Any thoughts on Bruce S. Gordon, "Civil Rights CEO"

[wildeyed]

and new president of the NAACP? Apparently he was the only candidate seriously considered for the position. I don't know much about him other than he comes from a corporate background.

[rogue emissary]

1. It is a time will tell situation.

His strategy for the organization hasn't been released yet. So it's hard to say how I feel about him. The organization hasn't had someone from the business world. So I'm interested in seeing if he can work with corporations to get them on board with the NAACP goals. Especially since most companies fight tooth and nail against them.

[rogue emissary]

2. Gordon's first speech

New NAACP chief calls for economic justice

. . . "Economic equality, economic justice and economic power begets social equality, social justice and social power," Bruce Gordon told about 3,000 people at the organization's Freedom Fund Dinner at the Midwest Airlines
Center.

The dinner capped the NAACP's six-day annual convention in Milwaukee.
"If we were gainfully employed, running our own companies and investing in our communities, then we will be able to have the other things," Gordon said.

In his first speech to since being confirmed earlier Thursday to the top posts of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Gordon outlined his economic agenda to achieving civil rights for all minorities.

"We need to be economically secure as a base, and all the other things will flow," he said.

Gordon, 59, is a retired Verizon Communications Corp. executive. He is the first corporate official to run the civil rights organization. To applause from the crowd, Gordon issued calls for unity and self-reliance among African-Americans -- debunking the notion of what he called "victimspeak." "Sometimes, we allow ourselves to come apart because of our education or social status," Gordon said. "We cannot afford to be divided as a people. We must be united -- in our purpose, in our vision and in our thoughts. We must have unity."

As for self-reliance, Gordon quoted the motto of Malcolm X -- "By Any Means Necessary" -- several times. For example, he said: "Before I ask somebody for something, I believe in taking what I have and using it the best way I can."


More in the article below.
http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2005/07/11/daily41.html?from_rss=1