Word: mfume
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Mfume didn't get arrested, but he got the attention he wanted. The N.A.A.C.P.'s campaign to rectify the color balance in network TV has made headlines for months, most recently when representatives of three of the four major networks walked out of an N.A.A.C.P. "diversity hearing" on Nov. 29. (They were unhappy at being denied the microphone for hours following the testimony of Moonves, the only network top dog to show up.) But for all the verbal grenades fired, the N.A.A.C.P. campaign has sort of stumbled along. A network boycott originally planned for November was postponed, while some within...
...bear at least some fruit. Following a series of meetings between network chiefs and N.A.A.C.P. officials in Baltimore over the past couple of weeks, the four networks are close to an agreement to implement a series of diversity initiatives, while the N.A.A.C.P. has all but dropped its boycott threat. Mfume seems to have realized that old-line civil rights tactics of boycotts and picket lines hold less sway on the Left Coast than power lunches and air kisses. What finally worked was the same back-room conciliatory politics that made Mfume a force on Capitol Hill for a decade. "Network...
...diversity agreement would signal a major effort to go beyond such quick fixes. It would also score a much needed victory for the N.A.A.C.P., which has spent much of the past decade dogged by financial woes, an embarrassing sex scandal and a dimmed place on the national political radar. Mfume, 51, has been lauded for putting the organization back on solid financial footing and increasing its sagging membership rolls. But he has been criticized for failing to steer the organization into such controversial issues as affirmative action and welfare reform...
Diversity on TV is not exactly a front-burner issue for many African Americans either. And it's likely that Mfume will face some grumbling from civil rights old-liners that any goodwill covenant with the networks that lacks enforcement teeth is not worth much. But Mfume may wind up having more impact by playing the Negotiator than the Terminator...
Midwest bureau chief Ron Stodghill was co-author of Mfume's 1996 memoir No Free Ride