In its 86 years as the nation’s premier civil rights organization, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has faced snarling police dogs, cross-burning Ku Klux Klansmen and murderous assaults on its members. But none of these posed as dangerous a threat to the N-Double-A’s continued survival as the group’s own recent leadership. Under the feckless sway of William F. Gibson, an inarticulate but wily South Carolina dentist who has chaired the group since 1985, the organization has sunk into near bankruptcy–both financially and intellectually. Says Michael Meyers, a former n.a.a.c.p. staff member who now leads the New York Civil Rights Coalition: “The N.A.A.C.P. has become a laughingstock.”
Last week it came to a crossroads. Despite rumors that Gibson controlled most of the votes on the N.A.A.C.P. board, Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of civil rights martyr Medgar Evers, pulled off a stunning 30-to-29 victory to become the group’s head. “I am here because I love the N.A.A.C.P.,” she said last week. “I believe it must survive. I believe it must thrive.” The former executive at Atlantic Richfield, who now serves as a commissioner on the Los Angeles Board of Public Works, has always perceived the N.A.A.C.P. in terms of life and death. In 1963 she watched helplessly as her first husband, the N.A.A.C.P.’s field secretary in Mississippi, was shot to death at their home in Jackson. For the next 30 years, Evers-Williams campaigned relentlessly to bring the accused murderer, white supremacist Byron de la Beckwith, to justice. He was convicted in 1994. “Duty beckons me,” she said, before the raucous N.A.A.C.P. meeting in New York City on Saturday. “I am strong. Test me and you will see.”
She can expect much testing. The organization’s deficit stands at more than $4.5 million. The search for a successor to ousted executive director Benjamin Chavis has not even begun. (Chavis was fired last year for agreeing to pay more than $300,000 in N.A.A.C.P. funds to a female former employee who complained of sexual harassment; he made the agreement without the approval of the board of directors.) Last week Stephanie Rones, a former deputy legal counsel, filed a suit that accused Gibson, Chavis and four other N.A.A.C.P. officials of knowingly tolerating discrimination against women employees. Rones is seeking $800,000 in damages.
Finally there is the Gibson legacy. The N.A.A.C.P. has been rocked by a series of allegations by syndicated columnist Carl Rowan about the uncontrolled spending of organizational funds by Gibson and his cronies on the 64-member board of directors. According to several board members, the accounting firm of Coopers & Lybrand, which is conducting an audit of N.A.A.C.P. officials, is examining records that show that Gibson ran up more than $1 million on his N.A.A.C.P.-paid American Express card over the past nine years. Among Gibson’s expenses: several plane tickets for Marva Smith, a South Carolina woman known inside the organization as Gibson’s “special friend”; extra hotel rooms at N.A.A.C.P. conventions, at which Gibson had already been provided with free accommodations; and $126,000 for limousines. In addition to having his credit-card bills paid by the organization, Gibson received a “stipend” of $3,000 a month to cover out-of-pocket expenses. Gibson says he never provided any written documentation of his expenditures because, under N.A.A.C.P. regulations, “it was not required.” The N.A.A.C.P. will never again give a leader such unchecked power.
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