Update: NAACP President’s Departure

Bruce S. Gordon and board members of the NAACP say it was only a matter of time before he left his position as the organization’s president, reports The Baltimore Sun.

Mr. Gordon told the newspaper that the chairman of the organization’s board, Julian Bond, had to persuade him not to quit just a few weeks after he took over the job in the summer of 2005. Mr. Gordon told the Associated Press on Sunday that last month he had told the board of his plans to quit.

The problem, as depicted by Mr. Gordon and board members, was a clash of managerial styles and different views on the organization’s mission.

Mr. Gordon, a longtime corporate executive, said, “My strategy was not to change us from advocacy to service, but to strike a different balance between the two. The NAACP has to do both. The implication that I tried to depart form advocacy couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Rupert Richardson, an NAACP board member, said the organization’s mission does not need to change. “We need someone who knows that we are an advocacy organization,” he says. “We don’t need someone who thinks they need to change that. The person we hire needs to accept that and hit the ground with that vision.”

Mr. Gordon’s resignation marks the second time in three years the NAACP has faced a change in its top leadership. Kweisi Mfume, a former congressman, stepped down from the job at the end of 2004.