National Naacp

The national NAACP invalidated an election for president of the Baltimore branch last night after candidate Larry Young learned that his name had not been placed on the ballot, said a spokesman for the civil rights group. John C. White said a field officer found "serious questions surrounding the decision by branch officials to omit the names of Young and others on the ballot." Under the rules of the NAACP's constitution, the national office has the authority to intervene in branch elections when there is evidence of possible violation of the association's rules and regulations governing the election of officers.

As the nation watches the fallout from the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old unarmed Florida teen, many Baltimoreans are voicing concern. Among those intervening locally is Jamal Bryant, pastor of the Empowerment Temple, a large church in Baltimore, and former Mayor Kurt Schmoke, now dean of the Howard University School of Law. They have joined a growing network of civil rights leaders and others banding together to raise questions — and, in some cases, voice outrage — about potential racism in the teen's death.

At a meeting to clear the air after the firing of NAACP Executive Director Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., the Baltimore NAACP branch announced last night that it was postponing its annual Unity Banquet partly because of fallout from the controversy.The meeting also featured a surprise appearance by Martha Rivera Chavis, the wife of the ousted NAACP national leader, who said she had been hurt by "misinformation" about her husband. Mrs. Chavis taped much of the meeting at the Baltimore Urban League's Orchard Street headquarters.

More than a week after their leader received an envelope in the mail filled with a powdery substance, officials with the Baltimore chapter of the NAACP stood out in the heat yesterday to send a message to the city that the act has made the organization, and its supporters, stronger. "The fight for freedom is still here," branch President Marvin "Doc" Cheatham told supporters and elected leaders at a rally in front of the organization's headquarters on West 26th Street. "It's going to take all of us to turn the city around."

The national NAACP has ordered new elections for Anne Arundel County director, acting on a complaint by defeated challenger Gerald Stansbury that key membership lists were wrongfully kept from his campaign.At their national meeting in New York last weekend, NAACP officials informed incumbent director Jean Creek that a new election would be held next month, Ms. Creek said yesterday.It is not clear whether the new election will be for director or for the entire leadership slate, she said.Ms.

Members of the national NAACP will hear arguments next week to help decide whether James Pennington, the controversial president of the Baltimore County branch, should be ousted.The challenge to Mr. Pennington's leadership was initiated by Herbert H. Lindsey, a member of the county branch's executive board, who submitted a 35-page report to the national office in March documenting Mr. Pennington's alleged transgressions.In the report, Mr. Lindsey claims that Mr. Pennington's "dictatorial" leadership is weakening the county chapter, making it a "paper tiger."

The national NAACP has scheduled new elections for the Anne Arundel County branch leadership this month after the results of the last race were thrown into question by charges of fraud.Local NAACP members will cast new ballots for director and 27 other local leadership posts May 17, said Gerald Stansbury, who lost his bid in November to unseat director Jean Creek.Mr. Stansbury has been fighting for a new election since his 11-vote defeat, alleging that the Creek campaign held onto county membership lists until the day before voters went to the polls -- too late to be useful.

The national NAACP's delays in naming a new director of the local branch has left some members accusing the civil rights organization of weakness, indecision and incompetence."

For the better part of a year, the Anne Arundel County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has done its best to mimic the infighting, divisiveness and loss of mission that have afflicted its parent organization. It, too, needs to resolve internal problems and get back to the business of civil rights.After contentious, ineptly handled elections that dragged from November through last week, the local NAACP has devolved into warring factions. First, Jean Creek, president of the group for 18 years, defeated challenger Gerald Stansbury by 11 votes.

The election to select a new president of the Harford County NAACP remained undecided after 22 of 177 votes cast last night were challenged. Eric Bryant, a national NAACP official, said that the challenged votes will be checked to make sure that the people who cast them are members of the civil rights group. Bryant, who is national assistant director of field elections, said the new president should be known today. After months of bickering within its ranks, the Harford chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was due to choose between President Janice Grant and challenger Joseph Bond, a former Harford NAACP chief.

