Point of View: Op-Ed Articles

The NAACP at a Crossroads

BY MICHAEL MEYERS
September 4, 2007

The highlight of the NAACP convention in Detroit this summer was a symbolic burial ceremony for the n-word. In other words, the nation’s oldest, largest and once-fierce champion of civil rights has been reduced to staging publicity stunts.

There once was a time when the NAACP was ably led by the likes of Roy Wilkins, and undoubtedly nonpartisan. Political office holders and front-runners for president — Democrats and Republicans — would look for chances to address its large assemblage of mostly black Americans.

Today GOP politicians avoid the organization like a plague. NAACP chairman Julian Bond once likened the Republican …