Harold Crumpton, president of the St. Louis NAACP, said Tuesday that Kweisi Mfume “will definitely be missed,” after he learned that the former Congressman is resigning as president and chief executive officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People effective Jan. 1.
Mfume served eight years as head of the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights organization and Crumpton said he considers him “among the intellectual giants in the civil rights community.”
“He restored confidence in the national organization and restored it to its premier position among civil rights organizations in the United States. He took an organization with a large deficit and turned that in to spectacular surplus.”
Mfume said during a Tuesday press conference “I just need a break. I need a vacation.”
“I’m just not going to do anything for a while. In my heart of hearts, I know the job has been done, and I step aside willingly … to find another challenge and another chance to make a real difference.”
Dennis Hayes, the general counsel, will act as interim president until a replacement is found, hopefully before the convention next summer, he said.
The NAACP, established in 1909, claims a membership of 500,000. It has 2,200 adult branches and 1,700 youth and college chapters.
Although he is officially resigning, a NAACP board source says Mfume, who signed two 4-year contracts with the organization, was not offered a third contract by the 64-member board of trustees headed by Julian Bond.
Bond said Tuesday, “we are saddened by his departure, but wish him well in his future pursuits.”
“(He) came to the NAACP when we were nearly bankrupt and our reputation under siege. He left sure re-election to Congress to help save the NAACP.”
Congressman Elijah Cummings, (D-Md.), president of the Congressional Black Caucus, said the NAACP “is losing a distinguished leader who championed the rights of all Americans.”
Mfume, who earns nearly $300,000 a year, will be retained as a paid consultant for six months, allowing him to maintain his salary and benefits until his successor is selected.
Mfume’s resignation caught some NAACP insiders by surprise. The board learned of the decision in a Monday night telephone conference call and a staff meeting was called at national headquarters in Baltimore for 9 A.M. Tuesday, three hours before the news conference.
Sources say Mfume’s decision to resign is unrelated to a recent disclosure that the Internal Revenue Service is investigating whether the NAACP violated its federal tax exempt status last summer when Bond gave a speech highly critical of President Bush at the organization’s annual convention in Philadelphia. The IRS has strict prohibitions on tax-exempt groups participating in partisan politics. Bond says he was exercising his First Amendment right to free speech at time, not participating in partisan politics.
It is widely known that Mfume is considering a run for the U.S. Senate from Maryland. The next competition for a Senate seat in Maryland will be in 2006, when Paul S. Sarbanes completes 30 years in the Senate. It is not yet known whether Sarbanes will seek re-election or retire.
Civil rights scholars say Mfume’s greatest contribution was helping restore fiscal health to an organization that was rocked by a sexual scandal that abruptly ended the controversial tenure of Benjamin Chavis as executive director of the NAACP. The organization sunk nearly $4 million in debt under the leadership of Chavis and Board Chairman William Gibson, a Greenville, S. C. dentist.
Myrlie Evers-Williams, the widow of slain Mississippi civil rights leader Medgar Evers, succeeded Gibson in 1995 and after a national search, Mfume, former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, was picked the following year to replace Chavis.
As he explores the possibility of a Senate bid, Mfume is expected to continue his paid speaking engagements and might serve as a political analyst for one of the cable networks, some of his advisers say.
Although each man denies it, insiders say there was also friction between Mfume and Bond over who would serve as the official face of the NAACP. Although that role has been traditionally played by the president (formerly called the executive director), for years the organization has always had a strong-willed board chair and Bond continues that mold.
“Although this infighting has been going on for a while, you could tell that Mfume was getting tired,” one board source says. “You have two former politicians (Bond served in the Georgia House and Senate) with strong egos. And they both want to be the leader.”
Evidently, what Bond and other board members want is a national search to select the next president and CEO of the organization. Francisco L. Borges, treasurer of the board and two-time state treasurer in Connecticut, is expected to co-chair the search committee, members say.
