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Mindful of the past, New Haven
NAACP looks ahead
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Business New Haven
6/1/1998
By: Linda Mele
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The biggest news at the Greater New Haven NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner last month was that Ben Andrews would step down after 30 years as president of the state NAACP, and that greater New Haven chapter President Roger Vann would assume the post on June 1.
The change in leadership was one of the reasons national NAACP President and CEO Kweisi Mfume attended the 81st annual celebration at Sante's Manor in Milford.
“We must find a way to be strong enough and willing enough to pass the torch to a whole new generation of young leaders. Roger Vann typifies that generation and that leadership, and I'm here to support him and this branch for doing what I've been encouraging for the past two years,” Mfume told the 1,000-plus people who attended the event.
“We must continue our efforts in the civic and political arena and usher in a whole new generation of young people [who can] offer fresh leadership, or we run the risk of becoming an asterisk in the history books,” Mfume said.
Mfume said the NAACP, founded in 1909, has a “long and proud history filled with major accomplishments that have changed [America] forever. [And] while maturity and experience are valued, we must also learn to cherish youth. As such, the development and re-invigoration of our branches and our youth and college chapters will be among my highest priorities.”
In his keynote address, Mfume said the NAACP must build this new leadership within the 2,200-plus worldwide branches and move forward with an agenda that stresses voter empowerment, legislative accountability, educational excellence, individual responsibility, economic and social parity, health care and the pursuit of “civil rights and liberties and constitutional protections under the law for all Americans.”
Mfume cited the initiation of Community Development Resource Centers that will institute so-called micro-enterprise programs across the country, apprenticeship programs to address job training, the growth of 191 college branches and 600 youth councils, voter registration drives, and programs like “Back-to-School/Stay-in-School,” “Stop the Violence/Start the Love” and a prison outreach program that will begin this summer as positive steps that will help the organization revitalize itself.
The agenda, while broad in scope, is really all about civil rights, according to Mfume.
“Everything that affects us - health, living conditions, economic status and power, education - is a matter of civil rights,” Mfume said. “In addition to what happens in the courts, we must address the issues that affect our daily lives in order to achieve equality. We can't wait for the government to come along on a white horse [to address] these important issues.
“Now that we have our own house in order, it's time to accept the challenges of the future. People don't have to join us, but they have to do something,” Mfume said.
Mfume was born, raised and educated in the Baltimore area and took over the reins of the national NAACP in February 1996. He graduated magna cum laude from Morgan State University, earned a master's degree in liberal arts with a concentration in international studies from Johns Hopkins University, was an adjunct professor of political science and communications at Morgan State, and won a seat on the Baltimore city council before serving a ten-year stint as Maryland's 77th District congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Connecticut has about 35,000 members in 16 NAACP branches, and New Haven's is one of the more active in New England, Mfume said.
“I will continue to head the New Haven branch and look forward to the challenges ahead,” Vann, 32, said.
Vann is also assistant program director at WELI-AM radio in Hamden and co-host of its Off Center program with former Milford State Sen. Tom Scott.
New Haven Schools Superintendent Reginald Mayo, recipient of the group's Special Freedom Award, said Vann, “truly embodies our next generation of hope.”
Vann was acknowledged for his leadership in legal battles regarding minority hiring in the town of East Haven, scattered-site housing in Milford, and police-pursuit policies that resulted in the death of a New Haven man last year.
Other award recipients included Yale-New Haven Hospital (Health Award), Branford Police Chief Robert W. Gill (Civic Award) and attorney Clifton E. Graves Jr. (Rev. Dr. Edwin R. Edmonds Community Service Award).
Eight teenagers received Student Achievement Awards, and North Haven's Danielle Spearman and New Haven's Danielle Stallings were recipients of the organization's first Dr. Susan Moore Lincoln scholarships.
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