A martyr's wife steps forward: can Myrlie Evers-Williams restore the NAACP's credibility?

On June 12, 1963, Myrlie Evers-Williams watched as her husband, civil rights activist Medgar Evers, was shot down outside their home in Jackson, Miss. She may have been helpless on that fateful night, but the young widow sought revenge in the courts. After a 30-year battle, white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith was finally convicted of her husband's murder.

"If you can take on the Mississippi justice system, you can take on any task," says NAACP board member Joseph Madison. "Myrlie Evers-Williams provides instant credibility to the NAACP."

Credibility is just what the ordered for the NAACP, which in the last year has been tainted with scandal and which now faces estimated $4 million deficit. In February, board members voted 30-29 to replace former chairman William Gibson with Evers-Williams.

"Electing Myrlie was a necessary first step," says Michael Meyers, executive director of the New York Civil Rights Coalition. "Had she been defeated, I think the NAACP would have gone out of business."

The 62-year-old Evers-Williams took the bull by its horns within days of her election. She appointed Wall Street financial manager Frank Borges as treasurer and vowed to fight the GOP-led movement to cut social programs. "We will be very vocal on issues that deal with welfare reform and attempts to roll back many of the gains we have seen over the years, especially affirmative action," she said after her election.

Still, Evers-Williams has much to do in very little time. The NAACP's annual convention is scheduled for July, and a replacement for former executive director Ben Chavis has not been named. Chavis was ousted last year for allegedly than $300,000 in NAACP money to quiet sexent charges by a former employee.

The board designated Earl T. Shinhoster as the acting executive director until a replacement is found. Evers-Williams, he says, has already started the process of selecting an executive director. "Myrlie has all the capabilities, skills and knowledge to lead the NAACP as a whole into the 21st century," Shinhoster says. "She has a commitment to the cause that will make her effective in healing old wounds."

Evers-Williams may have to put healing wounds within the organization on the back burner to immediately concentrate on the Republican-dominated Congress. Some critics are also urging the NAACP to adopt a more multiracial and international approach for the 1990s.

Congress, meanwhile, has already voted to kill a minority-buyer incentive program designed to encourage minorities to get into the broadcast and cable industries; other affirmative-action programs are also on the chopping block.

The NAACP must provide research and data based on experience to answer critical questions," Meyers says. "If that fails, we have less than two years to conduct a voter registration campaign because that is the only thing that will scare Congress."