Mfume Steps Down as Head of the NAACP

WASHINGTON — Kweisi Mfume, the former congressman from Baltimore who helped rescue the NAACP from debt and controversy nearly nine years ago, on Tuesday announced he was resigning as the president and chief executive of the venerable civil rights organization.

Mfume, 56, teared up when he talked about spending more time with his youngest child, saying his 14-year-old son has known him mostly as away on airplanes and at news conferences. “I don’t want to miss another basketball game,” Mfume told reporters. “I want to sew on his varsity letter on his sweater.”

He added: “I just need a break. I need a vacation.”

Marc Morial, the former mayor of New Orleans who has been president and chief executive of the National Urban League for less than two years, praised Mfume’s achievements and said the job of steering a civil rights organization was demanding.

“You do these jobs for eight to 10 years,” Morial said in an interview. “They’re tremendously taxing. There’s a tremendous amount of travel and a lot of managing.”

Mfume, who helped clear the organization’s $3.2-million debt in his first few years in office, leaves with some clouds still overhead. President Bush declined to attend the this year’s convention of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, with the White House citing the political name-calling by the organization’s leadership. And in October, the Internal Revenue Service informed the organization it was reviewing the group’s tax-exempt status.

The NAACP’s chairman, former Georgia state Sen. Julian Bond, said the investigation stemmed from a speech he gave at the convention in July criticizing Bush. For organizations to keep their tax-exempt status, “leaders cannot make partisan comments in official organization publications or at official organizational functions,” according to the Oct. 8 letter to the NAACP from the IRS office in Louisville, Ky.

Whatever the outcome, insiders say the investigation has already achieved its goals -- to silence black leaders during the presidential race and to dim fundraising prospects.

“It has left a cloud over our fundraising,” said one Washington official for the organization.

And membership is static, at about half a million, although officials say many more African Americans think of themselves as members of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. In September, the group launched a national billboard advertising drive to boost membership. Mfume said at the time that he hoped to increase membership by 20%.

Mfume, born Frizzell Gray, was in his early 20s when he adopted his West African name, which translates to “conquering son of kings.” A political activist at Morgan State University in Maryland, he was editor of the school newspaper and president of the Black Student Union. In the 1970s, he regularly donned a dashiki and became a well-known radio talk show host.

In 1979, he translated his popularity into a seat on the Baltimore City Council, which he won by three votes and then held easily for seven years. Elected to the House in 1986, he served five terms and was leader of the Congressional Black Caucus before stepping down in 1996 to become the NAACP president.

“For the last nine years,” he said, “I’ve had what I believe is both the honor and privilege to help revive” the organization, which he described as “an American institution.”

He added: “In my heart of hearts, I know the job has been done.”

Amid rumors that he may run for another office or seek business opportunities, Mfume said he planned to not work for a few months. “This is not about some internal struggle,” he said.

As for a new political campaign, he said, “if that happens, it happens.” There has been speculation that he will seek the Senate seat held by Paul S. Sarbanes, 71, a Maryland Democrat whose fifth term expires in 2006.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who spoke with Mfume on Tuesday, told Associated Press that “each place he left, he left better off. He came [to the NAACP] at a time when the organization needed morale and credibility, and he brought both.”

Morial credited Mfume with pushing businesses to improve services for blacks in sectors such as the hospitality industry. And he predicted that the NAACP’s new leader would come from a new generation, just as Mfume had.

“The passing of the torch is becoming more common,” said Morial, who was only 45 when he became head of the Urban League in 2003, the youngest person to ever hold the job. “The mission is the same, but the way in which the battle is waged has changed. When these organizations began, we were trying to get to the table where decisions are made. Now we have people who are at the table.”

NAACP General Counsel Dennis Hayes will serve as interim president and CEO while officials conduct a national search for a new chief executive, the organization announced.

“To serve as the president of the NAACP ... clearly has been the most rewarding and the most fulfilling experience in my life,” Mfume said. “I walk away with more rather than less.”