New NAACP President Doesn’t Plan to ‘Hide Out’

By Hazel Trice EdneyNNPA Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON (NNPA) – NAACP President-elect Bruce S. Gordon, a retired Verizon executive, says that speculation that he has been hired as a corporate type who will be a quiet balance to the outspoken board chairman Julian Bond will soon be proven wrong. “Some of the speculation early on was that Julian will be outside and Bruce will be inside. Nothing could be further from the truth. Don’t even think it, okay?” said Gordon in an interview with the NNPA News Service. “The organization has not hired an office manager, okay? It has hired a CEO. CEOs don’t hide out in the back room. I’m going to be front and center. You’re going to be hearing from me. I will be an active spokesperson. That is the role as the constitution of the NAACP defines it. So, don’t for one second think that mine will be a soft-spoken voice.” Bruce succeeds Kweisi Mfume, whose contract was not renewed. There were reports that Mfume and Bond clashed as they shared the public spotlight. Bruce, a 35-year veteran and executive of Verizon, retired two years ago as its president of Retail Markets in the Domestic Telecom unit. “Black folks weren’t in corporate America when I got there,” he says. “That became, in my opinion, another civil rights battlefield, a new civil rights battlefield and it required a different set of skills and a different set of learning experience. So, I think that Julian Bond is one type of civil rights leader, and he’s a very important type and he’s very effective at what he has and will continue to do. But I think that I’m another type of civil rights activist and I happen to think that the skills and experiences, the background that I bring to the NAACP, will broaden our ability, broaden our effectiveness, and I think that the two of us will make a very effective team.” Bond, a founder of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee and former Georgia state legislator, has high expectations of Gordon. Bond says, “He will bring the passion and commitment to justice that distinguished his corporate career.” Some critics are concerned about Gordon’s lack of front-line civil rights experience. He says what they view as a negative is actually a positive. “When you march, when you picket, when you protest, you’re a force on the outside trying to make people on the inside change their policy because you’re not at the table,” Gordon explains. “… I wasn’t trying to get in the door. I was in it. I wasn’t trying to influence somebody from the outside in. I was inside making those decisions and influencing those decisions.” Gordon is set to give specifics of his vision for the organization during the NAACP annual convention in Milwaukee July 9-14. “I want to make sure that we acknowledge what we have and that we put plans in place to utilize what we have. That’s not to say that we will not continue to pursue expanded power in every dimension, but we have more control over our communities than we exercise. We have more control over the use of resources than we exercise,” he says. A key to that control is America’s $700 billion Black buying power, Gordon says. “The question is do we use that buying power to the best advantage of our communities,” he says. “We have tremendous giving power. Do we give to our community? Do we invest in the NAACP? Do we invest in our cultural institutions? Do we invest in our schools? We graduate…thousands of students from historically Black colleges and universities around the country. But, if you look at the giving rate of HBCU grads to their alma maters in comparison to the giving rate of the other community, to their alma mater, we don’t compete. We don’t compare.” That’s not the only thing Gordon wants to change. “The AIDS epidemic in our community is huge and growing,” he says. “I think that most AIDS experts would tell you that the best solution to AIDS is prevention and the best mechanism for prevention is education. That says if every Black church in America got engaged in AIDS education, in AIDS testing, that if every organization like ours that has an audience and has a network of chapters and branches got involved in disseminating information about AIDS, we, all by ourselves, could improve upon that epidemic in our community.” These self-help strategies by the Black community will not replace traditional civil rights strategies such as marching, he says. “I think that marching can be effective, but I want to make sure that we use all of the tools in our kit,” Gordon says. “Now, should we march? No question about it. But, should we think or review marching as our primary mechanism? I don’t think so. I think that there are other ways to influence.” Gordon, 59, did not participate in the 1963 March on Washington and other major civil rights marches of the 60s. “In terms of activism, you will not find on my resume, a long list of what I call traditional activism,” he says. “You will find on my resume, a very long list of 21st Century activism. And that is what’s going to move us I think, ahead, in the future.” Gordon has the success credentials to show for his style of activism. Among his honors for his push for corporate diversity, Fortune Magazine named him one of the “50 Most Powerful Black Executives” in July 2002 and Black Enterprise magazine named him “Executive of the Year” in 1998 for his work at Verizon, formerly Bell Atlantic. “…He has scaled the corporate ladder with a dexterity only a select few have mastered,” Black Enterprise described Gordon in the article honoring him in 1998. “He is also a champion of corporate diversity and a tireless catalyst in moving African Americans up the ranks at Bell Atlantic.” Gordon takes the helm of the NAACP just as several major civil rights marches and African-American movements are being planned. He says he plans to attend Jesse Jackson Sr.’s August 6 march commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act in Atlanta and Minister Louis Farrakhan’s Millions More Movement in October. He is less certain whether he will participate in the “Back to Gary” movement next March that will explore different political options. “In my mind, I’m not concerned about what side of the aisle you’re on or whether you need to create yet another party,” he says. “I’m concerned about African-Americans expressing themselves, involving themselves, educating themselves, informing themselves, that they know the issues and then they take whatever stance that makes sense to them. We’re all not the same. We don’t all think alike. I respect diversity of thought. What I respect most is engagement.” Meanwhile Gordon says he will bring the dexterity that he used at Verizon to the NAACP. “I’ve had accountability for leading very substantial organizations inside of corporate America. And in leadership, I believe that I will be able to communicate affectively, I believe that I will be able to organize effectively,” he says. “Businesses talk about return on investments. I want a return on every dollar we invest in a program, in an initiative, whatever. So, just having that kind of a managerial attitude and perspective, I think, will be useful to the NAACP at this point in time.”