The self-defeating tug-of-war going on within the NAACP is threatening to tear the venerable civil rights organization apart and leave it a shadow of its former self.
Nationally, NAACP board chairman William F. Gibson is trying to hang on to his post and its perks despite complaints by dissident board members and others of a pattern of lavish spending that has depleted the financially strapped group's coffers.
Locally, the Baltimore NAACP chapter is being rived by conflict between youthful followers of former national Executive Director Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. and long-time pillars of the community like branch president Rodney Orange and branch executive director George Buntin.
Meanwhile, staff workers at the NAACP headquarters in Baltimore have been furloughed for more than a month without )) pay as the organization struggles with a nearly $4 million deficit. Officials have warned some workers may be laid-off. And corporate donors are understandably wary of the group's tangled finances.
How did the once-proud NAACP come to such a pass? Much blame must be laid at the door of Dr. Chavis and his mentor, Dr. Gibson. In the short space of just one year, they have done more damage to the NAACP than all the attacks of racists and bigots over the group's 75-year history.
The trickle-down effect of the leadership vacuum at the top is evident in the travails of the Baltimore City NAACP branch, where youthful admirers of Mr. Chavis now want to take over the chapter once headed by Lillie Jackson and Juanita Jackson Mitchell.
The dispute arose after Kobi Little, a 23-year-old Chavis protege and candidate for president of the 3,300-member city branch, recruited about 500 youth members to join the Baltimore branch just in time to vote in the branch election. The national board, however, ruled that only youths 17 and over who had paid the $10 adult dues could vote in branch elections. Mr. Little and three other youth members sued, and a Baltimore Circuit Court judge granted an injunction suspending the election pending a hearing.
Mr. Orange called Mr. Little a "disgruntled Chavis supporter" who has shown little previous interest in the branch. Others suggest Mr. Little is a surrogate for Mr. Chavis' vindictive meddling. This kind of thing has been going on in local branches across the country since Mr. Chavis' ouster. It is petty, destructive and ill-serves an institution that more than ever is needed as a powerful voice on civil rights.
But the organization will never fulfil that role again as long as it is held hostage to personal vendettas and power grabs. Dr. Gibson and Mr. Chavis need to get out of the way so that cooler heads can begin the task of putting the NAACP back on track at last.