In announcing her candidacy for the chairmanship of the troubled NAACP last week, Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, offered a ray of hope.
Ms. Evers-Williams is a former corporate executive and commissioner of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works, where she oversaw a $1 billion budget and 7,000 employees. She is qualified to lead the nation's oldest civil rights group back to health. Whether that hope is realized depends on the willingness of the NAACP's fractious board to do the right thing when it meets Saturday.
The NAACP has stumbled from one crisis to the next ever since firing Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. last summer and the disclosure of a massive debt.
Ms. Evers-Williams, a longtime NAACP activist whose first husband was the group's Mississippi field secretary until his murder in 1963, is challenging chairman William F. Gibson, who has led the board since 1985. Dr. Gibson insists he will not relinquish his post without a fight.
A showdown would be bitter and divisive and further erode the group's credibility. Dr. Gibson is already under fire for alleged mismanagement that has left the group $4 million in debt. Last year, the NAACP furloughed most its 124 staffers to save money. Major donors suspended contributions and its pro bono lawyers quit, citing the board's unwillingness to put its affairs in order. Recently, seven board members filed a lawsuit accusing Dr. Gibson of improperly spending $1.4 million in pension and tax-exempt grant funds.
Thus the NAACP today stands at a crossroads -- uncertain of its mission, its board riven by dissension, its local chapters in disarray and its creditors knocking at the door. In such circumstances Ms. Evers-Williams, whose civil rights and management credentials are impeccable, could be a unifying figure who could restore the NAACP's tarnished image and help it chart a new direction in the post-civil rights era.
But first the NAACP must be willing to save itself. It is clear that Dr. Gibson can no longer function effectively as chairman. The national board needs to find a way to put partisanship and personalities aside and allow a leader like Ms. Evers-Williams to inherit an organization that is no longer at war with itself.