Naacp Convention

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.

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.

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.

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.

CHICAGO -- A defiant Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. lashed out at critics yesterday and vowed to keep charting a new course for the NAACP as the group opened its 85th annual convention."

INDIANAPOLIS -- South African leader Nelson Mandela got the NAACP's annual convention off to a rousing start yesterday by calling on black Americans to help create a "democratic, nonracial and nonsexist" South Africa.Mr. Mandela, who is expected to become South Africa's first black president next year, said he would ask the United States to end economic sanctions against his country in the "near future.""Today we talk about elections because the sanctions have worked," said Mr. Mandela, who spent 27 years as a political prisoner in South Africa.

Rebounding from his first embarrassment as NAACP executive director, the Rev. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. will try to put his stamp on the nation's oldest civil rights organization in Indianapolis this weekend at the group's annual convention.Since taking over the helm of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People three months ago from the Rev. Benjamin L. Hooks, Dr. Chavis, 45, has injected renewed vigor into an 84-year-old group sometimes criticized as ineffectual.Moving quickly to establish his leadership, Dr. Chavis stumbled into his first gaffe last week.