Changes at National Urban League & NAACP Signal Changes in Civil Rights Movement
March 4, 2007
What’s happening in the national Civil Rights Movement?
Bruce Gordon, the head of the NAACP, announced his resignation today. He is at odds with the NAACP’s board because he wants to focus more on social services, while the board wants to maintain the group’s more traditional role as an advocacy organization.
I believe that Bruce Gordon is dead-on in wanting to connect advocacy to tangible social services on the ground. An example of a two-pronged approach to this would be lobbying against police brutality (advocating) while at the same time training Black men on how to deal with the police (social service through training). I pray that Gordon’s departure does not mean that such a program would not be possible from the NAACP.
The Chicago Urban League last week announced that it is rolling out a new agenda focusing less on social services and more on economic empowerment. The National Urban League has over the years been transitioning from its roots as a economically-focused organization to one that has taken on more social services, but this represents a change in tactics and a return towards its initial goals at its founding.
I believe that the Urban League was heading down a great path by combining their economic and social agendas. An example of a two-pronged approach to this that I worked with last year was an after-school program for high school students (social service) that trained them on how to be entrepreneurs (economic empowerment). I pray that Chicago and other Urban Leagues around the coutry’s shift in focus does not mean that such a program would not be possible from them in the future.
What does this mean? I think it signals that a split in the movement that has existed since its beginnings still exists today. The question is, why are social services and economic empowerment treated as two ideals that cannot be strived for simultaneously?
Categories:
Black Issues
Civil Rights
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Key Quote from the article:
Mr. Gordon said he did not believe that the organization should abandon its civil rights mission but rather that it should expand its role to include providing social services. “This is not an either/or,” he said. “There needs to be the right balance between advocacy and service.”
Gordon agrees with me.
Yo,
I would only think that it is too obvious that you would want to put your theory into practice. Why would the NAACP wait for something to happen rather than take preemptive action also. Advocacy takes a lot of time and energy, why doing nothing to improve the community’s relationship and understanding. As a people in general, we need to move from the “give a fish” mentality to the “teach a man how to fish” mentality. If our leaders and most venerable institutions cannot see the big picture, then what will the people do?
Economic empowerment to really be achieved is going to have to take the form of social services. How do they plan on getting information to the people? How do they plan on empowering people who are hungry. It is hard to listen to anything over my stomach grumbling and my pockets being empty. Actions always speak louder than words at the end of the day.
I agree Steve. What is important to note here is that advocacy, economic empowerment, and social service are joined at the hip. One is not truly sustainable without the other two.
We could be seeing the difference in generations when it comes to approaching Civil Rights. People such as myself and others in my generation would like to use social services as the primary vehicle through which we advocate and bring about economic empowerment. Previous generation(s) may have found it more appropriate to focus on advocacy even at the expense of social services, believing that successfully advocacy would lead to better services in the future.
Perhaps that was true at some point, but I believe that today is a time where we can do both at the same time. I am disturbed that the Board of the NAACP, which is representative of the previous generation’s mindset, is losing perspective and not seeing the need to broaden the organization’s scope.
What this means Steve is that “the people” you mention will fill this potential void of services by giving more of themselves to serve the needs of others if/when these over-arching institutions do not see that as an immediate priority.
What’s going on people?! This is Alex. I registered on the blog yesterday and figured I’d weigh in on the subject. I think that the NAACP fails to either realize or admit that a lot has changed in the black community within the past 20 to 30 yrs. On the NPR broadcast “News and Notes”, Ron Walters said that a past problem for the NAACP (and the Congressional Black Caucus) was that they were trying to all inclusively serve the black struggle and that they focused on advocacy while leaving other objectives, such as social services, to other groups inlcuding the Urban league. The problem is not only has there been less of a need for advocacy but these other organizations that were counted on for these other issues have become less productive or have siezed to exist altogether. As a matter of fact, i would say the our defaultive nature to advocative solutions is a problem, in itself, to the community (e.g. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton)
I am finally happy to hear that there are Black people other than NAACPers who are concerned about Black People.
Now, if you all can get together, you can form your own social services organization, and do everything you want to do to help!
Been waiting on y’all to give back.