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Episode #2109
NC NAACP New Leadership
Lewis: The North Carolina NAACP state conference is now under new leadership. We'll introduce you to the new president, the Reverend Dr. William Barber II, and find out the plans he has for the organization next on Black Issues Forum.
Voiceover: Funding for this program is made possible in part by UNC TV members.
Lewis: Welcome to Black Issues Forum, I'm Mitchell Lewis. On Saturday October 8, 2005, the North Carolina National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or the NAACP held its 66th annual state conference in Greensboro. Delegates from the 109 NAACP state branches were invited to participate in the conference's trainings, workshops, goal setting, and a host of other activities. Elections were also held as state offices were up for grabs. This year's state NAACP delegates elected the Reverend Dr. William Barber II as their president, replacing former president Melvin Skip Alston, who had served at the post for the past nine years. President Barber will join us shortly to talk about his new role, but at this time we would like to show you a piece outlining the history of the North Carolina NAACP by producer Thomas Todd.
Todd: Pushing for job opportunities for people and pressing for equal education opportunities for students are actions the National Association For the Advancement of Colored People, or the NAACP, have taken to create equal rights for African Americans.
Alston: The NAACP's job is to knock down and open doors for African Americans. And the reason you see African Americans sitting in these high places in corporate America and within city and county government is because the NAACP knocked down that door.
Todd: According to the NAACP, many African-Americans living in North Carolina before 1948 began knocking down the doors of racial discrimination when they began to form local NAACP branches throughout the state. Speaking from a podium is Kelly Alexander. Alexander became the district director for the Charlotte branch in 1948. He met with a number of NAACP members in North Carolina to share non-violent protest strategies. Because of Kelly Alexander's ability to inspire hope for change in people, the nearly 100 NAACP branches voted him president of the NAACP state conference. Through his 36 years of leadership, the NAACP became a very powerful force in desegregating public parks, schools, and businesses to change not only North Carolina history, but also American history.
In 1984, Alexander retired his position at the state NAACP to allow the younger Kelly Alexander Jr. to lead the organization. While Kelly Alexander Jr. hoped to outlast his father's 36 year run as president, his term ended after 12 years because of charges made by the NAACP of mismanagement of funds.
Alston: In 1996, after the suspension of our state president, I became the president. I wanted to make the NAACP a force to be reckoned with within the white community, knowing that there is a watchdog that is watching all of the activities across the state concerning African-Americans. I wanted to become more politically involved.
Todd: While president Alston and the NAACP tried working closely with political leaders to encourage them to draft and support bills to benefit the African American community, some NAACP members felt that Alston should have strongly countered the controversial payday lending legislation. Tension and mistrust arose over Alston's alleged mishandling of the Payday Lending Bill.
Alston: In 2003, when a bill was on the table, we invited-the NAACP executive committee invited the people for payday lending and people against payday lending to come to us in order to present your case. And then when both of them presented their case, there was a motion made by one of my members to not take a position on the bill at all, okay? The motion passed unanimously, okay? I, as president at that time-I couldn't go out and speak for the bill or against the bill. And then some powers that be that know Julian Bond very well-they wrote-called Julian Bond and asked him to take a position on the bill. And Julian Bond sent a letter down to the legislature and said that the NAACP opposed the bill. Julian Bond was in error because he should not have-well, he was wrong to do that without letting me know as state conference president. I have never supported payday lending.
Todd: Despite Julian Bond's apology to president Alston and his executive committee for bypassing their decision on the Payday Lending Bill, some NAACP state members were still disappointed in Alston's leadership during the conflict. They expressed their discontent with his leadership by voting 166 to 117 in the 2005 NAACP presidential campaign to replace Skip Alston with the Reverend William Barber II.
Lewis: And welcome back to black issues forum. I'm joined by the new president of the North Carolina National Association For the Advancement of Colored People. Reverend Dr. William Barber II, thanks for joining us.
Barber: Thank you so much, glad to be here, Mitch.
Lewis: Dr. Barber, first of all, what led you to run for the presidency of the state NAACP?
Barber: Well, I've been involved in NAACP ever since I was a Youth Council president down in Washington County. My running this year-I had numerous people call me from around the state and ask that I would run. They knew the kind of community involvement and leadership we provided for a number of years. I grew up in an activist family with my father and my mother down in Washington County. I was always reminded by my family, "Unto whom much is given, much is required." Thirdly, I was trained theologically in public policy and pastoral care, and so I see social justice as an extension of the pastorate, not as something separate from the pastorate. And then finally I just felt we needed a very healthy and vigorous debate about the direction of the NAACP and about the need for us to be more activist in our approach, and out front speaking very clearly to the issues that we face today.
Lewis: What did you see as some of the specific issues in your campaign?
