The bulk of the NAACP board will come to Baltimore tomorrow apparently undecided on the fate of Executive Director Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., but Chairman William F. Gibson has sent signals that he won't block an effort to depose the man who seemed to be his protege.
The 64-member board has scheduled an emergency meeting at NAACP headquarters in Northwest Baltimore to discuss Dr. Chavis' secret deal to pay Mary E. Stansel, a fired assistant, up to $332,400 to settle a threatened lawsuit.
Ms. Stansel, a 49-year-old former U.S. Senate aide, has since alleged in court papers that Dr. Chavis, 46, sexually harassed her -- an allegation that the NAACP leader denies.
But the main issue at tomorrow's meeting, board members say, is not likely to be the nature of Dr. Chavis' relationship with Ms. Stansel or other women at the NAACP. They say the focus will be on Dr. Chavis' judgment and credibility, as reflected by the fact that he told neither the NAACP's board nor its general counsel of the Stansel deal.
The Stansel settlement compounds a growing Chavis credibility crisis that has roots in other issues, including:
* His decision to hold an April meeting of black nationalists in Detroit without telling Dr. Gibson or board members who live in Detroit.
* His contention that the NAACP's nearly $3 million deficit was largely due to debts inherited from his predecessor, the Rev. Benjamin L. Hooks, which Dr. Hooks and other NAACP insiders deny.
* His boast that membership in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has jumped from 490,000 when he took over in April 1993 to 675,000 today. Syndicated columnist Carl Rowan reports today that NAACP documents show that membership has actually declined and is at least 200,000 fewer than Dr. Chavis says.
Over the 16 months that Dr. Chavis has run the NAACP, Dr. Gibson, 61, a South Carolina dentist, has been a fatherly figure who has gloried in the executive director's ability to put the NAACP back in the public eye.
The chairman has hovered at Dr. Chavis' shoulder at news conferences and photo opportunities. When Dr. Chavis jumped on a trash receptacle to address a Chicago street protest in July, Dr. Gibson followed. The chairman spoke emotionally about Dr. Chavis to the NAACP annual convention: "He's a good friend, a young man I have grown to know and to love."
When news of the Stansel deal broke, Dr. Gibson quickly sprang to Dr. Chavis' defense, saying at yet another joint news conference that the executive director had full authority to make such an agreement.
But more recently, as criticism of Dr. Chavis mounted, he has questioned Dr. Chavis' handling of the deal and the settlement's size.
Gibson still powerful
Dr. Gibson, who has been chairman since 1985, holds considerable sway over the board. That he has stopped advocacy on the executive director's behalf sends a message.
"My perception is, Dr. Gibson has clearly given a signal to members of the board that you can bring your conscience and intellect to the meeting and use both," said Kelly M. Alexander Jr., a Charlotte, N.C., board member who is regarded as part of Dr. Gibson's inner circle. Mr. Alexander has also supported Dr. Chavis.
Another board member and Gibson associate, who asked not to be named, said the chairman "has released all board members to vote as they wish." He said Dr. Chavis had assured Dr. Gibson that the Stansel case was "no big deal" -- and then the controversy blew up in the chairman's face.
"Ben Chavis obviously does not really tell you everything," the board member said. "Everybody will vote his conscience on this issue."
According to a survey of board members, only a handful will enter the meeting publicly for or against Dr. Chavis. While almost 10 board members of nearly 40 contacted by The Sun appeared to be leaning against Dr. Chavis, most either were undecided or would not comment before tomorrow's meeting.
Among the solidly pro-Chavis forces on the board are Larry W. Carter, vice president of a Des Moines, Iowa, financial company, and most, perhaps all, of the seven youth members.
"Chavis is going to win this one. He's going to win it and win it strong," said Mr. Carter, who supports the executive director's efforts to reach out to young and disaffected African-Americans. "If it goes any other way, then Larry Carter will resign as a board member."
Yasmin Hurston, a New Yorker who is a youth member on the board, spurred on Chavis supporters at a rally in Brooklyn Tuesday night.
Youth support
"Young people don't want to lose Dr. Chavis. That's just first and foremost," she said. "The youth love Dr. Chavis so much I don't know if they would be willing to open up to somebody like that again."
At the other extreme of board opinion is Leroy W. Warren Jr. of Silver Spring, who was the first to call for the resignations of both Dr. Chavis and Dr. Gibson. He objects to the leaders' consorting with black separatists and "gangsta" rappers as well as their financial management of the NAACP.
"I think Dr. Chavis should remain executive director for all of about one second. I think he should walk in with his resignation in his hand," Mr. Warren said. "If both Chavis and Gibson go, then we will get back on track."
More typical of board members' posture is Sarah M. Greene of Knoxville, Tenn.
"Everybody's waiting to get the true story," Ms. Greene said. "I always support who is the head of the organization until I can decide fairly whether to continue to support him. We are not going to support anybody . . . that could pull down an 85-year-old organization."
Dr. Chavis is apparently betting that a majority of board members, like Ms. Greene, can be swayed.
The executive director has tried to portray the Stansel controversy as an attempt by his opponents inside and outside the NAACP to stop his youth movement and his dialogue with black separatist Louis Farrakhan, who is scheduled to attend a second NAACP-sponsored black leadership summit that begins Sunday in Baltimore.
A group of Chavis supporters from NAACP college chapters in the Baltimore area are to rally outside the organization's headquarters tomorrow as board members are arriving.
Earl King, president of Chicago's No Dope Express Foundation, said he will bring two bus loads of Chavis supporters to Baltimore. Mr. King, a Chavis favorite, aspires to be executive director of Chicago's large Southside NAACP branch -- which passed a resolution this week demanding the ouster of Dr. Chavis and Dr. Gibson.
Mr. Alexander, the North Carolina board member, discounted the impact of the rally.
"It makes good guerrilla theater, great visuals for the evening news," he said. "But the people locked in debate and discussion won't see it except going and coming, and won't hear it." Hazel N. Dukes, president of the New York state NAACP, said that Dr. Chavis' fate will hinge on whether the board believes the civil rights organization can prosper under his leadership.
"I don't think people are talking about the womanizing. That's a side issue," she said. "I think people are mostly thinking about how can you go out and raise funds if people perceive that the board of directors don't have some checks and balances and don't know how to have accountability. That's the question."
The Ford Foundation, a major contributor to the NAACP's $18 million budget, has withheld disbursement of a $250,000 grant to the civil rights group pending answers to its questions about how the money is being spent.
Seek ouster of both
Two federal judges who are venerable NAACP members, Damon J. Keith of Detroit and Robert L. Carter, have called for the ouster of both Dr. Chavis and Dr. Gibson. Although neither is a board member, their opinions carry weight, especially with NAACP veterans.
Dr. Gibson's ouster seems unlikely, although he probably will face a strong challenge when he comes up for re-election in February.
Dr. Chavis' survival as executive director is clearly in doubt. But the board may not fire or clear him Saturday. Board members say they could find a middle ground, such as suspending him and ordering an independent investigation, or reducing his executive powers.
"This is not an exoneration mob or a lynch mob. A board is a deliberative body," Mr. Alexander said. "There's a focus on this meeting that says the board must do something dramatic. That's not necessarily the case. A lot of possible pathways lead away from Saturday's meeting."