Jamal Watson on the NAACP

When Kweisi Mfume took over as the president and chief executive officer of the NAACP nine years ago, the country's oldest civil rights organization was reeling from a series of scandals.

The organization was mired in a $3.2 million deficit and dogged by a highly publicized sex scandal involving its then Executive Director Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.

But after only eight months on the job, Mfume--the former Congressman who gained a national reputation after chairing the Congressional Black Caucus--turned things around. He put the organization back on a firm financial track and brought in new and younger members into the 95-year-old organization.

But this week, Mfume, 56, announced his resignation, calling his tenure at the NAACP ''the most rewarding and most fulfilling position of my life.'' He will leave his post on January 1, but has agreed to serve as a consultant until July 2005.

Mfume said that he was resigning because he wanted to relax and spend more time with his family, but some political observers say that he may be eyeing the Maryland U.S. Senate seat currently held by Paul S. Sarbanes.

Sarbanes is 71 and may not seek reelection when his term ends in 2006.
Mfume downplayed suggestions that he was leaving the NAACP to run for the U.S. Senate, but at his new conference earlier this week, he did not rule out the possibility.

''It really is not about me looking for another office to run for,'' said Mfume. ''If that happens, it happens.'' He said that he never intended to stay at the NAACP forever. ''I said then that I am not coming to the NAACP to stay; my goal is to come help others get a job done.''

In the hours following Mfume's resignation, speculation began over a possible replacement. Reverend Jesse L. Jackson has publicly said that he is not interested in the job. Congressman Elijah E. Cummings, who currently chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, and Julian Bond, the chairman of the NAACP board of directors, have been discussed as possible successors. Maxine Waters, a Democratic congresswoman from California, has also been mentioned.

Some NAACP board members are also floating the name of Rev. Al Sharpton. They say that Sharpton's national presence and his long record in fighting for civil rights would make him the ideal leader.

''We need someone like an Al Sharpton,'' said Ron Walters, director of the African American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland. ''We need someone who is not afraid to stand up and make waves and do something differently.''

Walters said that Mfume's leadership was ''moderate'' and he faulted him for aggressively courting President Bush. Bush is the first president since the 1930s not to address the NAACP. After the election, Mfume sent Bush a letter calling for a meeting and pledged cooperation.

''He has done OK, but he has not been out there talking about the big things that would change the quality of life for Black people in this country,'' said Walters. ''I think Julian Bond has really been the organization's aggressive leader.''

It was a speech that Bond delivered this summer at the NAACP's convention in Philadelphia that caused the Internal Revenue Service to audit the organization.

In that speech, Bond--a former member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee--criticized the Bush administration for its decision to invade Iraq. He also criticized Bush on a litany of issues ranging from education to affirmative action.

The IRS audit claimed that Bond crossed the lines of a tax-exempt organization by participating in a political campaign. The matter is still under review by the IRS.

Some have also criticized Mfume for his decision to honor National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice at the NAACP Image Awards earlier this year.

And it has also been rumored that Bond and Mfume have had a tumultuous working relationship. Some say that their leadership styles are different and have proved contentious at points.

But Bond praised Mfume and wished him well.

''In short order, he and our former chair, Myrlie Evers-Williams, restored us to solvency and to our primacy among civil rights organizations,'' he said. ''He has been one of our most effective spokespersons for justice and fair play.''

Rev. Jesse Jackson said that Mfume raised important issues, like the lack of African-Americans on major television shows. ''He has been a major force in protecting affirmative action, a key to access and opportunity, and he led critical voter registration and empowerment drives,'' said Jackson.

Locally, Hazel Dukes, president of the New York State Conference of the NAACP, praised Mfume, saying that his leadership on the national level helped to reenergize local NAACP chapters across the country.

''He came to us nine years ago at a time when our critics had already written the NAACP's obituary,'' said Dukes. ''He left a safe congressional seat because he believed in the Association. He was proof of what the NAACP had done and the major role he could play in breathing new life into the organization.''

Mfume grew up in a Black neighborhood in Baltimore County and later moved with his family to Baltimore. As he recounts in his memoir "No Free Ride: From the Mean Streets to the Mainstream,'' he was abandoned by his step-father at the age of 16 and found himself coping with the death of his mother, who died after a long bout with cancer.
Mfume had dropped out of school and had fathered five sons by four women before he was 20.

In 1979, things began to change for him. Born Frizzell Gray, he changed his name to Kweisi Mfume, a Swahili word that means warrior prince. He ran for a position on the Baltimore City Council and shocked many when he won. In 1986, he was elected to Congress, where he served for 10 years.

At the organization's Baltimore headquarters, dozens of NAACP employees and board members fought back tears earlier this week as Mfume made his announcement.

The future of the organization, they say, is in good hands. Membership in local chapters has increased across the country, and the national organization has about $15 million in its reserves.

''My decision to move on should be seen for what it is,'' Mfume said. ''Another choice to seek another challenge, and another chance to make a difference.''

Jamal Watson writes for the Amsterdam News.