P age A 2
S eptember 7, 1994 • T he P ortland O bserver
The Rise And Fall Of Ben Chavis
by W il l ia m R e e d , N N P A
D irector oe C ommunications
W ill The E x-N A A C P Head
Resurrect With A New group?
The end o f Benjamin Chavis’
tenure as executive director o f the
National Association for the A d
va n ce m e n t o f C o lo re d people
(N A A C P ) was greeted w ith sadness
by some, re lie f from other and defi
ance by the self-proclaimed “ free
dom fighter.”
M any African Americans con
tend that the allegations o f sexual
harassment and m ish an d lin g o f
N A A C P funds are part o f a plot by
“ certain factions” toget rid ofC h a vis
because they opposed his "progres
sive stance.” " I t ’ s pretty clear that
there is a plot to stop Ben Chavis
from putting his hand out to more
progressive people,” said Gabriel
Kenyetta, vice president o f the New
Marcus Garvey in Detroit. Others
said Chavis ignored the ones from
whom the 85-year-old c iv il rights
organization traditionally gets its
hand outs. Mariam Blanks-Smart,
president o f the Southern Oakland
branch, said she supported the na
tional board’ s decision and hopes it
w ill end public discussion o f the
m a tte r, w h ic h dam aged the
organization’ s reputation and ability
to raise funds. “ The continued dis
cussion o f it was taking attention
away from the very positive and
good things that this great organiza
tion is doing in the black commu
nity, she said. Others, such as Barry
M urray, editor Washington, D .C .’ s
News Dimensions newspaper, point
out that whites, and particularly Jews,
Have been p o lic y fo rm e rs and
sources o f revenues since the
N A A C P ’ s foundering. " I f he wants
to pursue his progressive posture’
he should form his own organization
and we w ill help him ,” M urray says.
Chavis has said, “ I intend to live the
rest o f my life fighting for freedom.
Never again w ill we allow forces
outside the A frican Am erican com-
ers F e c t / v e s
F Minority
Business vs ‘American’ Business:
7 ' -
?. i" .
■ I '
'r . <
Years ago when I first saw that
title used to head an article describ
ing the special d ifficulties o f A fr i
can Americans in the area o f ‘ free’
enterprise, I knew the conserva
tives and racists would advance the
same type o f hysterical disclaimers
provoked by the concept o f ‘ Black’
History; “ Why, we are all one in
this great ‘ melting pot’” .
That was a
decade ago, and
the article was
correct regard
ing the contem
porary scene—
n o t revealed
that there has
been considerable retrogression (in
clude Portland). I use this particular
time frame because it permits me to
cite the documented reference, “
Evidences O f Progress Am ong The
Colored Peoples” , G.F. Richings,
1908.
Several years ago, I quoted here
quite extensively from this remark
able text and photo essay compiled
by a black man who traveled the
length and breadth o f the country,
pride-fully documenting fo r pos
terity the magnificent accomplish
ments o f the race in commerce and
the professions (we are as fortunate
in this instance as we are that the
ancient Africans wrote in stone-
denying the racists and hypocrites a
safehavenfor their revisionism and
propaganda).
Many o f you wrote to say how
amazed you were to find out that
‘ back then’ A frica n Am ericans
across this nation owned and oper
ated factories, mercantile enterprise,
public transit, clinics, granaries, pro
duce farms, beauty colleges, trade
schools, hospitals; a ll attained
against the greatest o f odds. Then,
too, there were the many inventions
by these men and women, many o f
which were key to the development
o f American industry and its com
petitive position in the w orld (see
m y book, “ Black Inventors O f
America” ).
Now, this is not the first time
I ’ ve described this “ rushing back
wards” economic phenomena. And
a few others have voiced their sur
prise, once being made aware But,
what is absolutely startling and
amazing is that our great leaders
and highly-paid directors o f our
key social and economic agencies
have not thoroughly researched this
economic recidivism ’ phenom-
enon-and prescribed a counter
structure (fo r $200,000 a year we
should be able to get competence
and a p la n -n o t arrogant statements
like “ I am the au
th o rity !” ).
O nce again
the‘ M inority Busi
ness’ community is
hawking the latest
figures on “ Black
B u y in g Pow er
almost 400 b illion dollars by the
end o f the year (U.S. Census fig
ures). And fin a lly we have verifica
tion o f a fact that ‘ freedom-fighters
and b o y c o tte rs ’ have a lw a ys
known. According to the director
o f econom ic forecasting at the Un i-
versity o f Georgia, “ The spending
power that African-Americans con
trol can be the margin between suc
cess and failure for many busi
nesses” . O f course, what he is ta lk
ing about here is “ W hite” business
and black advertising agencies try
not to let them forget the fact.
