Mfume Lauds Auto Maker’s $100,000 Gift to NAACP

NAACP President-designate Kweisi Mfume on Thursday announced a $100,000 donation from the Nissan Motor Corp. USA, calling it a “first-step gesture” of confidence by private corporations in the new leadership of the troubled civil rights organization.

Mfume said the donation, coupled with a $50,000 Nissan grant earlier this year, will be used “in the implementation of existing programs and new programs,” including voter registration and education, recruitment and outreach to minority communities.

“We’re very happy with Nissan Motors for making this first-step gesture from the corporate community,” Mfume said in a telephone interview from NAACP headquarters in Baltimore. “We’re hoping it will be seen by the rest of the corporate community as a way to play a reciprocal role with the black community.”

Mfume said the Nissan donations will not be used to help retire the NAACP’s $3.2-million debt.

“We will deal with debt reduction within the organization,” Mfume said. “We will further reduce our expenses to conduct our business at a lower cost.”

A Democratic congressman from Baltimore, Mfume was chosen as president and chief executive officer of the NAACP on Dec. 9. It was the final step in a leadership shake-up that began in February with the election of Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of slain NAACP activist Medgar Evers, as chairman of the 54-member board of directors.

Mfume, who will resign his congressional seat Feb. 15 to take over the NAACP’s day-to-day operations, said he preferred “not to get ahead of myself” by announcing his program interests, but indicated that money and internal organization will be top priorities.

The 86-year-old National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, is emerging from several years of scandal and financial trouble at the same time it seeks new approaches to make it more relevant in today’s civil rights climate.

The arrivals of Evers-Williams and Mfume appear to have restored badly needed confidence in a leadership scarred last year when the board fired Executive Director Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. for secretly using $332,400 in NAACP funds to settle a sexual-discrimination suit.