Naacp Officials

The chairman of AT&T met with NAACP officials in Baltimore yesterday to discuss increasing blacks' role in the company, which was embarrassed last month by a "racist" illustration in its employee magazine.In a joint statement issued late yesterday, the participants said further talks would be held on "such issues as recruiting minorities, providing scholarships for African-American students, procurement and promotion goals, utilization of black financial institutions, senior executive positions and management diversity training programs."

President Barack Obama's former pastor, whose fiery sermons ignited controversy during the election campaign last year, told a local NAACP chapter Friday night to remember the past while continuing to work for change. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright avoided any hint of controversy in his remarks to the Anne Arundel County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Wright delivered a speech, spoken in the cadence of a preacher in the pulpit on Sunday, steeped in African-American history and intertwined with family lore, imploring his audience to practice "recognition, remembrance and resolve" in the continuing fight for civil rights.

Two days after it riled Baltimore by endorsing a National Football League franchise for rival Charlotte, N.C., the NAACP issued a new statement yesterday that neither apologized to Baltimore nor backed away from Charlotte."

The vice president of Baltimore's NAACP chapter said yesterday during a rally for taxicab drivers that his reputation has been damaged after police arrested him, claiming to have found drugs in his car. Ellis L. Staten Jr., 44, was not charged with a crime, although officers said they recovered heroin and marijuana during a search of his vehicle Thursday near Pennsylvania Avenue and Dolphin Street. Staten said he was targeted by police because of his work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which held an organizing meeting yesterday for city cabdrivers.

NAACP officials accused top lenders of discriminatory mortgage practices in a series of protests yesterday in Baltimore and cities across the nation. Last year, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People filed lawsuits against 17 major lenders, contending that African-Americans were given loans with higher interest rates and other poor terms solely because of their race. The lenders have maintained that their practices are not discriminatory. But NAACP officials blamed the recent rise in foreclosures in Maryland and elsewhere on predatory lending and said that the subprime mortgage crisis had changed the American dream of owning a home into a nightmare.

ELKTON -- The recent distribution of pamphlets bearing the name of the Ku Klux Klan has alarmed Cecil County's black community and raised concerns about a possible resurgence of the hate-group that flourished here 30 years ago.While law enforcement officials have yet to arrest those responsible or determine if the Klan was, in fact, involved, residents fear the incidents will make it even harder to remove what they see as an unfair stigma of Cecil County...

A PARADE of current and wannabe movie and TV celebrities flit through the aisles, hugging and glad-handing each other while keeping one eye on the cameras filming the event. This is the NAACP's Image Awards. Many of those on display at last year's ceremony were young and nominated, it seemed, only because they had appeared in a recent TV show, cut a pop or rap album or published a kiss-and-tell autobiography. NAACP officials have proved deaf to the grumbles from many blacks that the Image Awards have become a black imitation of the Academy Awards.

An Anne Arundel Circuit judge yesterday threw out a suit filed by the former president of the county NAACP aimed at reversing the results of a 1995 election she narrowly lost.Judge Eugene M. Lerner ruled that he lacked jurisdiction over Jean A. Creek's suit because Maryland judges are barred from second-guessing decisions of an out-of-state entity such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People."Maryland Courts lack subject matter jurisdiction when the internal affairs of a foreign [out-of-state]

The black director of a regional community assistance program has come to the defense of the Turf Valley Country Club, which he says has been the unfair target of a racial controversy being kept alive by the Howard County branch of the NAACP.The Rev. Roland Howard, director of the Regional Action Planning Program, said he is encouraging the NAACP to meet with Turf Valley owner Nicholas B. Mangione to settle their differences. The two sides have been at odds since a Turf Valley manager left racist remarks on the telephone answering machine of a local NAACP member in 1988.

The NAACP will be able to fly its civil rights banner on a worldwide stage if a United Nations committee approves its application to become a "non-governmental organization." The NGO application for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is in the final stages of approval and should be completed no later than July, a U.N. spokesman said yesterday. The NAACP is seeking consultative status with the U.N. Economic and Social Council; 2,234 NGOs work with the council in areas such as human rights and international health, economic and social problems.