Now, the foregoing ethnic al
location o f business revenue is un
derstandable in terms o f the terrible
reversal o f that “ Evidences o f
Progress A m o ng The C olored
People” cited by Richings a hun
dred years ago. A young student in
a class o f mine at Portland State
U niversity put it to me, “ all you say
it true, and I am happy to learn the
mechanics and structural param
eters o f our poverty and the ghetto.
Perhaps the knowledge w ill help
me to escape. But, who is doing this
tousand why? I ’ ve always frowned
on conspiracy theories’ and I'm
not paranoid-but damn, professor” !
This student was, shall we say,
“ ready” at the time and I was able to
provide a new and enlightening
frame o f reference; one that has
enabled him to ' move-on-down the
line in Atlanta. You can be privy
too. Follow m y next series, where
all discussed here can be under
stood in terms o f “ Im migration:
Race, M oney and Power”
(The ^ a r tla n b (©hsertfer
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m unity to dictate who we can meet
w ith and what we can meet about. I
intend to rise from this moment,”
Chavis said on the day o f his firing.
Such internal bickering is not
new to the nation's largest and oldest
c iv il rights organization. D uring the
early 1980s, a feud developed be
tween then-board Chair Margaret
Bush-W ilson, a St. Louis lawyer,
and executive director Benjamin
Hooks. Hooks prevailed after five
years o f con flict, and W il I iam G ibson
- a longtime N A A C P activist and
G reenville, S.C. dentist - became the
new chair. From A p ril 1993 to A u
gust 1994, Chavis was embroiled in
controversy and had a confrontation
w ith the board comprised o f three
whites and 61 blacks, six months
after h is appointment when they tried
meeting in Detroit and Summit 1 in
Baltimore were black nationalists,
and that is no, the N A A C P philoso
phy. Bridge-building in the N AA C P
includes w orking w ith white people,
Johnson said. “ We are a m inority in
this country, so the fight has been to
compel the m ajority to recognize the
rights and interests o f its m inority
citizens,” Johnson said.
C havis, 46, was chosen from
a fie ld o f fiv e fin a lis ts in A p r il
1993 to succeed H oo ks, w ho re
tir e d a fte r 15 y e a rs . E a rlie r,
C havis had spent seven years in
C leve la nd as head o f the U n ite d
C hurch o f C h r is t’ s C om m issio n
fo r R a c ia l J u s tic e . He h o ld s
b a c h e lo r’ s m a ste r’ s and d octo ra l
degrees in c h e m is try , d iv in ity
and m in is try , re s p e c tiv e ly .
to strip him o f certain powers. His
public criticism started when he de
fended gangsta rap and pledged
N A A C P support fo r a truce among
street gangs. In A p ril 1994, it was
revealed that Chavis met secretly in
Detroit with so-called m ilitant and
le ftis t black leaders. E lizab e th
W right, editor o f Issues &. Views,
calls Chavis a “ self-avowed M arx
ist” and unexpected dow nfall o f
Chavis is stunning. A Ithough the flap
about Louis Farrakhan and C havis’
handling o f accusations o f his al
leged sexual harassment prove that
he fin ally misread w hite liberal sup
port, he had every reason to believe
he was invincible in their eyes,”
Former detroit chapter President
A rth u r Johnson said that several
group leaders invited to the U nity
Ben Chavis And The Crisis Of Black Leadership
by
D r . M anning M arable
The recent tiring of Ben Chavis
as executive director of the
NAACP culminated a campaign
of vilification which had lasted
for nearly nine months.
T he N A A C P ’ s board voter over
w helm ingly to dismiss Chavis, stat
ing that he had failed adequately to
explain the use o f the organization’ s
funds to settle a threatened lawsuit
by fo rm e r e m p lo ye e , M a ry E.
Stansel. Abandoned by his principal
supporter, N A A C P president W il
liam Gibson, Chavis felt b itterly be
trayed. W ithin days, he filed a law
suit in the D istrict o f Colum bia Su
perior Court, demanding his rein
statement as executive director. To
the media, Chavis a ngrily blamed
outside forces which had manipu
lated the board’ s vote and described
his ouster as a “ c ru c ifix io n .” Earl
Shinhoster, the association’s field
secretary, was selected by the board
to replace Chavis temporarily.
A ll o f us are fa m iliar w ith the
general outl ine o f the political “ lynch
ing” o f Ben Chavis. But in truth, the
ouster o f Chavis as leader o f the
oldest c iv il rights organization in
Am erica had little to do w ith M ary
Stansel, or the fact that Chavis was
no wizard at financial management.
