The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People remains millions of dollars in debt. An accountant's report, expected to document how some former leaders lived like kings at members' expense, is still pending. And the central question has yet to be resolved -- can the oldest and most revered civil rights organization in the nation prove itself relevant in today's world?
So, let's not celebrate the resurrection of the NAACP just yet. The group's 64-member governing board took a painful yet necessary first step toward rebuilding its credibility Saturday, when it voted to replace its embattled chairman with Myrlie B. Evers-Williams, the widow of Medgar Evers, an NAACP organizer who was murdered in 1963. Mrs. Evers-Williams, 61, has been an educator, college administrator and corporate executive. She served as the first black woman on the Los Angeles Board of Public Works before retiring to look after her husband, who is ill.
The election ends the troubled tenure of William F. Gibson, a South Carolina dentist who has been chairman of the board since 1985. Dr. Gibson leaves amid allegations that he charged over $500,000 on an NAACP credit card and received an additional $300,000 in "stipends" during his 10 years, for expenses such as limousines, luxury accommodations and even a $600 briefcase while the NAACP tumbled deep into debt. Dr. Gibson denies that his personal expenses while on NAACP business were improper or excessive.
Meanwhile, difficult challenges lie ahead for both the organization and its new leader.
For instance, there is little evidence that the election of Mrs. Evers-Williams has sparked much excitement among ordinary folks -- certainly not the kind of enthusiasm many people displayed when Benjamin Chavis Jr. succeeded Dr. Benjamin Hooks as executive director two years ago. Mr. Chavis was ousted last summer amid allegations that he, like Dr. Gibson, had mismanaged NAACP funds.
For a few short months, however, Mr. Chavis had galvanized the NAACP and inspired hope for its future. He met with gang leaders in Chicago and heads of state in Africa. He helped forge a "sacred covenant of unity" with other national civil rights leaders -- including a controversial overture to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Although many of those steps proved controversial, Mr. Chavis understood that to remain a social and political force, the NAACP had to reach out to the grass roots. But Mr. Chavis was fired last August when the board learned he had committed NAACP funds without authorization to settle a sexual harassment suit brought by a former employee. For the past year, the organization has been preoccupied with the internal scandals that led to the end of Dr. Gibson's tenure Saturday.
Yesterday, Mrs. Evers-Williams promised to get the organization looking outward again. She said the NAACP will be vocal in its opposition to some of the proposals put forth by the Republican majority in Congress; it also will support the controversial nomination of Dr. Henry W. Foster Jr. for surgeon general.
But frankly, those are transient issues -- the kind of inside-the-Beltway politics that preoccupied past leaders as rank and file members fell away. There already are plenty of lobbyists on Capitol Hill -- even civil rights lobbyists.
I think the NAACP should reach out to the angry young black men who feel locked out of jobs and express their rage through violence and crime. And the NAACP should attempt to reach the angry young white men who resort to the politics of exclusion because they feel economically threatened by minorities.
Once upon a time, the NAACP understood that civil rights concerned all races and creeds. In the past, it served as the voice of moral authority on such issues -- and its voice was so effective that people all over the world rallied to its call. It was not a coincidence that jubilant crowds sang "We Shall Overcome" when the Berlin Wall came down and when apartheid fell in South Africa.
The NAACP needs to find its voice again. The angry young men -- black and white -- need to hear, authoritatively, that integration and equal opportunity for all are not lost causes.