On Nov. 15, the Greater Indianapolis Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will hold elections for local organization officers. Voting will take place at the Julia Carson Government Center, located at 300 E. Fall Creek Parkway, from noon to 4 p.m. All active members of Branch #3053 are encouraged to participate.
The NAACP, which holds elections every odd calendar year has just three out of eight of its offices being contested; president, 3rd vice president, and treasurer. The offices of 1st vice president, 2nd vice president, secretary, assistant secretary, and assistant treasurer along with a number of Board Member seats are not being contested this time around.
According to the NAACP’s 2014 manual on branch election procedures, a nominating committee is required to submit a written report at the general body meeting held in October, that lists the approved nominations for each of the previously mentioned offices. At Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper press time, repeated requests made to both the local and national NAACP for the names of those on the ballot were not answered.
Running for the office of president are longtime NAACP member Denise Abdul-Rahman and incumbent Chrystal Ratcliffe.
Ratcliffe, who has served as president since 2009 following the resignation of then president Cornell Burris, said in a written interview, that the organization’s involvement with the national Moral Mondays movement is one of the things she is most proud of accomplishing during her tenure. “Inspired by the work of our counterparts in North Carolina, we were able to pull together a coalition of more than 60 organizations in a matter of a few months and host a weekend-long visit with Rev. Dr. William Barber, NAACP North Carolina State Conference President,” she said.
Abdul-Rahman, who is a third-generation civil rights advocate, has served the NAACP in various capacities. Her past involvement includes service at the state level as an executive board member and environmental climate justice chair. When asked by the Recorder what prompted her to run, Abdul-Rahman responded that the opinions of others regarding the organization’s current state of affairs influenced her greatly.
“I agreed with them that the Indianapolis chapter is in need of a change and that change ought to be one that will make us more visible,” she said. “We feel the current leadership has been doing a good job but not in the area of actively asserting civil rights. We need to be at the City-County Council meetings, holding up signs if necessary. We need to advocate for policies relating to racial profiling, crime, education, and unemployment. We need to be filing civil rights lawsuits to address these concerns.”
Through that, Abdul-Rahman believes the NAACP will return to the “rightful position” it should have, both locally and nationally. “When we speak, people should listen,” she said.
When asked how she feels she could improve as a leader, Ratcliffe said “Everyone has room for improvement and it is my job as Greater Indianapolis NAACP president to best serve the interest of our members.”
In terms of improving visibility, Ratcliffe said the local branch has “big plans” for 2015. “We will be paying attention to the Indiana State legislature and holding them accountable to our 5 Game Changers,” she said. These game changers, which were outlined in a 2011 strategic plan for the national organization, cover the following five areas; economic sustainability, education, health, public safety/criminal justice, and voting rights/political representation.
At the 109-year-old NAACP, self-proclaimed as the oldest and largest American civil rights organization, officials say it has positioned itself at the forefront of a number of social justice efforts throughout its history. There are still those who believe this but also think the NAACP is lacking in relevancy and failing to address the immediate concerns of the demographic it was established to serve.
Recently, the Indianapolis community was stunned to learn a member of one of the most recognized families in the city had taken to social media to make negative remarks about minority groups. Charlotte Lucas, of the Lucas Oil Corporation, posted on her personal Facebook page that she was ‘sick and tired of minorities running our country’. The statement, which gained national and international attention, got a response from the local NAACP some 20 days later. Asked about the apparent delay, Ratcliffe said she took the time to deliberate with her board before crafting a response.
“We continue to feel that Mrs. Lucas’ comments were disconcerting and unbecoming of such a prominent figure in our community,” said Ratcliffe.
A former two-term NAACP president from Garland, Texas, Rev. C.L .Bryant wrote an editorial published in USA Today, detailing his decision to leave the organization. He referred to the NAACP as a “once-great organization gone completely off the rails” that is more concerned with politics than actually furthering the cause of advancing colored people.
“For far too long the NAACP has failed to advance anyone,” he said pointing to figures detailing the national rates of Black unemployment and illiteracy.
In terms of relevancy, Ratcliffe said she agrees with comments made by Cornell William Brooks, national president of the NAACP, at their National Convention this year. “He said this question is ‘wearisome, not worrisome’,” she said. “He said when given the choice between irrelevancy and revolution, the NAACP has chosen the path of revolution. He has called for a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-generational NAACP and that is exactly what we have tried to build with our local chapter.”
Abdul-Rahman calls statements of the organization’s relevance “ridiculous.” “Who else has marched for civil rights for over 100 years to make a difference in this country? There is no other organization besides the NAACP that has done that,” she said. “Here in Indianapolis I think we need to empower ourselves more, we need to let people know how powerful the NAACP really is – there are a lot of people who understand that and want to suppress us. I’ve encountered it myself through my work with the environmental movement.”
When asked what their plans are if elected, both Abdul-Rahman and Ratcliffe shared strategies including but not limited to utilizing social media and other grassroots efforts to attract younger members as well as building more collaborative relationships with other social, civic, and governmental agencies.
For more information on the NAACP, visit indynaacp.org.
