Is The NAACP Still Relevant As It Nears 100?

Article (St. Petersburg Times)

At age 95, the NAACP increasingly deals with an aging, less active membership, and a faltering national profile. In 1995, it had 650,000 members nationwide. Today's membership is about 500,000, and some lifetime members never attend a local branch meeting. NAACP chair Julian Bond says the 25-40 age group is its weak link.

Some folks, like libertarian media commentator Larry Elder, say the NAACP is now irrelevant. We are Larry fans, but we disagree. The NAACP's legal defense fund is still relevant, to make sure that America doesn't backslide on racial equality (as it's done in three critical points in U.S. history: its founding, the Dred Scott, and Plessy v. Ferguson). Call us cynical - and the occasional crazy racist incident calling for NAACP intervention remains.

However, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People must alter its focus in the 21st century. It's 2004, not 1954. We have our civil rights, thanks in no small part to the NAACP. Yet it now smugly rests on old-school laurels and is an elite social club in many cities, when we still have work to do. For black folks to continue to advance, we must look inward and focus on economic empowerment issues.