Barber: Well, I said in the running that, number one, the NAACP needed to clearly be an organization that speaks truth to power-retain and maintain its posture as a civil rights, grassroots organization, and that the inspiration and involvement of young people must be at the hallmark; and that we must develop a clear, concise and courageous civil rights agenda for North Carolina.
Lewis: You talked about some of your background. I would like to know, how important were your parents, especially when it came to you becoming more involved in being an activist?
Barber: Well, from the day I was-that I can remember them talking-I was born two days after the March on Washington-August 30th of 1963. My father and mother often teased me and said that I waited to see what would happen at the March on Washington. But I was taught from an early age-my mother and father were recruited back to North Carolina-my father was from North Carolina and my mother is from West Virginia-to help integrate the school system in Washington County. There was a tremendous leader in that area called E.V. Wilkins, who was a principal. And my father was a science teacher and my mother was an office manager, and they were actually brought back because of how-what they had participated in Indiana to help integrate. So from the earliest time, I understood the need for civil rights; I watched my parents engage in changing the community. My father was a pastor with a very, very clear social gospel instinct, whether it was working with workers who weren't being paid fairly by warehouses, whether it was helping to integrate the schools, or whether it was engaging in economic development, that's always been a part of my family upbringing.
Lewis: What type of challenges did your parents face, especially in doing this type of work?
Barber: Well, you know, I can remember my mother, you know, being challenged quite a bit-sometimes her character being assassinated, you know, in attempts-when she was a part of the integration of the school system. Having to always be on top of her game, you know-everything that was thrown at her that she had to learn new. I can remember my father having night meetings and sometimes secret meetings, as he was involved in civil rights, and being gone a lot. You know, I traveled with them. And there was always somebody in our house, or some phone call, or some issue that he was dealing with, not just in civil rights, but also in terms of being a member of the Community Action-the CAP programs down in eastern North Carolina.
Lewis: You've been involved with the NAACP for a while; how did you get started?
Barber: I got started on the Youth Council, and our Youth Council won Youth Council of the year under Kelly Alexander Sr. I was President of the year back then, and just-you know, it was-to not be involved in my family would be the anomaly. I went to North Carolina Central University; I was a student activist there: worked on the campaign with Jesse Jackson; led a movement that marched some 6,000 to 7,000 students to Raleigh when I was Student Government President to help fight for more funding for historically black colleges; worked with Lavonia Allison in Durham and marched about 1,200 students to the polls in Durham; but also the fight that precincts would be on the campuses of colleges, because we lived at our college residence nine months out of the year. So it's been kind of a continuous, you know, growth through my life.
Lewis: And you also attended Duke Divinity School.
Barber: That's right.
Lewis: And after you graduated, what was the next step for you? Where did you go?
Barber: Well, after leaving North Carolina Central University, actually, I was asked-recruited to do-by two people, Dr. C.G. Newsome, who is now the president of Shaw University, and Dr. William Turner who is a professor of pneumatology at Duke-went there and was trained. I remember, just before I graduated, a sermon by Dr.-Bishop Desmond Tutu in which he just called on us to join the parntership of God. So I left seminary and went to Martinsville, Virginia and pastored in Martinsville, Virginia, and got invovled in environmental racism called SCAT-Sensible Concerns About Toxics-where we found that these truck-this trucking agency was putting pollutants in the poor white and poor African American community. And we took on that issue there.
Lewis: And then you moved back into North Carolina, into Goldsboro, where you pastured a church. Tell me about some of the things that took place. What-what was the situation when you arrived in Goldsboro, in that particular community?
Barber: Yeah. And actually before I came back, I came back-I went back to my alma mater and served as campus minister. Then I was asked-and I worked with the Institute for Minority Economic Development. Then I was asked to serve as the executive director for the North Carolina Human Relations Commission enforcing fair housing, doing diversity training, monitoring hate groups. And then I was called to Greenleaf Christian Church as a pastor. We live in a-we live-Greenleaf Christian Church is 75 feet from a housing development-what some people call a "project"-I don't like those terms-but an affordable housing development. But also their were high levels of poverty in that area. And so our congregation asked this critical question: why is it that we're on the corner of Patetown and Williams St.? Are we here just to have a beautiful sanctuary, or are we here to transform the community? And that led to the development of a piece called "Rebuilding Broken Places Community Development." The congregation put about a million and-a-half dollars of our own money to begin inner city revitalization, and to this date we've done a little bit over $5 million of housing and development and community center and daycare and after school programs and computer training-those kinds of things.
Lewis: How important was it for the church to get involved in such a center, and what were some of the benefits that you saw from that?
