Black leadership in crisis.

• Author: Reed, Adolph Jr.
• Position: NAACP; Congressional Black Caucus - Column

The debacle of Ben Chavis's appointment and tenure at the NAACP, finally, mercifully ended, underscores the troubled state of the national civilrights and race-relations establishment. And, yes, there is no question but that forces outside the NAACP--foundations, the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, and others--attempted in politically objectionable ways to fuel the pressure that brought Chavis down. Nonetheless, he was rightly dismissed for his transgressions against the board and the organization as well as for the flamboyant emptiness of his leadership--not because of the evil machinations of "forces outside the African-American community," as he has alleged in pathetic attempts to make himself a martyr of the movement. (His references to his "crucifixion" and "resurrection" suggested an unusually robust self-esteem, but shouldn't he have heard echoses of Clarence Thomas in calling his dismissal a "lynching"?)

Public attention to Chavis focused on allegations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination made against him, his apparent attempt to deceive the board about the exorbitant cash settlement he made with his accuser, and, of course, his pointless and silly posturing with black nationalist clowns, including protofascist Louis Farrakhan and other self-appointed "black leaders." At least equally disturbing, however, was his underhanded support for NAFTA, which included surreptitiously lobbying blacks in Congress even after the NAACP board declared its opposition to the trade agreement. Perhaps worse was Chavis's selling out of his main activist affiliation, the movement against environmental racism, by pimping for a group formed by oil and chemical companies to ease Superfund regulations.

Chavis was appointed in the hopes that his identification with grass-roots activism would energize the NAACP and broaden its appeal to politically alienated young people. Benjamin Hooks, his predecessor, had been hired for pretty much the same reasons twenty years ago.

This focus on image over both political substance and efficacy reflects the problem that the organization, like the civil-rights elite in general, has had in defining its mission since the defeat of de jure segregation. This problem has been exacerbated by the postwar NAACP's opposition to radicalism. It has only gotten worse as the Reagan/Bush/Clinton Administrations have turned away from managing race relations through insider negotiation. No more guaranteed access to the White House, no more automatic concessions to black interests (however defined).

The political circumstances require broad social vision and a concrete political agenda. Chavis has neither. Instead, he represents the worst devolution of 1960s activism--substituting symbolic gestures and the...