Two months ago, NAACP board member Alice Huffman played a pivotal role in a Democratic National Committee meeting that paved the way for Sen. Barack Obama to clinch the party's presidential nomination.
Obama's historic victory - the first for a black candidate - has been celebrated as a civil rights milestone. But when the Illinois senator takes the stage at the NAACP's annual convention in Cincinnati next week, Huffman and other board members of the nation's oldest civil rights organization will not be endorsing him.
As a tax-exempt nonprofit, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is forbidden to engage in partisan politics. Individually, many NAACP members have lauded Obama's nomination as a victory for racial progress. But they also say the organization continues to tread a delicate path, careful not to give the appearance of partisanship, especially since it has been accused of being too political in the past.
"We are of course pleased that an African-American has won his party's nomination, and we wish him well," NAACP board Chairman Julian Bond said in an e-mail. "But that will not cause the NAACP to endorse - or oppose - him."
As the organization prepares to hear next week from both Obama and Sen. John McCain, members such as Huffman acknowledge that this election presents an unusual challenge.
"It is ironic that we do have an African-American running, and as an organization we can't endorse," said Huffman, who is also president of the NAACP's California conference. "But as an individual I can be involved as much as I want. And I have."
Members say the organization, founded in 1909, has a long history of working for civil rights and social justice while staying out of partisan politics. At the convention, nearly 8,000 NAACP members and supporters plan to tackle such issues as mandatory minimum sentencing laws and racial health disparities and mark the 40th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act.
During the 1960s, Clarence M. Mitchell Jr., the NAACP's Baltimore-born Washington lobbyist, coaxed many Republicans into supporting civil rights legislation.
It is in the NAACP's best interest to pressure both political parties for its agenda, said Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA. If that didn't happen, "it would be completely ineffectual in some administrations and completely taken for granted in others."