The real question at issue is whether
A frican Am erican people have the
right to select their own leaders and
make them accountable to our con
cerns and demands. Who speaks for
black people in this country? A nd do
we have the rig ht to develop strate
gies which address our own con
cerns and advocate programs which
advance our interests? The debate
over Chavis represents a greater d i
lemma, the crisis o fb la ck leadership
in Am erica.
A fte r the 1960s, the N A A C P
and the c iv il rights movement were
confronted w ith fo u r basic chal
lenges, which they never fu lly un
derstood or overcame. First, the eco
nomic crisis o f A m erica’ s central
cities created profound problems for
black leadership. Jobs disappeared
in the ghetto, as thousands o f plants
and factories relocated to the sub
urbs or the sunbelt. Second, the fis
cal crisis o f federal, state and local
governments reduced funds for so
cial programs. Reaganism repre
sented a war against the cities, and
A frican Americans and Latinos were
the c h ie f victim s o f that war. C iv il
rights organizations were challenged
to shift their energies from cooperat
ing w ith the federal government to
obtain legal and political reforms, to
pressuring Congress and the White
House to reverse regressive and re
pressive social programs. As Repub
lican adm inistrations increasingly
relied on expanding the prison sys
tem as the prim ary means o f social
control for the black comm unity, the
N A A C P and other organizations
were pushed by blacks from all so
cial classes to become more m ilitant
and aggressive. Yet under the lead
ership o fN A A C P executive director
Benjamin Hooks, the organizations
drifted w ithout a clear political or
ideological compass.
The Third m ajor challenge was
the growth o f class divisions w ithin
the A frican Am erican comm unity
itself. Since the late 1960s, the size
o f the black middle class increased
by over 400 percent. M illio n s o f
A frican Americans moved from the
inner cities to the suburbs. Those
who were trapped in the worst neigh
borhoods o f the urban ghettoes
tended to be the poor, the unem
ployed, the homeless, young women
and children. In the 1980s, there was
an explosion o f gang violence con •
nected w ith the economics o f illegal
drugs in urban black communities.
The N A A C P made few efforts to
understand or address the growing
social crisis which was experienced
by the m ost oppressed A fric a n
Americans.
Fourthly, there was the political
and social impact o f Reaganism
w ith in the black com m unity. True,
more than 90 percent o f all A frican
Americans voted against Reagan;
nevertheless, like other Americans,
th e y w ere a ffe c te d by the
adm inistration’ s agenda in many
m ultiracial coalitions.
As white American moved right,
the political culture ofblack America
became fertile terrain fo r the reac
tionary agenda o f conservative black
nationalism and the resurgence o f
Louis Farrakhan. Black support for
Farrakhan has less to do w ith his
odious a n ti-S e m itis m or n a rro w
and d o g m a tic se xism , than his
unique a b ility to express the rage
and fru s tra tio n o f broad sectors
o f the urban underclass. Thus
A fric a n A m ericans m ay reject the
b ig o try o f the N a tio n o f Islam ,
but nevertheless fe el th a t F arra
khan expresses some im p o rta n t
ideas re fle c tin g the m ood o f the
c o m m u n ity .
Ben Chavis im p lic itly under
stood all o f this. Chavis had been a
political prisoner in N orth Carolina
for nearly five years in the 1970s. I
became friends w ith Ben when we
both were leaders o f the National
Black Independent Political Party in
the early 1980s. He had been an early
critic o f what became know as “ envi
ronmental racism,” and won praise
as the director o f the Commission o f
Racial Justice o f the United Church
o f Christ. Chavis was an astute ob
more subtle ways. In the 60s, blacks
believed overw helm ingly that gov
server and participant in social pro
test politics. He understood that or
ganizations like the N A A C P had to
radically redefine their mission in
order to capture the support o f the
post-C ivil Rights generation. This
was the fundamental reason that
Chavis inevitably came under attack
by the white p olitical establishment.
ernment was on their side. The fed
eral governm ent was a bulw ark
against racial segregation, at least in
the Johnson a dm inistration. But
Reagan ism undercut blacks’ attitudes
toward the role o f the federal gov
ernment and also eroded the b e lie f in
V a n ta g e î-’oint
Time Out For Nervous Negroes:
Black Power Must Confront White Power
by
R on D aniels
The recent firestorm swirling
around Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis
and the NAACP is really about
power.
