NAACP's Mfume steps down; nation's oldest civil rights group may face internal turmoil.

When Kweisi Mfume took the reins of the NAACP as president and CEO in 1996, the organization was nearly $14 million in debt, tarnished by a costly sex scandal involving former President Benjamin F. Chavis, and grappling with questions about its relevancy.

With Mfume leaving his post effective Jan. 1, the organization's finances are in the black and it had avoided scandal--until the recent Internal Revenue Service investigation into whether a speech made by Chairman Julian Bond violated federal rules that bar nonpartisan, nonprofit groups from participating in political activity.

That investigation of the NAACP's tax-exempt status and Mfume's departure could be the start of a tough transition for the group. The association must choose a new leader who can finetune its agenda and, at the same time, operate in what scholars describe as the most hostile political environment in 50 years.

"You have an angry, disaffected black community that has more hostility toward the current [presidential] administration than we've seen in decades," says Michael Dawson, a professor of African and African American studies at Harvard University. "It's also a black community that is skeptical about both political parties and is politically isolated to a significant degree."

The next NAACP president will face a challenge similar to the one encountered while the organization was fighting segregation: how to convince the majority of Americans that the current conservative agenda harms more than just black folks. "Particularly in the red states, the NAACP is going to have to return and fight for the souls of people," says Alvin Thornton, associate provost at Howard University.

The key for the NAACP is to not to be reviewed as just a black organization, but to broaden its appeal as an American organization so that no matter what it does, black people are helped, says renowned civil rights lawyer and Harvard Law School professor Charles Ogletree. To achieve that, he says, the organization needs to do a better job of developing young political and economic activists.

Few scholars and civil rights leaders disagree that Mfume, 56, was successful in turning the NAACP around. Nine years ago, the organization had "a number of creditors at our door," says Mfume. "Now, the NAACP has about $15 million in cash reserves." He adds that the organization has tripled its staff and put a renewed focus on engaging a generation of younger blacks who, in recent years, had questioned the organization's relevancy. Under Mfume, the NAACP more than doubled its campus branches to 110 and was a founding partner in the national hip-hop summit group organized by entertainment mogul Russell Simmons.

Rumors have circulated about a tenuous relationship between Mfume and Bond. The two men are both charismatic leaders with long civil rights track records--but with public styles of leadership that contrasted at times.

There has also been speculation about Mfume's longing to return to the political stage, although publicly he has cited a desire to spend more time with his family as the motivation behind his resignation. Mfume gave up his seat in Congress, where for 10 years he represented Maryland's 7th Congressional District, to assume the NAACP presidency. The former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus had also spent seven years as a member of the Baltimore City Council.

According to Federal Election Commission records, Mfume continues to maintain a campaign committee. Maryland political insiders are buzzing about whether he is preparing to run for the seat that could become vacated by 72-year-old Sen. Paul Sarbanes in 2006.

Mfume denies that political aspirations or personal conflicts were responsible for his departure. He has, however, left the door to return to political office open: "If Sen. Sarbanes decides that he's not running again, then that's something I could think about."

Regarding his relationship with Bond, Mfume says, "Nobody gets along 100% of the time. Julian and I have a mutual respect and when we disagree, we sit down and talk about it."

Bond's only comment about Mfume's departure was in a released statement: "Mfume came to [us] when we were nearly bankrupt and our reputation under siege; he left sure re-election to the Congress to help save the NAACP. In short order, he and our former chair, Myrlie Evers-Williams, restored us to solvency and to primacy among civil rights organizations. He has been one of the most effective spokespersons for justice and fair play. We are saddened by his departure, but wish him well in his future pursuits."

Once new leadership is in place, political analysts say the most pressing issues facing the NAACP are economic policies that contribute to the growing wealth and educational gaps among working-class African Americans. "Major wealth disparities and democracy are incompatible. If the NAACP can get a spokesperson that can, through the media, put that platform forward, it would be a great thing," says Thornton.

Before that happens, the NAACP must contend with the IRS, which is questioning whether the NAACP is too partisan to be a legitimate nonprofit. If the government rules that Bond's speech or the NAACP itself engaged in a partisan manner, it could revoke the group's 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, potentially throwing it into worse organizational turmoil than it faced in the mid-1990s. Throughout his speech last July, Bond relentlessly attacked Bush's policies on the war in Iraq, the economy, and civil liberties, and he browbeat Republicans in general. Bond also criticized Democrats in his speech.

Dawson questions whether the IRS investigation smacks of a political vendetta against the NAACP. "The leadership of the NAACP needs to recognize that the great majority of their constituents oppose the political platform and policy agenda of the current administration," he says. "They're already being scrutinized by the IRS; they're going to be attacked on some level. I don't think they can avoid that."

MFUME'S CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

1979   Elected to Baltimore City Council

1986   Elected to Congress from Maryland's 7th District

1993   Elected chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus

1996   Resigned from Congress to become NAACP president and CEO

1999   Spearheaded boycott and filed lawsuit against Adam's Mark
       Hotels and Resorts on behalf of Black College Reunion guests
2004   Resigned from NAACP