National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Rev. Wendell Anthony
For almost a century, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has been recognized as a symbol of freedom and empowerment for the Black community. It was the voice in the days of segregation that cried out for equality. It was a beacon of light for the downtrodden and champion for the Black struggle for civil and economic justice.
But today, many raise the question of whether or not the NAACP is still relevant to the life and times of the 21st century. Is there still a struggle? Is it still fighting the good fight? Or is it merely a reflection of the past to which we are expected to pay homage because of its historic presence?
For the Rev. Wendell Anthony, as president of the Detroit Branch NACAP, the premise of these questions proves that it is more crucial now than ever to reestablish young people’s understanding of the importance of organizations like the NAACP, to remember how far we’ve come and the work it will take to continue moving forward.
FrontPage: As president of the NAACP Detroit chapter, where do your responsibilities lie?
Anthony: I am the chief spokesperson of the organization, to make certain that the vision of the branch is carried out. To be officially advocating, to be astronomically empowering, to be consistent with the mission of the national organization relative to the priorities in terms of economic development, education, in terms of the prison issue, issues which have some of our people entrapped, the youth initiatives, leadership – all those things. So basically, the responsibility I have is to move the organization through the vision and through the goals and objectives that are established by the brand.
FP: For some of the young people who don’t always understand the relevance of the NAACP, they see it as an organization for the older generation and civil rights, when there were Jim Crow laws and things of that nature. So explain why the NAACP is still relevant in 2008?
Anothony: Sean Bell in New York was a young person. He was shot 50 times by members of the police department. The Jena Six involved a young person, in Jena, LA. The fact that so many young people are involved in our prison system and they provide the fodder for cheap labor and economic development, thery’re issues that we still have to deal with. So because one is young doesn’t mean that he or she doesn’t have a responsibility to do those things that help them become old; because one is old doesn’t mean that he or she cannot relate to the young. The NAACP celebrates its centennial next year. For 100 years we’ve been advocating for young people. We’ve been networking to bring our people together business-wise and eduation-wise. We’ve been trying to make a way so that you can go to college and have an opportunity through affirmative action. We laid the foundation so that a Barack Obama could now run for president of the United States – about to become the first African American president. Not only Barack, but also Hillary Clinton, who also emerges from the NAACP experience as it relates to providing opportunity for not only a minority, but for women. Our ACT-SO program, the Afro-Culture Technological Scientific Olympics program, brings young people together to show their talent and ability from all across the country. Many of them have gone on to become actors and actresses, and working in corporations and companies, and medicine and law.
So there’re a lot of opportunities for young people [and] the fact that we have developed a process for young political leaders. We have one of the most active young adult networking programs of any place in the country. We have on our board of directors young adults and young people. So I think when one talks about the NAACP you just can’t talk about it in isolation but in total corporation of the young and the old.
FP: Recently you were in the media with regard to your comments about the new NAACP president. Do you feel in retrospect the comments you made about him not being your first choice will cause dissension within the organization?
Anthony: Not really because I said the same thing privately as I said publicly. It’s only when you’re inconsistent that you say one thing over here and another thing over there that it creates some problems. I said what I said to the board of directors, I said it in open meeting. I was receiving calls from the media about what I thought about the process and who my choice was. And rather than answer one at a time, I said let me just send out a statement indicating what my preference was and what my thoughts were regarding this procedure. And then I did that. So it was nothing underhanded about it. I was very clear and candid and I said that Mr. Jealous possessed a lot of ability, talent and great intelligence, but that he was not my first choice. My first choice was Freddie Haynes from Dallas, TX, and that we are anxiously awaiting Mr. Jealous’ arrival and we will see what he will bring through his tenure service to the organization. So that’s a clear statement. It has nothing to do with whether or not we will or will not work with him. We intend to work with him and wish him well.
FP: What are your thoughts about the historic proportions of this year’s presidential election?
Anthony: They’re mixed. I think this is one of the most exciting time periods in American history. The potentiality of the first woman and now the first African American becoming president, who would have thought that we would be here? I certainly did not think in my lifetime that I would see an African American come this close to becoming president. It should have happened a long time ago and the jury’s still out because he’s not elected yet. But the bottom line is that he brings to the table what America says it’s looking for in a candidate from the African American community. He’s non-threatening, he is cooperative with all races, he’s inspiring, he’s charismatic. If you can’t get to Barack Obama, then who can you get to? I think that his experience as a community organizer, an advocate on the south side of Chicago, going to Harvard and choosing the community as opposed to the collective corporate community is certainly a blessing for us. I’m excited about it and, again, I give all praises to the work of the NAACP because we would not be here were it not for the likes of the NAACP.
FP: What is the NAACP doing to help drive the votes of the African American community?
Anthony: Several things. Of course you know the NAACP is non-partisan so we cannot endorse a candidate. But we will be having our “Take Your Soles to the Polls” campaign, which drive people to the polls from, like, moving them from the community, door knocking, passing out information, having forums, doing commercials and infomercials. So we’ll be doing all of that. We’ll be certainly having our Board of Protection mechanisms in place so that people will be able to vote unmolested, unthreatened and intimidated because we’ve had a lot of that in past elections. We have a team of lawyers working with us right here that will be working on election day and leading up to that time to make sure that your voting rights are honored. You know that the law was passed so that you have to have photo identification when you go vote. We want to make sure that nobody is denied the right to vote because they don’t have the photo ID because you can vote by challenging ballot and still cast your ballot. So we’ll be very much engaged in that. We’ll be working with other community organizations that are determined to get the vote out.
FP: What is the importance of youth involvement in the organization?
Anthony: It’s critical. Young people are the life-blood of the organization. The Bible says that the beauty of an old man lies in the glory of his gray head, and the strength of a young man lies in the strength of his youth. You need both wisdom and youth. I think that’s why we have young people who are part of our board of directors and who are part of committees. I think that’s why we spend so much time in terms of youth leadership development because that is very vital and important to us. The NAACP is celebrating 100 years next year which means that now the question becomes, what about the next 100 years? Should the next 100 years look like the first or should they be something different as we cast the net to involve many young people from around the country? So you can’t grow the organization without bringing new blood to it.
FP: What are the benefits of being a member of the NAACP?
Anthony: First of all, you help the organization to perpetuate itself, to stand, to fight the good fight. When you join the NAACP you help us to fight again police brutality, you help us to fight to maintain things like affirmative action, you help us do things like “Take Your Soles to the Polls.” We have about 3,000 people that we deal with annually every year in terms of complaints here in the organization and we have to have staff in order to do that. As a member of the organization, you are a part of an organization that networks with young people through our Young Adult Committee program and you are able to receive benefits of information by virtue of what we do in terms of political activity and economic activity. So there are a lot of benefits. You really help yourself. It’s not about the NAACP; we’re volunteers for the most part. I’m a volunteer, I don’t’ get paid to do this. Your’re investing in yourself by virtue of saying I’m going to invest in an organization that has my best interest at heart, that is fighting in the boardrooms and in the back rooms things that I’ll never go and never deal with but I know I’ve got a representative there. For more information about the Detroit Branch NAACP, visit www.detroitnaacp.org.