The power o f forces external to
the African com m unity to control
and exploit the A frican comm unity
in this country and the w orld; to keep
African people disoriented, disunited
and weak. The cold historical fact is
that Europe and Europeans have pros
pered m ightily from the underdevel
opment o f A frica and African people
through the holocaust o f enslave
ment, colonialism, neo-colonialism
and domestic colonialism The vast
and extraordinary wealth and riches
o f African and the incredible talent,
skill and inventiveness o f the A fr i
can m ind and body have been used to
nurture Euro-American capitalism
and propel Europe and America to a
position o f supremacy, white su
premacy in the w orld today.
While supremacy developed and
has been sustained by some age old,
time tested tactics - divide, conquer
and exploit. The holocaust o f en
slavement was carried out because
o f the superiority o f European weap
onry (the gun) and the a bility to use
that weaponry to turn African against
A frican The objective was clear - to
rape, pillage and control A frica in
the interest o f enriching and devel
oping Europe and Europeans. In the
colon ial era Africa was simply carved
up by the European powers w ith
disregard for the w ell established
boundaries and borders o f African
nations and ethnics groups. This reck
less splitting up o f the African na
tions and peoples was designed to
disrupt the unity o f the people and
facilitate control. In addition, ethnic
differences were exploited e.g. fa
voring one ethnic group over an
other as a means o f maintaining the
profitable control and dominance o f
white supremacy. Neo-colonialism
and domestic colonialism , the ind i
rect control o f A frican nations and
communities was/is maintained by
the same strategy and tactics - divide
and exploit. And, every form o fd o m i
nation has been characterized by
cultural aggression and mis-educa
tion; the conscious attempt to de
stroy A frican history, identity and
culture to undermine the capacity o f
A frican people to unite and resist
domination.
I site these historical references
sim ply to point out that the current
controversy engulfing the N A A C P
and Black America is about power
and control; the a b ility o f Europe
and America and Europeans to con
tinue to divide and exploit and pros
per o ff the human and material wealth
o f A frican people. N othing is more
terrifying to white supremacy/power
than the prospect that African people
might unite and use our enormous
resources for our own development.
N othing is more frightening to white
power than the specter o f Black
power.
As long as the Hutu and Tutsi
are at each others throats in Rwanda
and B u run di, w hite suprem acy/
power is secure. As long as the ten
sion between the Yoruba and Hausa
in N igeria is perpetuated, then white
supremacy is safe. As long as the
id e o lo g ica l differences between
Booker T. W ashington, Dubois,
Garvey and R andolf could be accen
tuated then w hite supremacy re
mained com fortably situated. The
prospect that M artin Luther King
and Malcom X m ight have com
bined forces to develop a common
agenda fo r the B la c k freedom
struggle sent shock waves through
the w h ite p o w e r s tru c tu re -
cointelpro, character assassination
and physical assassination followed.
Make no mistake about it, A fr i
can unity is not in the best interest o f
w hite suprem acy/power. A frica n
self-reliance and self-development
is not in the best interest o f white
supremacy/power. Black power is
not in the best interest o f white su
premacy/power. That’ s what the fuss
is all about. What is the African
American Leadership Summer suc
ceeds? What i f Black Americans
begin to effectively use its $350-
$400 b illio n income and consumer
power as a tool for self-development
and a weapon to punish those corpo
rations who exploit our people with
little or no return9 What i f this unity
and self-reliance idea spread like a
virus to infect Africans in the C arib
bean, Central and South America
and, heaven forbid, Africa?
We as Africans in America must
be clear about what is at stake and act
accordingly. We have the power in
our own hands to liberate ourselves.
The burden o fa $3 m illion debt at the
N AACPshould not even bean issue.
We are 40 m illio n strong w ith, to
repeat, a gross African annual in
come o f $35O-$4OO b illio n . We
should not be on our knees begging
anybody for grants or corporate do
nations as the prim ary source o f in
come for our c iv il rights/human rights
organization and leaders. We should
wipe out the debt and see A frican/
Black dollars as the main source o f
incom e fo r the B la ck freedom
struggle.
White supremacy prefers ner
vous negroes and w ittin g ly or u nw it
tin gly perpetuate the slave/planta-
tion m entality among our people;
nervous negroes who cannot con
ceive and therefore cannot achieve
African unity, self-reliance and Black
power; nervous negroes who would
keep us di vided, dependent and pow
erless. I believe that it ’ s tim e out for
nervous negroes. It’s time fo r A fr i
can people to do w h a t’ s neces
sary to lib e ra te ourselve s fro m
w h ite suprem acy and d o m in a
tio n . It s tim e fo r B la ck P ow er to
c o n fro n t w h ite pow er. I t ’ s tim e
fo r A fric a n p e o ple to f in a lly
com e o ft the p la n ta tio n to be
come free and s e lf-d e te rm in in g
people a gain!