National Public Radio (NPR) December 2, 2004 Thursday
Copyright 2004 National Public Radio
All Rights Reserved
Tavis Smiley 9:00 AM EST NPR
TAVIS SMILEY, host:
From NPR in Los Angeles, I'm Tavis Smiley.
On
today's program, there's still more to talk about regarding HIV and
AIDS. We'll find out what's being done to address the growing number of
new cases, specifically among African-American women.
In
day four of our morality roundtable, our four leading clergy members
address theories of religious fundamentalism in America.
And when it comes to getting ahead, is it really about who you know vs. what you know? You'll know, later in this program.
But first, what now for Kweisi Mfume and the NAACP?
That is perhaps the 64,000-dollar question, as they say, after Mfume
announced earlier this week, on Tuesday, he's stepping down as
president and CEO of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights
organization.
(Soundbite of press conference)
Mr. KWEISI MFUME (President and CEO, NAACP):
For the last nine years, I've had what I believe was both the honor and
the privilege to help revive and to help restore this great
organization, which for all intents and purposes has really become an
American institution. The people who I have met along the way and the
lessons that I have learned have proven to be invaluable.
SMILEY: When Kweisi Mfume took the helm of the NAACP
back in 1995, the group was already besieged with scandal and saddled
with more than $3 million of debt. Now nine years later, the debt has
been eased, but the group is still struggling, as you might imagine,
with other issues. Recently news surfaced that the IRS was
investigating the organization's tax-exempt status, after Chairman
Julian Bond criticized President Bush in a speech before the NAACP's
annual convention in Philadelphia last summer. But Mfume, having served
in the political spotlight for decades as an activist, congressman and
chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, is credited with steering the
NAACP into stable waters, attributed to a savvy business mind and
top-notch management techniques.
I'm
pleased to be joined now on the phone, I'm told from Baltimore,
Maryland--I think I can say this--the soon-to-be president--let me
rephrase that--the soon-to-be former president and CEO of the NAACP, Kweisi Mfume.
Mr. President, nice to have you on, sir.
Mr. MFUME: All right. Thank you very much, Tavis, and, yes, you can say that.
SMILEY: So let me start with a real simple and silly question: How you feeling?
Mr.
MFUME: You know, I feel great. Parting is never good, no matter when it
is or what's involved, but every day since I made the decision, which
really was about three, maybe four weeks ago now, I have felt better.
You know, for me, it's an opportunity to have another chance, to make
another choice, to try to make another difference somewhere else, and I
don't know where that somewhere else might me, but I have a funny
feeling that the next challenge will find me; I won't have to find it.
SMILEY:
Fascinating and funny to hear you say that you have no idea where that
next challenge may come from, but everybody else seems to think they
know where that next challenge might come, and the word on the street
is that you are considering a run for the US Senate from the state of
Maryland. Any truth to that?
Mr. MFUME:
Well, yes and no. I mean, Paul Sarbanes, our current senator, is a dear
friend. He and his wife, Christine, are principled individuals that
I've admired, and I'm just happy to know and to be able to say I'm
friends with them. He's served well for a long, long time, and he may
continue to want to serve well. That is clearly his option, and so it's
almost disrespectful to me to even contemplate or to speak openly about
whether or not I will or will run for his seat if he steps down,
because that's a decision he makes. But you know, I'm a political
animal. I've spent 17 years in local government--seven years in local
government and then 10 years in the Congress, and with the exception of
these nine years here at the NAACP, I've taken a great deal of
pride in working in the government and making change and crafting bills
and creating a path for people to have a better life. So if and when
that ever occurs, obviously I'm going to look at it. I admire Paul and
if he wants to run again, that's going to be his choice, and if he
doesn't then I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.
SMILEY:
Let me ask you, I guess for each of us, we have our own decisions to
make and we have to make those decisions in a certain time and space,
and we have our own criteria for why we make those decisions when we
make them. Let me ask you why you decided that now was a propitious
time to step down? Was there something that happened? Was there some
final goal that you wanted to accomplish when you crossed the finish
line? I mean, why now?
Mr. MFUME: That's a
good question, Tavis. I just believe--I've been taught all my life that
you don't go somewhere to stay, you go to make a difference, and when
you believe in your heart of hearts that you've made a difference,
you've got to be honest enough with yourself to say, `OK, let me create
an opportunity for somebody else to take over and to do things and to
add a new energy.' And I actually said that nine years ago at a press
conference when I was asked by a young reporter, `Well, why are you
leaving the Congress? And how long are you going to stay there?' My
real role at the time was to come in and try and get a job done.
You
were correct in your opening remarks when you described the state of
the organization. It was in absolute disrepair and disarray. People
thought that we had lost our will and lost our way, and it was a tough
time and a tough job that apparently not a lot of people wanted. And so
when I gave up my seat in the Congress to do this, I said publicly at
that press conference that I would do it to the point that I thought
that the job that I had done had been accomplished, and then I would
move on. And so hence I feel very good knowing that I've stayed true to
that word.
