NAACP president resigns abruptly

WASHINGTON – Bruce Gordon, the former telecom executive who was named NAACP president in a surprise choice less than two years ago, has resigned after a long-running disagreement with the group’s 64-member board over how to steward the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization.

Gordon’s confirmation Sunday in Los Angeles that he quit the NAACP’s leadership caught numerous members by surprise, including Lorraine Miller, president of the District’s chapter, and the Rev. Morris Lee Shearin, the chapter’s vice president who also is a member of the national board of directors.

Friction between the president and a micromanaging board is a fact of life at the NAACP, members said, but “I never knew” things were this bad, said Shearin.

The Rev. Benjamin Hooks, of Memphis, who served as NAACP president for more than 15 years, said in a telephone interview that he was “very surprised” by the resignation because “I thought things were moving along smoothly.”

Hooks said his working relationship with the NAACP board also was strained when he took over the organization in 1977, but within a short time that changed. “After I had been there a year or two, when they trusted me, I ran it lock, stock and barrel,” he said. “But they have to believe in you. I had no trouble for a number of years but I had trouble at first.”

When Gordon, 61, was selected president in June 2005, succeeding former congressman Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., Hooks said he offered some advice: “I cautioned brother Gordon that he would have some problems. The board wants to do a number of things.”

Dennis Hayes, who ran the Baltimore-based organization as interim president when Mfume resigned in December 2004 after nine years at the helm, will again assume that role as a search committee seeks a replacement. Gordon is expected to leave the job by month’s end.

Gordon was en route to New York on Sunday and could not be reached for comment.

The Associated Press first reported Gordon’s resignation.

During his tenure, Gordon managed to close the rift between the 98-year-old NAACP and the White House. In July, President Bush addressed the organization’s annual convention in Washington.