Naacp Convention

CHICAGO -- In what the Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. called a "referendum on our direction," the NAACP convention rejected an attempt yesterday by one of Dr. Chavis' critics to join the group's board of directors.Convention delegates elected a 20-year-old college student, Chelle M. Luper, in a runoff over C. DeLores Tucker, a civil rights veteran who had raised questions about the NAACP's $2.7 million deficit.While the election of one person to a 64-member board was largely symbolic, an elated Dr. Chavis and board chairman William F. Gibson labeled the vote a ratification of their leadership.

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."

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.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush will address the NAACP's national convention tomorrow for the first time since he took office, the White House announced yesterday. Bush's decision to speak to the Baltimore-based group's annual meeting - a tradition for presidents that he has eschewed amid his tense relations with the civil rights organization - came as his party is working to boost its appeal to African-Americans in an election year. It follows a bitter internal fight among congressional Republicans over re-authorizing the Voting Rights Act. Bush supports the measure, but some Republicans from southern states have balked at parts of it - a stance that party strategists worry will further alienate black voters.

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.

What's a national convention without a dash of Hollywood spice tossed into the mix? Yesterday, those gathered for the NAACP's annual meeting at the Baltimore Convention Center got just that, when Hollywood hunk Billy Dee Williams and Marla Gibbs, formerly of TV's "The Jeffersons," dropped in to say hello. They were there to do what Hollywood stars do best - promote their latest project. The two star in "The Visit," a new movie adapted from a play by Kosmond Russell that is scheduled to be released this fall.

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.

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.

No lost or confused souls should be found at the NAACP convention this week. NAACP members have taken on the role of ambassadors, providing directions to rooms in the Baltimore Convention Center and any other assistance. The ready chaperones - identifiable by white hats emblazoned with a blue "NAACP Ambassador" and matching oversized "Ask Me" stickers on their clothing - have their duty down to a T. "It's my job to greet people and make sure that they know where they are going and that they are going in the right direction," said Betsy Booker, a member of the Baltimore chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which is holding its 91st annual convention here this week.

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.

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.

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.

Coronation Ball evokes Dunbar poem, masks of Mardi Gras Mystery shrouded the Mr. & Ms. NAACP Coronation Ball last night at the Omni Hotel. Ball-goers wore Mardi Gras masks, making them difficult to recognize. Ball Chairman Brandon Neal, inspired by Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem "We Wear the Mask," decided that "Unveiling the Mask of the 21st Century" would be an appropriate theme for the event. Masks were provided, but some members of various youth delegations made their own disguises and had a "best mask" competition.

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.

In late May, Bill Cosby blamed low-income African-Americans for squandering the civil rights movement's legacy by giving their children "$500 sneakers" instead of books. Then, earlier this month, Cosby leveled more criticism at the hip-hop generation: "They think they're hip. They can't read; they can't write. They're laughing and giggling, and they're going nowhere." Cosby's comments sparked both howls and applause, and the controversy is likely to continue during the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's annual convention in Philadelphia, which begins today.