The NAACP is a tax-exempt organization because they are not supposed to be politically aligned with any political parties. Hence, the reason for their tax-exempt status. In order for a organization to receive their tax-exempt status, tax law prohibits charities organized under section 501(c)(3) from taking sides in political campaigns. The law restricts these organizations because donations are tax-deductible for the donor and in effect are subsidized by the government. In other words, don’t bite the hand that feeds you. This is what exactly Julian Bond did. The organization had gotten into more trouble over the years whenever Julian Bond opened his mouth against the Republican party but never the Democratic party. This time it was his July 11, 2004 speech where he
“condemned the administration policies of George W. Bush on education, the economy and the war in Iraq.”
Noticed he never said “President” George W. Bush? Where's the condemnation on Democrats or the Democrat Party?
Looking back several years ago the NAACP organization was floundering badly racked with a sex scandal and several million dollars in debt. It was Julian Bond who hand-picked Kweisi Mfume to help lead the NAACP out of troubled waters beginning in 1995.
We were four and a half million dollars in debt. We had scandal in the organization. Our very existence was threatened,” recalls NAACP chairman, Julian Bond. “Kweisi Mfume was the last person we interviewed,” continued Bond. “When he walked in the room, you could just see people thinking, we’ve got our man.”
And what Mfume did was nothing short of a miracle. He was able to save the organization. He helped remove their debts and managed to make NAACP the most powerful political pressure group in the country. Only problem is the organization managed to become the most powerful political Democratic pressure group in the country. Kweisi Mfume was not blind to this fact and shared this concerns with Julian Bond that the NAACP organization’s rhetorics were increasingly becoming partisan. Julian Bond no doubt did not listen because of their long standing feud between the two. The fued started when Mfume Mfume nominated National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice for his 2003 NAACP Image Award. This made Julian Bond absolutely furious. As with any loyal and blind Democratic followers, Bond made sure that this action of Mfume’s will not happen again against Bond’s political wishes. Anything but Republican ideals.
That didn’t last long. After the election, Kweisi Mfume wanted to continue to reach across party lines with President Bush in order to help the community. Bond was steadfastly against such a move, for obvious reasons. Mfume went ahead anyway and that was the final straw that broke Julian Bond’s back. A few weeks later, Julian Bond had Kweisi Mfume voted out.
Bond repeatedly claimed that the organization was a non-partisan organization. In his March 5, 2004 interview with “The Hollywood Reporter” Bond exclaimed:
We are always nonpartisan, and we've never endorsed a candidate. We want to elect a pro-civil rights president and a pro-civil rights Congress. We're now in the process of trying to register 2 million new voters; in the fall, we will begin the process of making sure every one of them votes.
But looking back in 2001 one Bond derisively called upon Bush in his speech:
"[Bush] has selected nominees from the Taliban wing of American politics, appeased the wretched appetites of the extreme right wing, and chosen Cabinet officials whose devotion to the Confederacy is nearly canine in its uncritical affection."
And that prompted an angry letter from a black Democratic supporter regarding the supposed NAACP standing as a non-partisan organization to Mr. Julian Bond.
The scathing letter carries the same sentiments exacted by Wayne Perryman, a black minister, in his website regardng the often over-looked historical notes of how the Republican Party repeatedly helped the minority groups, especially among blacks ever since the days of Abraham Lincoln.
Now, you can see why Kweisi Mfume was booted out and not merely resigned all because of Julian Bond's blind loyalty to the Democratic Party. Rumors have it that Mfume was not offered another four-year contract by the NAACP board, which is led by Bond, indicate that the differences in the men's leadership styles may have come to a head.
For those not in the know, the NAACP was founded by three white guys who opposed the Democrat's racist practices, including the lynching of blacks. The founders started the organization in 1909 on the "need for a nation-wide effort to combat the evil” (against blacks). The founders were a part of the Republican Party who were interested in helping blacks empower themselves. No doubt they succeeded in doing that seeing that current NAACP leaders are seemingly towing the partisanship line. Kweisi Mfume was not one of them. He was the smart one. But Julian Bond made sure that intellectual diversity will not exist in “his” organization as long as he lives.
Now, let’s hope that NBDA will be the shinning example of successes without resorting the need to align themselves politically. Or have they?
Give me a hand, will you guys?
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