Word: mfume
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When Kweisi Mfume took the helm of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.) in 1996, the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization was in crisis. Mired in debt and stung by a sex scandal involving ousted executive director Benjamin Chavis, the group needed a leader who could restore its credibility. Mfume, a five-term Democratic Congressman from Baltimore, stepped up to the challenge. Through a campaign of corporate sponsorship, he erased the group's $3.2 million in debt and stockpiled $15 million in cash reserves...
...fate of Mfume's social initiatives proved less successful and were emblematic of an identity crisis within the group. "We have all this money to spend, but I don't feel like the N.A.A.C.P. is effective as a civil rights organization," says Michael Meyers, a former assistant director of the organization and now executive director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition. While Mfume made headlines for grading Hollywood on minority representation and denouncing ebonics ("black English"), detractors say he did little to draw attention to the health, education and criminal-justice issues that still cripple many in the black...
...Mfume stepped down as president on Jan. 1, citing personal reasons, but sources close to the organization told TIME that the N.A.A.C.P.'s executive committee voted against renewing his contract. The issue was nepotism, which came to a head when Mfume allegedly appointed his son's girlfriend as director of corporate and foundation development in June 2003. The incident followed other actions benefitting friends of Mfume's and was the deciding factor, says Meyers, a longtime critic of the organization. Mfume declined to speak about the allegations...
...disturbing...to promote and capitalize off such negative aspects of society that cause great harm to individuals and to the African-American community at-large,” NAACP President Kweisi Mfume wrote in a letter to David Chang, the creator of the Ghettopoly game. “We shall not sit by quietly and allow this type of insult to occur...
...rally. They claim, without offering proof, that Jackson was rebuffed when he tried to wrangle a similar invitation. "Jesse's not the go-to guy anymore," says a Sharpton admirer. Jackson, who denies scrounging for the invitation, says going "would not have been rational" because N.A.A.C.P. head Kweisi Mfume was already there...