Barber: Well, some time ago-as I said, in my doctoral program, I studied pastoral care and public policy-and even in seminary at Duke. There can be no disconnect from theology and praxis. There can be no disconnect between social justice and the Gospel. I mean, Jesus' first sermon was highly political and prophetic. He went back home to the ghetto of Nazareth and said, "Listen, the spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach good news to the poor, recover sight to the blind, healing to the broken-hearted." Those are very political categories. And so I don't-I don't know how to pastor, and have a pastoral concern for your people, and not be concerned about the conditions that are creating the pastoral problems, or the need for the pastoral counseling. So the church has to be a change agent in the life of the community.
Lewis: Were there any challenges you faced while you were trying to uplift people in this particular community?
Barber: Oh, sure, because whenever-there's a book entitled Faith In Praxis, and whenever people-you have high levels of poverty, somebody is benefiting from those high levels of poverty. There is some system wrapped around it. So you have to challenge the system. Then you have to, many times-like Nehemiah in the Bible-challenge the spirit of people who have been, sometimes, in a situation so long that they don't believe change is possible. I mean, I can remember folks saying-when we talked about a community center-we talked about first time home buyers-we talked about doing housing for low income seniors-saying, "It'll never happen. This just doesn't happen in this community." So you're kind of working on both ends: you're challenging the system, you're bringing together coalitions, and then on the other end, you're trying to motivate the spirit of the people to believe, so that you're not just doing it for them, but with them.
Lewis: Although you have been involved in many things, how did this particular experience, say, prepare you even further to apply for state office with the NAACP?
Barber: Well, again, you know, I had served with state office before as the political action chair for the state, and have been a keynote speaker at the numerous state conferences of the NAACP and branches around. But I think that the preparation of a pastor, being versed in what I like to call "prophetic social consciousness" ties right into the history of the NAACP. You know, our beginning, nearly 100 years ago, was ministers, social advocates, philanthropists, social scientists, coming together to address concretely and succinctly, the issues of race and social injustice. And I often remind people that I grew up in the time in the NAACP when the leading executive director was Benjamin Hooks, who was a judge, a pastor, and executive director of the NAACP.
Lewis: Now that you're at the helm of the state presidency, what do you see as major issues that need to be addressed?
Barber: Well, let me say first of all what our five initial goals are any time you come into an organization: the first one is to empower the organization from the executive branch all the way down to the branches-to the youth council. Because it must be a grassroots organization; it is not a one-person or one-man show. So we must empower-must ensure that our branches are activated and have all of the resources they need to carry out their work. Secondly, we're working to review all of our finances and ensure financial stability. Thirdly, we are assessing our administrative capacity, because you have to have the administrative capacity to do this work across the state. Fourthly, we're working to increase membership-hopefully 10%, at least, by the end of the year. But the fifth thing is to-the NAACP is considered the largest, the oldest, the most revered, and the most feared civil rights organization in the country. Therefore, if that's true-and it is-we have an obligation to unify the civil rights community. So our fifth goal is to develop a clear, concise, courageous civil rights agenda. And we have talked about some of the-some of the facts that point to the need for this agenda, hopefully.
Lewis: Well, let's just do that now. What do you see as some of-some of the facts there?
Barber: Well, some of the things that we ran on: first of all, the NAACP as a value must speak truth to power. Then the NAACP must be at the center of the moral, legal, and political debate on issues ranging from housing to healthcare, to youth violence, to inspiration of youth, to re-segregation, to the minimum wage and the living wage. Right now in this state of North Carolina, which we love dearly and want to see better, we have a loss of political power among African Americans. We don't have any African Americans in the council of state or on the Supreme Court. We're 20% of the population, but 27% of the poverty level-below poverty. 27% of African Americans are without health insurance; 65% of the prison population, even though we're only 20% of the population. Re-segregation is happening at warp speed in North Carolina, and in the city I come from, the inner city schools have totally gone back to pre-1954 days. We are 20% of the population, but number one in most of the negative health areas in this state. So those are the kind of issues that we must focus on. NAACP started focusing on lynching, but the NAACP has been a fluid organization that recognizes the challenges in each era.
Lewis: Let's talk about the future somewhat, especially bringing in more young people. What type of approach are you considering to try to bring more young people into the state NAACP?
Barber: Well, first of all, we have a very strong Youth and College division. We have a youth advisor, Ms. Gina Pettis; we have a young Youth and College president, who is actually at North Carolina University-Adrian Wyrick-and we're excited about the leadership that he will bring to this organization. When I look at the civil rights movement and remember-youth involvement in civil rights has been greatly a part of North Carolina's history. The four in Greensboro that sat down at the Woolworth's-SNICC-the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee being founded right at Shaw University. What drew them? Relevancy. That's the key to an organization. Young people are drawn to a relevant organization that has an active approach, where they can see that that organization is speaking to the issues of our day-celebrating all of the achievements that we have made, but also continuing to challenge those things that hold back achievement. So we're starting, Mitch-actually this coming Sunday, I'm doing a worship service on the campus of Bennett College-Women's College-where on the bell-they call them Bennett Bells-but on that bell they quote Luke 4-Jesus' first sermon. So I'm going there to do a worship service to talk about the connection between faith, activism, and youth involvement. And I believe that as we do those kinds of things, we will inspire youth to be more involved.
