Voting for Change: Oakland’s Struggling NAACP Faces Election Anxieties of its Own

By Orquedia Price
Photos by Rachelle Jones

OAKLAND, Nov. 26--Diane Lewis, a city attorney, had no confusion at all about the ballot she marked up yesterday in the downtown office of the Oakland NAACP. She was voting, she said, for change.

"I see this as an opportunity for the NAACP to regain leadership and make a statement in Oakland," Lewis said as she stepped out of the voting booth and stuffed her blue ballot form into the box on the floor. "I would like the organization to take a more visible position on issues in Oakland and take a leadership role."

While it is the oldest branch in the Bay Area, the Oakland branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has been plagued in recent years by apathy and dwindling membership participation. Lewis was among the few dozen people who paid enough attention to this year’s local NAACP election to bother coming downtown to vote. A poster that read, "NAACP Vote Here Today!" hung outside the office, but only 45 out of 2,000 members showed up—a prime illustration, some NAACP members said, of what has troubled them about the organization’s decline.

"We haven't done anything for civil rights in a long time," said Viola Wims, a retired real estate broker who has served for 50 years on the Oakland NAACP board. "I just never thought it would change to what it is."

The Oakland branch, which organized in 1913, was the first NAACP chapter in Northern California. It represented the cities of San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley. The branch participated in the national NAACP campaign to eliminate Jim Crow laws and to support anti-lynching legislation. The Oakland NAACP had an important impact on the civil rights struggle in California and worked to exert political influence on behalf of blacks, who by the 1970s had become the largest racial group in Oakland.

But the branch has struggled to gain the relevance it had when the civil rights movement energized the organization and its members. "They do a lot of talking about getting things done, but I haven't seen anything recently that they have done that has benefited anyone in Oakland," said Norris Moore, an Oakland resident and vocational school recruitment director who said he has seen no reason to join the NAACP. "A lot of rhetoric has spouted, but I would like to see tangible results."

One source of contention in recent years has been the presidency of Shannon Reeves, who attracted considerable attention when he was elected in 1996 at the age of 27, making him the youngest leader in the history of the Oakland NAACP. Reeves said he wanted to create an energized NAACP, with more aggressive public advocacy for civil rights. "Everyone voted for him," said Vilma Chavis, branch secretary of six years and business owner. "Members were excited. People in the whole city were energized by him. He was sought after by civic organizations and churches all the time. They wanted him to speak at various city functions."

But the NAACP is an officially nonpartisan organization, and Reeves annoyed many of the organization's members when he became a high-profile Republican during this year's tight presidential campaign. When George W. Bush was celebrating his Super Tuesday victory at the Republican National convention this summer, many black voters were disturbed when Reeves appeared on national television, his Oakland NAACP President label on the screen, in support of the Texas governor.

Complaints about this appearance were a part of a strongly worded ten-page members’ complaint about Reeves to national NAACP president Kweisi Mfume. The complaint said Reeves was pushing a political agenda that was not in the best interest of blacks in the community. According to Wims, Mfume replied: "If you want him out, you should increase your membership in the branch and vote him out."

Reeves also upset his own membership by supporting John Russo, a white Oakland City Council member, in Russo’s bid to become Oakland city attorney. Many blacks were supporting incumbent Jayne Williams, who is African American. In September, Russo barely defeated Williams to become the new city attorney. Reeves "got on television and gave the impression that the NAACP was supporting Russo," said Wims. "We asked him to hold a press conference saying that he is supporting Russo, and not the NAACP. But he never did."

Reeves, an Oakland native, said he had endorsed Russo because the two were longtime friends. But some members said they believed Reeves was not paying enough attention to NAACP business and was using his civil-rights position merely to advance his political agenda.

Reeves, who declined to run again after two terms as president, has had his NAACP supporters, who say he boosted membership, refurbished the organization’s main office, and involved more young people. Reeves said he has raised nearly a million dollars, the organization is in the strongest financial shape it has ever been in, and that the next president can take the local branch to the next level.

That task will go to Andrea Ford-Roberts, who won election yesterday to become the first woman president of the Oakland branch in nearly 20 years. Roberts, an Oakland deputy city attorney, said she decided to seek office because members were complaining about the way the branch was being run. She said that for too long "many longtime members were not being kept informed" about monthly meetings because they had not received mailings—including the notice about the Nov. 19 election.

"People came to me because they felt they were not being included," she said. "Members said they weren't given any information, and that they felt completely disenfranchised."

Reeves disagreed with Robert's comments. He said people were not informed and involved because they didn't attend meetings. "When you come to meetings, you find out what's going on," Reeves said. "If you don't come, then you don't want to know. Information is available and there is plenty work to be done."

Roberts said that once she takes over the volunteer position, her major task will be attracting 100 new members and organizing a "round table discussion to understand what the issues are in Oakland."

The new president said she plans to work with Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown. "A lot of changes have impacted people of color," Roberts said. "I want to get in and have a discussion with him, so that he knows the NAACP will be a powerhouse in Oakland."
Roberts said she is concerned about the city's plan to redistrict Oakland and that she plans to appoint an NAACP committee to monitor the redistricting effort. The demographics of Oakland have changed so much in the last five years that the city could redistrict in such a way that "there would not be a single district where there is a majority of black people to vote," she said.

Roberts said she also plans to also create a youth center in West Oakland to help youths who don't have access to computers, and to start an educational program to teach youth about African American history.

"I would like to see the program integrating older NAACP members with young people," she said. "Older NAACP members would tell them what has happened in the last 40 to 50 years, so they don't forget why it is so important to vote. I want them to know we fought for the right to vote." Over the next two years Roberts said she plans to increase the number of black registered voters in Oakland.

Roberts, 47, is a New York City native and former national vice president for a black law students association. For the past year she has handled employment, labor, and public housing issues the in the Oakland city attorney's office. Her work duties have worried some NAACP members, who have privately expressed concerns that it may be difficult for someone who works at City Hall to challenge political or corporate forces on behalf of minorities with complaints about bias or other issues. But Roberts said that there is "no detriment" in selecting a city employee as president of the Oakland NAACP.

" I can do a lot by being on the inside," Robert said. "The situations that may pose any issue would be employment issues. If I were the city attorney, then there might be an issue."

Charles Henry, a UC Berkeley African American Studies professor who has written extensively about black politics, said there is a need for black leadership in Oakland. Henry said no black leaders have emerged in the city since Oakland's last black mayor, Elihu Harris, stepped down in 1998.

"There still remains a gap of black elected officials in Oakland," said Henry. "But the NAACP has the opportunity to be seen as a new form of black leadership. It depends on the role of the new president."

Former NAACP branch president William Patterson, now an East Bay Municipal Utilities District board member, said he thinks Roberts will make sure members are better informed and more involved with the organization. "The new president has ways to make sure the NAACP works the way the members want it to," said Patterson. "I think her leadership will be different. She is not a political person, and her full attention will be on the branch. She will help us build a strong branch and provide leadership for Oakland."

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New President Andrea Ford-Roberts and Old President Shannon Reeves

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