There is a time in a person's
life, several times, probably, when you know that you've got to do
something else, that there's another calling. I've always been--you
know, I've been taken by challenges. And I get up for that. I believe
that if we are able to apply ourselves to those things that people
think can't be done or won't be done, or are impossible, it makes us
better people, no matter what it is. Booker T. Washington once said
many years ago `We must learn to cast our buckets down where we are and
pick our battlefields.' And so my time in my own mind had come to move
on, and to allow this great organization the opportunity to have
someone else come in with fresh energy and fresh ideas and take it to
the next level.
SMILEY: This might be a
wasted question. As an interviewer, you have to balance your time with
asking questions you think you'll get an honest or insightful answer
to--not to suggest that you've ever been dishonest with me--but while I
may prejudge the answer, I want to ask anyway. Do you look back now and
for any reason regret, to your earlier point, having given up a safe
seat in Congress, because you had a safe seat?
Mr.
MFUME: Yeah. I've never regretted that. Ironically, you know, it's a
funny question. I've been getting it for years, but I have never
regretted that. I'm the kind of person when I make a decision, I'll get
there through a great deal of thought and contemplation, and so once I
arrive at the decision, I'm fine with it. I missed my friends in the
Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, because after 10 years you
get to know people and their families, and you watch their children
grow, and besides your partisan differences, you develop real good
relationships. So that was the one thing I missed, but I never missed
being in the Congress. I knew that there was always a possibility that
if I had a chance to do that once, I might have a chance, if I was
fortunate, to do it again.
SMILEY: Right.
Mr. MFUME: So I never have, and I guess people will ask me years from
now, `Do you ever miss leaving the NAACP?' And I know the thing that I
will miss have been the friendships that I've developed along the way
and all the...
SMILEY: Yeah.
Mr.
MFUME: ...lessons from all the wonderful people across this country who
are black and white, and Latino and Asian, who've taken me into their
home, who've told me what their perspective is on issues, who've stood
with me and marched with me. And that I will miss. But I will not miss
the fact that I--or not--regret the fact that I made the right
decision. This is my time, and thank God I'm not trying to cling, but I
want to at least move on and allow somebody else the opportunity to
allow the organization to grow.
SMILEY:
Let me ask you another personal question. I ask these personal
questions respectfully, because I've seen your responses--in your press
conference I watched it and I've seen you respond to some of the
political questions. I don't want to retread here. So let me ask you
something different, I hope, at least. I assume that in your internal
circles of family and friends and fans, there were folk who said,
`Kweisi, please, don't leave. The NAACP needs you. This is a
great opportunity for you. It's a great springboard if you want to run
for Sarbanes' seat in two years. Please, don't leave.' So let me ask
you a personal question. How do--how have you, how are you making the
folk around you who said maybe you shouldn't leave, the people need
you, how have you made them comfortable with your decision?
Mr.
MFUME: I think my demeanor has made a lot of them comfortable, because,
as they said to me, `Man, you looked so happy at the press conference,
we have to believe that you're comfortable, and if you're comfortable,
no matter how much we wanted you to stay, then we'll find a way to find
comfort also.' And there were a number of individuals on my board of
directors who have been saying to me over the last three or four weeks,
`Think about it, don't go, we want you to stay.' And I--you know, it's
very humbling and I'm not saying that to be funny. It really, really
is. But I would not be true to them or myself if I said, `OK, let me
sign on for another three to four years' if I knew, in fact, that I
would be breaking a commitment that I made publicly long ago, and that
is that when it was time for me to go that I would step aside, that no
one would have to ask me to move on. And so people looked at me and I
think they look at my demeanor, hear my voice, see my happiness and
know now that I've got so much more time for my family that they feel
good about it.
SMILEY: In the minute and
30 seconds I have left, tell me what you think--back to the
organization--the greatest challenge is that befalls or besets or
certainly faces the NAACP at this moment?
Mr.
MFUME: Well, this organization has been around just about for 95 years,
and it's a long, long time to fight for a number of issues. I think the
greatest thing is to understand that for the NAACP and
organizations like us, it means understanding our ever-changing
political and social environment so that we make that environment
ultimately work for us and for those people who need help the most.
Only by conforming to the reality of today's battlefield do we avoid
being consumed by it, and it's important for this organization as it is
for individuals not so much to look in the mirror every day at
ourselves, because when we do we always find a way to justify our
appearance. We don't see our wrinkles. We overlook our gray hair and we
think we're beautiful. Organizations and people have a knack of doing
that.
The better direction is to go to the
window and to look out at the rest of the world, because when you do
that, people will look back and tell you what you really look like, and
then you will understand what you really have to do to survive. And I
think that's important, to always be prepared to continue the evolution
that takes place by understanding the tenor of the times that you're in
and by knowing how and when to pick your battles.
SMILEY: The NAACP president and CEO, at least for a few more weeks, Kweisi Mfume.
Mr.
Mfume, on a personal note, you have served with distinction and honor,
and your courage and your conviction and your commitment to the work
you've done I certainly appreciate, and I thank you for your service,
and I thank you for coming on the program today.
Mr.
MFUME: Tavis, thank you. You're a good friend. You provide a great
service, and it'll be good, but we'll be talking in some other
capacity, I'm sure, one day, when I...
SMILEY: We will. All the best to you.
Mr. MFUME: Thank you, sir. Bye, now.
SMILEY: Thank you.
Coming up, we'll talk about AIDS/HIV, specifically inside of black America with black women.
It's 19 minutes past the hour.