Mfume's legacy.

Byline: The Register-Guard

When Kweisi Mfume became president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1996, the nation's oldest and largest civil rights group was mired in debt and scandal, and its membership was in decline.

Nine years later, Mfume, who announced his resignation this week, leaves behind a stable, well-run organization that has a budget surplus and a burgeoning endowment fund, and that has a membership of 500,000. More importantly, Mfume, a former gang member and leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, played a key role in the organization regaining its morale, credibility, high profile and political clout.

Mfume, 56, says he needs a break from the considerable rigors of his job. There's speculation that he's considering a run for the U.S. Senate, but Mfume's explanation resonates with any parent who has spent too much time and energy on the job and too little on home and family: "I don't want to miss another basketball game, I don't want to be absent from another PTA meeting."

Now, the NAACP faces a formidable challenge in finding a successor who brings a similar mix of energy, passion and political skill to an organization that still has much important work to do on issues ranging from civil rights to equal opportunities.

The NAACP's next leader must deal with another looming crisis - a politically motivated Internal Revenue Service investigation that could threaten the organization's tax-exempt status.

In early October, the IRS informed the NAACP that it had learned that NAACP board Chairman Julian Bond had publicly criticized President Bush and his policies on education, the economy and the war in Iraq - all legitimate grounds for forceful, passionate criticism by the NAACP. The letter clearly was timed to coincide with the organization's efforts to turn out the black vote in a tightly contested election and marked a disturbing departure from the IRS's traditional leniency in its dealings with tax-exempt organizations.

The NAACP must find a successor who will not back away from confrontations with Bush or future presidents over the civil rights and social justice issues that powerfully affect the interests of minorities. Many of those issues - employment, housing and election protection - remain unchanged from when the organization was founded in the early 1900s by W.E.B. DuBois and Ida B. Wells-Barnett.

At the same time, the NAACP must also find a leader who can reach across the political spectrum to engage, instruct, exhort - and, yes, listen - as opportunities arise.

The next NAACP president will face an array of daunting challenges. But he or she will inherit an organization, thanks in large part to the efforts of Mfume, that's well prepared for the challenge.