Lewis: Something that we do need to talk about: there has been some inactivity among some of the NAACP branches. How are you looking about bringing those branches back into the fold?
Barber: Well, we have an executive board where we have four vice presidents, we have district directors-and already we're talking about, "Number one, no branch will ever be left alone;" we're going to them. The state conference has an obligation to go to the local branch-to assist those presidents, to bring focus to those areas to make sure that there is public awareness about what the NAACP is doing, both on the state level and what it needs to do on the local level. I believe awareness precedes action. When people become aware, they become more active. And so, already we're planning-and at the worship service we're starting at Bennett-that's just the beginning of as statewide vision and membership tour that we're going to be doing all the way up to our winter meeting in February. And the whole goal of that is to empower, and to ask mature branches that are very active to reach to their brother and sister branches adjacent to their counties and help bring them where they need to be.
Lewis: There's been a lot of talk, especially when some people feel that African Americans have arrived, and they say, "Well, maybe the NAACP isn't as relevant as it was, say, back in the '60s. What would you say to those folks?
Barber: It's a strange analysis because the facts don't say that; the empirical data doesn't say that. Here's what people get caught in, I believe: they say, "Well, people have achieved." Like, for instance, I have achieved. My parents went to segregated schools, I didn't. I have achieved. But achievement does not dismiss you from the concern to help others to achieve; it frankly ought to be the foundation from which you become more concerned. As I shared with you the facts, the empirical data, where we are in the state-when you look at what happened, for instance, in Louisiana where minorities and women and older people were left in a super miserable situation-when you look at the kinds of judges that are being appointed to the Supreme Court and what their records are on civil rights-when you look at the attempt, just a few years ago, of our president to undo affirmative action programs in our universities and schools-and you follow the statistics-you learn two things: yes, we have accomplished, but there is still more work to be done. There are still impediments, there are still disparities. And I think that's one of the things we have to discuss. Some people talk about racism and they think just a cross burning or a hood. They don't look at the disparate impact-the disparities that point to systemic racism and systemic problems. When you talk about poverty-poverty both as a moral issue and a race issue-we can't afford to dismiss those things. So the NAACP is needed, and it must, as the hymn writer said, speak to the present age and the present issues that we have to face. We don't have a moratorium on the death penalty yet. We know that the death penalty has a very disparate impact upon minorities. We don't have a living wage in this state yet. We will, eventually, we pray, but we know that the lack of a living wage has a deep disparate impact on African American and minority access to capital. So those are the kinds of things that say, yes, the NAACP is still relevant.
Lewis: How do you plan to have the NAACP stand out compared to other civil rights organizations?
Barber: First of all, just the standing in history-it already stands out. The history is clear: we are the oldest, the strongest, the biggest, the boldest, the most revered and the most feared. But what I think that you do with that legacy is not so much stand away from organization, but you use the strength of your history to unify. We hope that the Friday before Martin Luther King's birthday next year in 2006, to convene and to call together civil rights organizations from around the state, because we are the central force. So we have an obligation-kind of like I tell folks at my house, "I'm the father, so I'm the unifying force." So the NAACP is kind of the unifying force, and we are that, but with that comes the responsibility to help unify and develop a clear civil rights agenda for this state.
Lewis: We have about 30 seconds left, but I wanted to make sure that we talked about the NAACP's relationship with North Carolina Mutual.
Barber: Yeah, one of my great corporate partners-and we just thank so much for their president and for Mr. Lester, Alton Lester, who actually works with the program. What it is is life-they have a program that allows you to purchase life insurance through North Carolina Mutual, but also in that process, to help fund freedom-help fund the North Carolina NAACP and provide resources. And we're just-we're thankful to God for that program, and we're going to be promoting it throughout the state, as well as with other corporate partners.
Lewis: Dr. William Barber II, president of the state NAACP, thank you so very much for joining us, and continued success to you.
Barber: Thank you.
Lewis: And if you would like more information about our guest, or a transcript of this program, visit us online at www.unctv.org/bif or call with your comments at 919-549-7167. Please continue to join us for more discussions on the people and issues that matter to you. For Black Issues Forum, I'm Mitchell Lewis. Thanks for watching.
Voiceover: Funding for this program is made possible in part by UNC-TV members.
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