At N.A.A.C.P. Helm,
an Economic Approach
to Rights
By JAMES DAO, NYTimes
on the Web, July 5, 2005
WASHINGTON, July 4 -- When the
N.A.A.C.P. recently announced plans to make Bruce S. Gordon, a retired Verizon
executive, its new president, the reaction from some longtime civil rights
activists was, "Bruce who?"
But black business leaders cheered, loudly.
"Like the excitement around the election of Barack Obama, Bruce Gordon will
generate excitement in corporate America," said Earl G. Graves Sr., the founder
and publisher of Black Enterprise magazine, referring to the black United States
senator from Illinois.
Those conflicting reactions say much about the divergent views many blacks and
civil rights leaders have about the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People, the nation's oldest and largest civil rights group, which is
struggling to redefine itself in an era of resurgent political conservatism.
For more than a year, the organization has been beset by problems -- including a
revenue shortfall, stagnant membership and ethical complaints about its last
president -- that have raised concerns about its vitality and ability to recruit
younger blacks. Republicans have also attacked it as biased in favor of
Democrats, an assertion the N.A.A.C.P., a nonprofit group, strongly denies.
But to many civil rights advocates, the biggest challenge facing the group is
clarifying its mission at a time when legal segregation has been largely
vanquished, but economic, housing and educational disparities between blacks and
whites remain large. Integration may have opened doors, but it has also
splintered, or complicated, the civil rights movement, those advocates say.
Mr. Gordon, 59, has said he will apply his 35 years experience in corporate
marketing to push the N.A.A.C.P. toward a more economic-based approach to civil
rights, including by prodding pension funds and corporations to hire more black
managers. He has said he will also raise money for an endowment, setting a
goal of $200 million.
"We've got to get the right emphasis placed on economic equality," Mr. Gordon
said in an interview. "I happen to think that when you have economic
stability and equality that often becomes an enabler for social equality."
But whether Mr. Gordon is the right person for the job is the subject of debate.
For decades, the organization, founded in 1909, has been led by lawyers,
ministers and, most recently, a politician, all with résumés steeped in civil
rights experience.
In vision and background, Mr. Gordon is something of a departure, said John
Brittain, chief counsel for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
Some activists worry that a man more experienced with boardrooms than barricades
will stray from the N.A.A.C.P.'s tradition of protest and political pressure,
Mr. Brittain said.
"There is the concern that the N.A.A.C.P. will deviate from their historic
struggle for racial justice, for voting rights, for fair housing, employment,
criminal justice, all won through things like boycotts, marches, leafleting and
picketing," he said.
But Representative Elijah E. Cummings, a Maryland Democrat who was considered
for the N.A.A.C.P. job, said Mr. Gordon would have access to corporate leaders
who could help "turn around our problems."
"He can take the purchasing power of African-Americans and turn it into
political power," he said.
In an interview at his spacious apartment in the Tribeca section of Manhattan,
surrounded by paintings by African-American artists, Mr. Gordon said he had no
plans to eschew protest, litigation or legislation in fighting for rights for
blacks, Hispanics and other minorities.
"When it is time to go out on the front lines and protest and take issue in the
more traditional ways, if that's what it takes, that's what it takes," he said.
"I want to employ whatever mechanisms are needed to bring about change.
Sometimes it may involve protest, sometimes one-on-one dialogue."
Supporters of Mr. Gordon also assert that his lack of overt political activity
and his strong corporate experience will make it easier for him to work with
Republicans, particularly President Bush, who has had a tense relationship with
the N.A.A.C.P. since he was governor of Texas.
"Bruce Gordon is going to be a terrific bridge-builder," said Jack F. Kemp, the
former Republican congressman and vice-presidential candidate who served on the
panel that recommended Mr. Gordon's hiring.
It will not be an easy job. Last year, Mr. Bush declined to address the
group's annual convention for the fourth consecutive year, becoming the first
sitting president since Herbert Hoover not to appear before the group over a
full term. Mr. Bush has declined to attend this year's convention as well,
N.A.A.C.P. officials said.
At last year's convention, Julian Bond, the group's chairman, delivered a
blistering attack on the Bush administration, asserting it encouraged racial
division. Within months, the Internal Revenue Service said it would audit
the group. N.A.A.C.P. officials have called the inquiry politically motivated
and have refused to turn over documents.
In the interview, Mr. Gordon said a priority would be to improve relations with
the White House. "That is not because I think the organization needs to
move to the right," he said. "It's because I think there have to be issues
that are of common interest between the N.A.A.C.P. and the current
administration."
Mr. Gordon was raised in Camden, N.J., where his mother was a schoolteacher and
his father was a school administrator who helped found the Camden chapter of the
N.A.A.C.P. Mr. Gordon attended chapter meetings when he was a boy, making
him feel, he said, that "the N.A.A.C.P. was in my DNA."
After earning a bachelor's degree from Gettysburg College and a master's from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mr. Gordon went to work at Bell of
Pennsylvania and spent the rest of his career in the telecommunications
industry.
He is married to his second wife, Tawana, 49, a former Verizon manager, and has
a 27-year-old son from his first marriage.
Before retiring from Verizon in 2003, Mr. Gordon was president of the retail
markets group, with more than 30,000 employees and annual revenues of $20
billion.
"Those kinds of jobs can't be run based on just having good business skills,"
said Lawrence T. Babbio Jr., Verizon's president. "If you can't motivate a
large organization to follow your lead through difficult times, you would not
have survived as long as Bruce Gordon did."
The N.A.A.C.P. is looking to Mr. Gordon's management skills to put its finances
in order: last year, it had a $4.7 million shortfall and laid off several
employees at its Baltimore headquarters. Mr. Gordon will also be expected
to help overcome complaints that the organization's last president, Kweisi Mfume,
gave promotions and raises to female employees with whom he had relationships.
Mr. Mfume has denied playing favorites.
But more important, the organization is hoping Mr. Gordon can use his marketing
skills to expand its membership, which has been stagnant at about 500,000 for
more than a decade, officials said. In particular, the organization has
had trouble maintaining support among blacks between the ages of 30 and 45.
Mr. Gordon, a mentor to many minority employees at Verizon, said he planned to
conduct focus groups to hear the concerns of younger blacks. But he also called
for more aggressive marketing, saying the N.A.A.C.P. "has great brand
recognition" but is undervalued because its work has not been promoted.
"When you advertise, you communicate your company's products and services," he
said. "You don't advertise, people don't get the message. Do we need
to promote the N.A.A.C.P., what it is, what it stands for? Absolutely."
Such talk from a man so comfortable with the jargon of corporate marketing
causes some traditional civil rights activists to roll their eyes. But Mr.
Bond said Mr. Gordon's life experience -- a child of civil rights activists who
became a corporate leader -- made him ideally suited to help guide the evolving
civil rights movement.
"As opportunity has increased, it has become possible for there to be a range of
ways that you could have an impact on civil rights," Mr. Bond said. "There
could not have been a Bruce Gordon 50 years ago. There is a Bruce Gordon
today."
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