Fourteen months after the abrupt resignation of its national president and CEO, the NAACP is expected to select a new leader during board meetings at its Baltimore headquarters today and tomorrow.
But the selection process has been a source of internal strife at the nation's oldest civil rights organization. Some of the board's 64 members say they feel shut out of the process, complaining that the NAACP's inner circle has narrowed down the list of finalists without their consent.
In February, this group of a dozen dissenters, calling itself "Leadership of Conscience," waged an unsuccessful bid to unseat board Chairman Julian Bond, and it's unclear whether they will accept Bond's recommendation when the board is expected to vote tomorrow.
The board is expected to convene in a series of closed-door meetings without a clear consensus on the candidate. The climate will be vastly different from the board's unanimous approval of former President and CEO Bruce S. Gordon in the summer of 2005. The former Verizon executive came to the organization amid fanfare and a hope that he could help boost its lagging fundraising. But Gordon clashed with board members over the group's vision and civil rights tactics, leaving suddenly in March 2007, after less than two years at the helm.
Gordon's sudden departure frustrated many board members, coming at a time when the organization - two years from its centennial celebration - was struggling to increase membership, raise money and cement a vision of how to fight discrimination in the post-civil rights era.
Many in the NAACP say they are eager to fill the void in leadership, but some board members voiced skepticism about this weekend's decision.
"The process in my view has not involved the full board, and that is something that concerns me very much," said Alfred Rucks, a 12-year board member from Las Cruces, N.M., who has said in the past that the selection process gives too much power to NAACP outsiders. "Others also have doubted the process, raising concerns about who has been selected. But I want to have an open mind and let the process unfold. The selection of a president and CEO is one of the most important decisions the board can make."
But board member Adora Obi Nweze contends that the process under debate was voted upon by the full board months ago.
