Naacp Executive

HOLLYWOOD -- In an ambitious bid to pressure Hollywood to hire more blacks, the NAACP announced a plan yesterday to establish a national office here to oversee the entertainment industry and to negotiate "fair share" agreements with individual networks and studios.If the agreements are reached, they would be the broadest accords of their kind in the motion picture and television world since the civil rights battles of the 1960s.The NAACP launched a similar campaign against the record industry in 1987, after releasing a report alleging "rampant" racism.

WASHINGTON -- A Georgia ex-convict allegedly angry at the actions of a federal judge and a Savannah, Ga., civil rights attorney has been charged in their bombing deaths last December.The Department of Justice announced yesterday that Walter Leroy Moody Jr. -- a suspect almost from the outset of the federal investigation -- was charged with manufacturing and mailing the bombs that appeared to be Christmas packages.One of the nail-laden devices exploded in the suburban Birmingham, Ala., kitchen of U.S. Circuit Court Judge Robert S. Vance on Dec. 16, killing Vance and severely injuring his wife.

WASHINGTON -- Opposition to Clarence Thomas' nomination to succeed Justice Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court got a boost when the NAACP and AFL-CIO said they would fight the nomination.The board of directors of the NAACP, the nation's largest civil rights organization, voted 49-1 yesterday to urge senators to reject Thomas' nomination, saying that he approaches critical issues with a "reactionary" philosophy that would be harmful to blacks.Because the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's move is expected to galvanize opposition to Thomas, it increases the possibility that he cannot be confirmed without a battle similar to the 1987 confrontation that defeated Robert Bork.

A spokeswoman for NAACP Executive Director Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. denied yesterday a report that he agreed to pay a fired aide up to $332,400 after she threatened to charge him with sexually harassing her while they had an "adulterous relationship.""Dr. Chavis is on record as saying he did not sexually harass Mary Stansel," said Terhea A. Washington, the spokeswoman, referring to the fired employee."He's also denying such a relationship. The relationship he has had with Mary Stansel has been a professional relationship," she said.

The dispute over NAACP Executive Director Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.'s agreement to pay up to $332,400 to a fired employee heated up yesterday as pro- and anti-Chavis factions on the group's board -- which wasn't told of the deal -- lined up support.The 64-member board was taken by surprise by reports that Dr. Chavis had committed the NAACP last November to pay Mary E. Stansel, who had threatened an employment discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit after she was fired, tens of thousands of dollars.

WASHINGTON -- The Rev. Benjamin L. Hooks Jr. denied yesterday any suggestion that he was forced out as executive director of the NAACP, saying his decision to leave the organization had nothing to do with the departure of several prominent members from the group's board."

NO MATTER HOW successful the Million Man March was in the minds of many people, for others it will forever be tainted as the brainchild of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. That is unfortunate, but it is not a tragedy. The march lived up to its promise. Hundreds of thousands of African-American males left the event last October as reborn men, determined to return to their communities and make them better places to live. Millions of other men and women, black, white, brown, yellow, who did not attend the event, were inspired by the camaraderie and purposefulness of those who did.Attempting to keep alive the spirit of the march, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke got together with community and business leaders to plan a conference they hope will attract up to 50,000 people to talk about improving life in this majority-black city.

Nelson Mandela made an eloquent plea for common humanity upon being inaugurated the first president of South Africa who was either black or the product of an election in which most of the adults of the country could vote. It was a worthy cap to his 75 years as campaigner for liberation.But it was also a great occasion of state, watched by a dazzling array of international luminaries running the gamut from Prince Philip of Britain to Fidel Castro of Cuba, and including Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke, Rep. Kweisi Mfume and NAACP Executive Director Benjamin Chavis of Baltimore.

No one can take any satisfaction in what appears to be the final act of the messy drama that culminated earlier this year with the ouster of Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis as NAACP executive director. Last week Mr. Chavis dropped all claims against the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for more than $300,000 in salary and benefits due on the balance of his three-year contract and agreed to pay back the $76,000 it lent him to make a down payment on his house.The out-of-court settlement appears to end what threatened to be a protracted embarrassment for the nation's oldest civil rights organization.

A lot of folks got a chuckle over the spectacle of a pro-gun control President Clinton hunting duck in camo cap and hip boots on Maryland's Eastern Shore. But a couple of stories from Washington and New York illustrate the more serious side of the gun control debate. In New York the week before Christmas, a carpet store owner bought $5,000 worth of $100 gifts certificates from Toys 'R' Us and offered the certificates to anyone who turned in a firearm -- no questions asked.If you are wondering who would trade in such weapons for $100 worth of Barbie dolls and video games, you may be beginning to get the picture of why firearms are a leading cause of death among young people in New York and other cities.