(ThyBlackMan.com) A week ago, I wrote an essay that dealt with civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and National Urban League that questioned their political savvy. As you well know, I have been highly critical of such organizations as they have far too often resembled clumsy and disorganized entities incapable of leading anyone, let alone the masses of black folk, to “the promised land.”
I stand by those assertions and observations as they were in a word, valid.
Although many have falsely criticized me for being too harsh on old-guard civil rights organizations and the unimaginative people that lead them, the truth of the matter is that for the longest time I have wished that the alluded to organizations would “get their stuff 
together.” If nothing else, I am a fair man who issues criticism when it is warranted and applauds when it is deserved. It is this position of fairness that causes me to commend the leaders of the NAACP for their newest agenda aimed at removing Black America’s seeming addiction to last-minute crisis mode regarding their political engagement.
As I long suspected, NAACP President/CEO Derrick Johnson is more than capable of guiding the venerable civil rights organization into what for most black organizations is unchartered territory. According to Johnson,
In order to become a potent political force, the black community must build a political infrastructure that will vote in both Presidential and non-Presidential elections and at all levels of the ballot. If all eligible members of the community rise to the challenge and vote, we control the fate and future of our community. Stated more directly, we must vote in far greater numbers because our lives, our very existence depends on it.
Words cannot express how pleased I am to hear such a statement from Johnson as it is a prominent sign that the NAACP has decided to dedicate its energies to be pro-active in the fight for black uplift and organization of mostly scattered political power.
The latest NAACP project is aimed at not only getting the vote out for the coming mid-term elections but also working with GSSA, a Colorado data analytics group “to map out metrics for the Black community to impact the elections and identify parity in registration and turnout of Black voters in battleground states.” Although humorous, it seems as this latest initiative could be named after the old sweet treat “Now & Later” as the civil rights organization is planning on registering and educating black voters now and later; such an initiative is the only real hope to battle opponents whose political season never expires.
Jamal Watkins, the NAACP Vice President of Civic Engagement, asserts that
The initiative expects to achieve success through the use and intersection of four major strategies: the use of data-based targeting of infrequent voters and eligible but unregistered citizens; creativity in relational organizing – that is, friends talking to friends and more; especially strong coordination between and among all allied organizations; and research-based communications – why do black voters vote or not?
Such plans are unprecedented for civil rights organizations who have historically waited until moments before the election to rally the black troops in a hail-mary play of political ineptitude.
The NAACP is to be applauded for this initiative, as previously mentioned I recently criticized them for what seemed to be a gross lack of planning and execution.
President and CEO Derrick Johnson said it best when he remarked: “the Black community can only improve its political and economic situation in America by becoming a potent political force.” Nothing more needs to be said regarding this matter.
Staff Writer; Dr. James Thomas Jones III
Official website; http://www.ManhoodRaceCulture.com
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