My friend and BlackAmericaWeb.com senior political correspondent Michael H. Cottman says it’s time for a black woman to be named president of the NAACP. Not only does he want to see it happen, he’s using Change.Org to petition the 104-year-old civil rights organization.
“The Great” Michael Cottman, as he is known by Sybil Wilkes, says it’s time to do something different.
I’m with him, if different means doing a better job making sure that the NAACP remains relevant. If you’re under 50 I have some questions for you.
Are you a member of the NAACP?
Other than hearing about it on the news, is the NAACP something that you think about?
What is the role of the NAACP today?
What do the letters NAACP stand for?
No joke, a friend of mine had to solve a problem at his job. One of his co-workers decided to take matters into his own hands and wrote a letter to the company threatening to take his grievance to the “NWACP.”
I think too many of us like the idea of the NAACP but don’t really buy into why it’s still necessary, and that is a problem. But if you do, as I did, and go to its website you’ll get a better understanding of what they’ve done and what they’re doing now.
Here are a few things the organization has accomplished over the last five years: it has helped abolish the death penalty in New Mexico, Illinois, Connecticut and Maryland; registered 374,533 new voters; helped increase graduation standards for NCAA athletes and trained black churches to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
The work the NAACP does is ongoing. You don’t know how many times I am asked why advocacy groups including Rev. Al’s National Action Network or Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH coalition only show up to protest things like the Trayvon Martin murder and other high-profile tragedies. But they’ve got it twisted.
Justice is Always Relevant was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
