Christian Community Networking

  Ramon Roane

Recently, the NAACP Vice Chairwoman Roslyn M. Brock was elevated to chairwoman making her the youngest-ever leader of the 101-year-old group. This is a bold move for the civil rights giant. I hope that with new leadership comes new direction. I hope with new leadership comes the integrity this organization had. 

The NAACP has been a champion of civil rights in the United States since February 12, 1909 to this very day. Between 1882 and 1968, an estimated 4,742 blacks met their deaths at the hands of lynch mobs. This organization was instrumental in fighting lynchings throughout the country. In 1918, Mr. Walter White became the NAACP’s chief investigator of lynchings. It was through the efforts of the NAACP that brought this period to a close.

A group of African Americans filed a race discrimination lawsuit against Nucor Corp. and Nucor-Yamato Steel located in Blytheville, Arkansas, in 2003. Among the many racial offenses were the display of nooses and simulations of lynching in the company's environment. In 2009, the evidence presented before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals and a jury of 11 whites and one black in Jonesboro, Arkansas, ruled in favor of the plaintiffs that Nucor Steel provided a racially hostile work environment towards blacks.

In 2005, the NAACP awarded Nucor Steel the Employer of the Year. An investigation shows that the West Memphis chapter of the NAACP gave the award. A black employee of Nucor Steel solicited Nucor for a donation to your organization. This employee was well aware of the ongoing litigation in which he was a participant through his affidavit taken by the company. The chapter never investigated the company for diversity. The chapter never interviewed black employees in a neutral environment about their working conditions. If the NAACP had done just the minimum, there would be no award for Nucor. Instead the donation was the rule of the day. This is what many us know of today’s NAACP, anything to get money and headlines. I don’t think that their motives are always directed towards those ends, but perception tells much.

We need the NAACP of Walter White’s day. Though we are not being lynched physically, we are being lynched psychologically and spiritually. Our families are being attack by divorce, teenage pregnancy, drugs, education, and violence. Many of society’s problems start in the family and we need as much help there as possible.

I would like to thank the NAACP for the work you are doing throughout this country for civil rights. The boycott, aimed at removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Statehouse grounds has shown your work is still needed. The work the NAACP National Education Department to ensure that all students have access to an equal and high-quality public education by eliminating all education related racial and ethnic disparities is a noble goal. Thank for your continued efforts on the Voting Rights Act. The list can go on and on, but we want you to know that your work is needed and appreciated.