Baltimore police arrested the vice president of Baltimore's NAACP chapter Thursday afternoon after heroin and marijuana were recovered during a search of his car, though prosecutors declined to pursue charges. Police said Ellis L. Staten Jr., 44, who is also an executive committee member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Maryland conference, was in the driver's seat of a car that had stopped near Pennsylvania Avenue and Dolphin Street, which police say is a well-known drug market.

NAACP officials accused top lenders of discriminatory mortgage practices in a series of protests yesterday in Baltimore and cities across the nation. Last year, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People filed lawsuits against 17 major lenders, contending that African-Americans were given loans with higher interest rates and other poor terms solely because of their race. The lenders have maintained that their practices are not discriminatory. But NAACP officials blamed the recent rise in foreclosures in Maryland and elsewhere on predatory lending and said that the subprime mortgage crisis had changed the American dream of owning a home into a nightmare.

The president of the NAACP's Anne Arundel County chapter expressed alarm yesterday at a defense lawyer's request in a high-profile trial, saying it could lead to eliminating blacks from a jury that will decide whether a white teenager is to blame for an African-American youth's death in a brawl last summer. Stating that he was worried about juror bias, the lawyer for the first defendant facing trial in Noah Jamahl Jones' death told a judge yesterday that he wants prospective jurors asked if they belong to groups that pushed for prosecutions in Jones' death.

As a key state lawmaker demanded answers from Morgan State University, the president of the NAACP decried yesterday the college's compilation of a secret dossier on the late Del. Howard P. Rawlings while he was battling cancer. NAACP leader Kweisi Mfume, a Morgan graduate and member of its Board of Regents, said he was "sickened" by revelations that university officials had assembled a lengthy report on Rawlings, the powerful Baltimore Democrat and frequent Morgan critic who died Nov. 14. Mfume said he called the chairman of Morgan's board, Dallas R. Evans, yesterday and asked him to hold an emergency meeting as soon as possible.

The NAACP will be able to fly its civil rights banner on a worldwide stage if a United Nations committee approves its application to become a "non-governmental organization." The NGO application for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is in the final stages of approval and should be completed no later than July, a U.N. spokesman said yesterday. The NAACP is seeking consultative status with the U.N. Economic and Social Council; 2,234 NGOs work with the council in areas such as human rights and international health, economic and social problems.

A federal judge in Baltimore rejected efforts by the Adam's Mark hotel chain to effectively shut down an NAACP boycott, saying yesterday that the company's injunction request would unfairly restrict free speech about an incident in which there was substantial evidence of racial discrimination. U.S. District Judge Alexander Harvey II's ruling was a decisive reaffirmation of the constitutional right to stage boycotts to press for political change, long an effective protest tool for the civil rights group.

Six weeks after he was fired, former NAACP Executive Director Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. may be becoming a "nonperson" in the civil rights group.The NAACP's general counsel has ordered a New York state youth leader to "cease and desist" from a plan to have Dr. Chavis present an award named for himself at the state's annual convention this weekend in White Plains, N.Y.The plan for a Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. Award, to be given to outstanding youth members, "is...

Washington. -- Is there anything worse than an official of the financially strapped NAACP secretly using the organization's money to try to buy the silence of a woman who claims she was involved in ''an adulterous relationship'' with the NAACP executive director?Yes!It is frighteningly worse that some supporters of executive director Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. and NAACP chairman William F. Gibson are now using threats and smear tactics to try to destroy their critics.Several state-conference presidents and branch leaders have called for the resignation or ouster of Dr. Chavis and Dr. Gibson in the wake of revelations that Dr. Chavis signed a $332,400 ''settlement'' with former NAACP employee Mary E. Stansel to induce her to drop legal actions accusing him of sexual misconduct.

Baltimore County police turned the department's diversity training manuals over to local NAACP officials yesterday in an effort to help defuse the controversy surrounding Officer Paul Hoke, who has been accused of making racist statements. Anthony Fugett, president of the Baltimore County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said the organization would review the material while it investigates racial attitudes within the department. The manuals were exchanged during an hourlong meeting between Fugett and a dozen police officials, including Chief Terrence B. Sheridan.

Howard school officials tend to pat themselves on the back when annual test results are released, because the county's composite scores usually are among the highest in the state. But the county chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has reminded the Board of Education that congratulations aren't necessarily in order just yet. In its annual report card to the school board last night - based on results from the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program and Maryland Functional Tests - NAACP officials gave the No. 2 school system in the state a grade of F for the continuing dismal scores of African-American students.