Naacp Convention

WHEN the president of the NAACP announced that the group is filing a class-action lawsuit against gun manufacturers and distributors to end practices that are putting guns in the wrong hands, it was the first big news to come out of the NAACP in years.The civil rights group has been criticized for being sleepy, irrelevant, out of touch with grass-roots black folks, not to mention its sex scandals and money problems. But it's finally showing signs of life again.At its annual convention this week in New York City, President Kweisi Mfume also threatened to lead a boycott against the major television networks for putting together a fall lineup of shows that doesn't have a single person of color playing a leading role.

From a distance, Bob Dole tells the NAACP to kiss off. Nothing personal, he says, just a scheduling conflict. He says this in a prepared statement, which is issued by a campaign spokesman. Better, he should issue it through an interpreter.The interpretation, for many, is that Bob Dole won't win many black votes in November anyway, so why risk alienating certain white voters in July with a gesture perceived as empty but ostentatious flattery?Bill Clinton can go to the NAACP convention, because he's seen as a friend to black America.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- It was Youth Night at the NAACP convention, and the hall was rocking to the sounds of gospel music. Thousands were on their feet, raising their hands to the heavens and praising the Lord.NAACP President Kweisi Mfume stood on the dais, clapping in time to the rhythm, smiling broadly. After 17 years in public office, adhering in his official duties to separation of church and state, the former Maryland congressman was clearly back in church."We came to have Youth Night, and instead we have church.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Vowing to turn out the black vote this fall, the NAACP ended its annual convention yesterday as Bob Dole accused the group's leader of having tried to set him up by inviting him to speak.In his first explanation of why he didn't address the nation's largest civil rights group, Dole said he was unaware of the invitation, suggesting that staff members rejected it.But Dole, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, said he probably would have received an unreceptive reaction from a group headed by NAACP President Kweisi Mfume.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Chanting "Four more years!" thousands of NAACP activists gave President Clinton a warm election-year embrace yesterday as he addressed their 87th annual convention.An air of excitement surrounded Clinton's visit from the moment aides affixed the presidential seal to the rostrum until he left the convention hall after a 47-minute speech and an extended round of hand-shaking.In a speech so conversational in tone that it was more like a chat, Clinton called for racial healing and said the recent black-church burnings in the South were a "symbol of everything that is wrong" in America.

Michael Dorsey headed south yesterday to go for the gold.In this Olympian summer, Dorsey, 18, won't be sprinting the 100 meters, slinging the discus or even wrestling, his sport at Randallstown High School.The aspiring preacher and broadcast journalist left Baltimore-Washington International Airport at dawn to compete in oratory at the NAACP's "Olympics of the Mind" in Charlotte, N.C.The two-day competition will bring more than 700 black youths from across the country -- all local medal winners in 24 categories ranging from poetry to physics -- to the civil rights group's annual convention, which opens today.

MINNEAPOLIS -- The NAACP's controls over its top officers' spending were so lax that the nonprofit civil rights group paid for then-Executive Director Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.'s purchases of toys, maternity clothing, electronic games and furniture with no questions asked, according to an internal audit presented to the board last week.A summary of the audit, which focused on questionable expenses by Dr. Chavis and former Chairman William F. Gibson, was made public at the NAACP convention here.

Washington. -- The NAACP's national convention in Minneapolis occurs amid the greatest civil-rights crisis for black Americans and other minorities in a century. Not since the Dred Scott and Plessy v. Ferguson decisions have black Americans been so naked before the law.For most of this century, somewhere within the three branches of the federal government were wise and powerful white men and women who espoused the goal of racial equality. Today, a Congress led by Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole is almost criminally hostile to the aspirations of minorities, especially black people.

CHICAGO -- The Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. capped the NAACP convention yesterday by leading 1,000 people in a peaceful march on a Burger King restaurant that allegedly refused to serve four NAACP youth.Standing atop a trash can outside the restaurant in downtown Chicago, the 46-year-old NAACP executive director told the young crowd: "We want to make it clear to all of America, if you mistreat one African-American, you mistreat all of us."As the crowd chanted "Burger King got a whopper problem" and "No justice, no peace," NAACP Chairman William F. Gibson threatened a national boycott of the 6,000-restaurant chain if the matter wasn't resolved.

