes the nation,” Mfume, a former leader of the U. S. Congressional Black Caucus, was quoted as saying in Houston’s only daily newspaper on May 10, 2002.

Naturally, African-American News &Issues, which had no idea that Kweisi was in town, or that the NAACP was selecting a Blue Ribbon Committee for its 2002 Convention, at the time questioned the veracity of the leader (of what mainstream American considers African-Americans’ preeminent ombudsman and civil rights advocacy), insofar as we have yet to see anything wonderful about Houston’s fractious, diverse population, that we consider the city’s major problem. Nevertheless, one only has to peruse the NAACP’s Blue Ribbon Committee that is chaired by Mayor Lee P. Brown and Ned Holmes to understand where Mfume was coming from.

On Sunday, July 7, 2002, the NAACP Houston Branch and Houston Area Urban League (HAUL), will host The Mayor’s Welcoming Reception of The 93rd NAACP Convention at George R. Brown Convention Center from 3:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. H.E.B., S.J. Bashen Consulting and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company will underwrite the reception. The NAACP’s Blue Ribbon Committee includes such luminaries as the Houston Rockets/Comets’ owner Les Alexander, the Houston Astros’ owner Drayton McLane and Houston Texans’ miracle man Robert C. McNair.

It, indeed, will be a momentous event. For sure, there will be the Black faces that are usually found in high places, e.g., Milton Carroll, Anthony Chase, Wayne McConnell, Atty. Ben Hall, Gerald Wilson and Gerald B. Smith. Atty. Harry Gee, Jr., represents the Asian community, along with Don Wang, chairman of Metro Bank and Christopher J. Pappas certainly qualifies to represent the Hispanic community. And we are convinced that Ghulam Bombywala’s lineage extends to India, or other exotic locales in the eastern hemisphere. Even so, AAN&I still has a problem with Mfume’s suggestion that Houston’s diversity epitomizes America’s racial diversity.

It’s nothing personal. It’s just that, as Texas’ widest circulated and read news become the editorial voice of Black Texans and must speak accordingly. If a majority of the Black community has a problem with the direction the NAACP seems to be going, we are obligated to tell it like it is.
We must ask the question, “Has the NAACP changed its mission?” at their behest. It’s certainly easy to understand why that question would be asked, when one remembers that Black Americans considered the NAACP next to God in times of trouble. You can well imagine how excited the Black community would have been if the NAACP Convention was being held in our city 30 years ago.
But, alas, in 2002 Houston, Texas there seems to be a consensus in the ‘hood, that only VIPs are invited to the civil rights organization’s party. Perhaps, there is no truth to the rumor, that in big cities the NAACP has become so elitist and class conscious until it has totally disconnected itself from grassroots citizens, including the churches that were once the body and soul of the powerful civil rights organization.

And please perish the thought that the Black media is insulted because we were so totally ignored by the convention planners. It certainly would be petty if Black publishers resented (Houston Chronicle’s President & CEO) Jack Sweeny’s selection to the NAACP’s Blue Ribbon Committee.
Even so, the offspring of Black publishers, who historically played such an intricate role in the survival and success of the early NAACP, certainly has cause to pause and ponder if Sweeny’s family has the same tradition of having lifetime memberships in the civil rights organizations as theirs? Idle thoughts, perhaps, but one has to wonder if the martyred Medgar Evers would turn over in his grave because corporate America now pays the fiddler that allows the NAACP to dance on a much grander stage. Then again, one has to also ponder if the late Thurgood Marshall, and/or all of the other civil rights giants, that fought and won so many battles against impossible odds for the NAACP, would condone the actions of today’s leadership?

It saddens history-literate African- Americans that the NAACP’s current leadership makes it very difficult to refute the allegation that the organization’s greed has taken precedent over Colored people’s need. People felt more in touch with the NAACP under the leadership of C. Anderson Davis in Houston and Lee Alcorn in Dallas.

So, again, the question is: Has the NAACP changed its mission? Moot questions notwithstanding, it’s a safe bet that when poor Black people are unjustly caught up in our double standard criminal justice system, or come face to face with inequality, racism and discrimination in 2002 America, the NAACP isn’t the first advocate that comes to mind.

It would be patiently unfair, and certainly invalid to suggest that the NAACP no longer is working for the advancement of Colored people. On the other hand, the average beleaguered Black person simply no longer sees the NAACP as an invading army of conquering heroes, fearlessly marching to their rescue in the Mississippi delta (even where angels fear to tread), as they once did. Instead, it seems that Rev. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and other militant groups, e.g., National Black United Front and New Black Panthers, et al have pushed the NAACP to the background in disenfranchised African- American’s consciousness.

But has the NAACP change it’s mission? The answer, of course, is NO! Unfortunately, freedom is not free. The ever-escalating cost of litigation alone, makes it impossible for the NAACP to rely solely on membership fees. Conversely, the benevolence of corporate America puts the organization in the same political catch-22 as we find our politicians and leaders in. Denial aside, large memberships are valuable to organizations, but people don’t translate to profit.

Thus, the NAACP and all other civil rights advocacies (whose primary mission is to implement and foster the progress of made in America Africans) are forced to compromise to empathize. Ergo, the color of money precludes advancement of colored people.