What Has The NAACP Or CBC Done For Black Americans Lately?

Two civil rights groups that have the unfounded loyalty of black Americans are the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC). 

My question is what have they done for you lately?  

Following the lead of Wayne Perryman’s book “Unfounded Loyalty”, as well as my own research and observations, I have found that black Americans have developed a loyalty to a political party and civil rights organizations that do not care about them. Black Americans are the steppingstone for the Democratic party, even though, nothing changes for them. 

Black Americans continue to be hoodwinked by black civil rights organizations and allow themselves to be used as pawns in the game of politics. As Malcom X describes it, negros continue to be manipulated by their civil rights leaders who sell them out for token gains and token progress.  

Officially founded on February 12, 1909, the NAACP began when a group of white liberals, (Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison Villard and William English Walling) issued a call for a conference to consider the plight of black Americans.  As this organization grew it relied heavily on white Republican philanthropists for financial support. 

Their aim was to secure for all people the rights guaranteed in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution, which promised an end to slavery, provided equal protection of the law, and the right for all men to vote, respectively. The NAACP's mission is to ensure the political, educational, and equality of minority group citizens of States and eliminate racial prejudice. The NAACP worked to remove all barriers of racial discrimination through democratic processes.  

As a civil rights organization, they should be working to strengthen the power of blacks as American citizens. They should be encouraging blacks to run for political offices. They should be educating black Americans on how to hold their political leaders accountable and how to become agents of change in their communities.  

The NAACP should be working to improve educational opportunities for black children, fighting against abortion, strengthening the black family, and speaking out against black-on-black crime. But what has the NAACP done?    

From what I have read, this organization is more reactive than proactive and has not done anything of any real consequence in years. They were virtually silent during the “2020 Summer of Love”. They are silent when it comes to ensuring black children get the best education possible and they are silent when it comes to eradicating black-on-black crime. 

Their silence would indicate they don’t have any issue with abortion, which is one of the leading killers of black Americans. They focus on removing symbols and billboards they consider racist because they believe doing those things will improve the lives of black Americans.  They focus on securing the right to vote, something that was taken care of years ago, but they still see it as an issue today.  

Their leadership is old and are having difficulty attracting new and younger leaders and members. In an article by Justin Grant, he shares that the belief among younger blacks is that a generation ago the efforts of this organization were needed; however, with legally backed racial discrimination a thing of the past, many younger blacks believe this organization is largely irrelevant to them. Younger blacks with new and fresh ideas are the very audience the NAACP desperately needs to offset an aging membership that dwindles year after year. 

This is an origination that has outlived its usefulness. They want to survive by holding on to issues that for the most part have already been solved. They are not focused on the issues of today for black Americans and they appear to be in bed with a political party that has done nothing for them for decades. A revival of this group could occur if they focused on education, black-on-black crime, and strengthening the black family. 

The CBC was established in 1971 and has been committed to using the full Constitutional power, statutory authority, and financial resources of the federal government to ensure that black Americans and other marginalized communities in the United States have the opportunity to achieve the American Dream. Things that are preventing black Americans from achieving the American Dream are poor educational opportunities in the inner cities, high unemployment, and black-on-black crime. 

The CBC is weary and worn with virtually no legislative victories to showcase. The big issue with this organization is their ideas and tactics have grown stale. Similar to the NAACP, they continue to fight the battles of the past while ignoring present-day issues. 

Problems for black Americans have changed but the leadership and their mission remain the same. The CBC is still fighting for voting rights for black Americans. They also actively prevent black members of Congress who are not Democrats from becoming a part of their organization.  They have no clear plan to improve the lives of black Americans, which suggests they serve no purpose either. 

The NAACP and the CBC are two organizations, that with significant changes, could do many positive things for the black American community. Until they come up with missions that address the current needs of black Americans and recruit young, new, leadership, these groups will continue to be stale, and irrelevant, but sadly will continue to have the unfounded loyalty of black Americans.  

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author's own.