Buoyed by an NAACP convention that bolstered his support, the Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. says he will reach out to youth and stress economic issues in guiding the Baltimore-based civil rights group through the rest of 1994.Today Dr. Chavis, the NAACP's executive director, is to lead a South Carolina rally to protest the flying of the Confederate battle flag above that state's Capitol dome.The protest exemplifies the militant stance he has adopted in recruiting young blacks to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

NEW YORK -- Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele stopped by the NAACP convention Tuesday to press the civil rights organization to consider his party an ally. The NAACP's relationship with the GOP has been strained for many years. Steele, the first African-American to lead the Republican Party, said he wanted his presence to signal to its members that they have options beyond the Democratic Party. Reminding people of his membership in the Prince George's County NAACP branch, Steele said he intends to depart from the "complete Republican's guide to speaking to African-Americans."

WASHINGTON -- In an intensely competitive election year, this was supposed to be the issue virtually everyone in Congress could agree on: renewing civil rights-era laws protecting minorities' access to the ballot box. But on the cusp of a scheduled vote tomorrow that White House strategists and other top Republicans once hoped would symbolize a modern-day GOP eager to attract more blacks and Latinos, a group of increasingly vocal Capitol Hill conservatives is...

Baltimore leaders, civic and political, are tripping over one another in the rush to pucker up and kiss the feet of NAACP board chairman Julian Bond in an attempt to keep the civil rights organization's national headquarters in Baltimore. A tip of the hat and my hearty gratitude to the politician or civic leader who will tell Bond, "Well, get to steppin', partner." The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People since Bond took the helm as chairman isn't your granddaddy's NAACP.

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman told the recent NAACP convention that he'd pull out all the stops to woo black voters to the GOP tent. A few hundred miles away, his boss was busy touting his program for jobs, minority business and homeownership at the Indianapolis Black Expo. President Bush and Mr. Mehlman got a listen at both places, and they should have. Blacks have gotten precious little in return for their blind loyalty to the Democratic Party. The black poor are more numerous.

MILWAUKEE - Civil rights activist the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson capped off a day of grass-roots political strategizing yesterday by imploring NAACP members to urge their congressional representatives to extend soon-to-expire provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. "The Voting Rights Act as we know it is on the chopping block," Jackson told an audience of about 300 at Milwaukee's Midwest Airlines Center, where the National Association for the Advancement of...

As NAACP delegates gather this weekend in Milwaukee for the group's 96th convention, it will mark a year since Chairman Julian Bond's searing critique of the Bush administration, triggering an IRS audit that nearly cost the organization its tax-exempt status. Today, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and President Bush remain at odds. The civil rights group continues to fight the Internal Revenue Service investigation. And for the fifth year in a row, Bush has declined an invitation to speak at the convention.

PHILADELPHIA - Moving to bolster his political base in the black community, Democrat John Kerry rallied supporters at the NAACP convention a day after unveiling a plan to spend $2 million on campaign ads aimed at African-Americans in battleground states. Kerry's presidential campaign announced Wednesday that it planned to run TV, radio and newspaper ads on issues that concern the black community. Yesterday, the Massachusetts senator criticized President Bush for skipping the NAACP convention and tapped into lingering anger over the 2000 election, when tens of thousands of blacks and Democrats were prohibited from voting in Florida.

FOUR YEARS ago, George W. Bush approached the NAACP convention in Baltimore with charming aplomb. The Republican presidential candidate knew he wasn't likely to pick up many votes from the overwhelmingly black organization, which differed sharply with him and his party on a wide range of issues. But he went in armed with self-deprecating humor, and the admonition that "our nation is harmed when we let our differences separate us and divide us." President Bush proved to be prophetic about that, and nowhere is it more evident than in his refusal to speak to this year's NAACP convention, now under way in Philadelphia.

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Leaders of the nation's most prominent black civil rights organization assailed three Democratic presidential candidates yesterday for failing to show up for a forum that the group held here at its annual convention. The six Democratic presidential contenders who did attend the NAACP forum appeared on a stage alongside empty chairs with placards bearing the names of the three who did not attend: Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.

Gore NAACP speech electrifies audience, dispels boring image Once again, The Sun is anointing George W. Bush heir apparent to his father's throne. First page headlines read, "Gore scorns Bush `talk'" (July 13). I listened to this speech, twice, because I found it to be inspiring. NAACP member or not, you can't help but to be electrified by this so-called "boring" vice president. He might be behind in polls now, but if he can deliver such fire at this convention and the months thereafter, he will capture the White House.