The NAACP has postponed its Baltimore branch's election tomorrow to give the two candidates for president more time to access the local group's membership mailing list. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People stated in a letter to the Baltimore branch's two presidential candidates last week that the election would be held Dec. 10, and both candidates will get time Wednesday to examine the coveted mailing list. The election will be held at the group's national headquarters in Northwest Baltimore instead of the local branch's office, said John White, a national NAACP spokesman.

The election to select a new president of the Harford County NAACP remained undecided after 22 of 177 votes cast last night were challenged. Eric Bryant, a national NAACP official, said that the challenged votes will be checked to make sure that the people who cast them are members of the civil rights group. Bryant, who is national assistant director of field elections, said the new president should be known today. After months of bickering within its ranks, the Harford chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was due to choose between President Janice Grant and challenger Joseph Bond, a former Harford NAACP chief.

The national NAACP invalidated an election for president of the Baltimore branch last night after candidate Larry Young learned that his name had not been placed on the ballot, said a spokesman for the civil rights group. John C. White said a field officer found "serious questions surrounding the decision by branch officials to omit the names of Young and others on the ballot." Under the rules of the NAACP's constitution, the national office has the authority to intervene in branch elections when there is evidence of possible violation of the association's rules and regulations governing the election of officers.

NAACP President Kweisi Mfume showed uncommon wisdom in declining to run for mayor of Baltimore. Now those of us concerned about the future of the nearly century-old civil rights organization can heave a sigh of relief.Mfume's leadership is needed more in the NAACP than as mayor Baltimore. Any of the politicians who have expressed an interest in running for mayor can lead Baltimore. The NAACP requires special leadership -- as Benjamin Chavis Muhammad, who preceded Mfume at the helm of the organization, proved.

A longtime member of the Baltimore County NAACP and several of her supporters have accused the chapter's president and its officers of letting their memberships to the national organization expire and sloppy handling of membership dues paid to the local branch.Dr. Bernetha George, a Randallstown physician who lost her bid to unseat Baltimore County NAACP President Patricia Ferguson in an election last night, said records provided by the national office show that seven of the eight officers of the local branch have expired memberships.

A small group of African-Americans is reviving a branch of the NAACP that died for lack of interest five years ago in Carroll County, which is 97 percent white.Those behind the effort say they feel that the presence of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is needed to dispel what they see as a racist climate in the county.The group began to mobilize last year after Carroll was the only county in the metropolitan area to reject "Call to Community," an effort to combat racism.

Gerald Stansbury has won the presidency of the Anne Arundel County branch of the NAACP in an election marred by delays in vote counting and contested ballots. His victory ends the 18-year reign of Jean Creek by a margin of two votes.Keith Jones, who oversaw the branch elections for the national NAACP, announced the results yesterday.Mr. Stansbury is likely to be sworn in this month."I won. And that's good," Mr. Stansbury said yesterday. "I feel we're on a path to make some changes in this county."

WASHINGTON -- The clutches of the law are closing tighter around William Gibson, the ousted chairman who almost destroyed the NAACP. That means that the new leaders of this civil-rights organization, Chairman Myrlie Evers-Williams and President Kweisi Mfume, will face a grave crisis at the February 17 board meeting.They must convince the warring board to move legally to force Dr. Gibson to return the hundreds of thousands of NAACP dollars that he took improperly, or the nation's most renowned civil-rights organization will itself face strong punishment from the Internal Revenue Service.

TWO YEARS SHY of its 90th anniversary, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is regrouping and refocusing.On the national level, the effort is being led by Kweisi Mfume, the Baltimorean who resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives in December 1995 to take over the troubled organization.In Anne Arundel County, the drive is spearheaded by Gerald Stansbury, who became the local NAACP's director last November after a heated internal ruckus.The power struggle between Jean Creek, the group's president for 18 years, and Mr. Stansbury bore a eerie resemblance to the infighting on the national level.

NAACP President Kweisi Mfume chided Maryland NAACP officials yesterday for protesting Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' plan to speak at an Eastern Shore banquet.Mfume said the move violated Americans' right to freedom of speech, "a process by which the NAACP has challenged injustice for almost a century.""Free speech in a democratic society must be fought for, whether we like what we hear or not, because one day someone will come to silence us, and then who will speak for us?" Mfume said at a Johns Hopkins Hospital celebration of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.