Markeshia Ricks Photo
Vowing to boost local branch chances and involve more young people, a dissident slate appeared outside the Dixwell “Q” House to announce a challenge to the state NAACP’s veteran president.
Russell Williams (pictured), an NAACP member from Hartford, announced his bid to be the organization’s next president on the home turf of incumbent President Scot X. Esdaile, who has served in office for a dozen years.
Williams said he aims to reconnect with the foundations of the NAACP — the church — to activate “tens of thousands of volunteers” who are looking to the organization to articulate a clear vision for action, and providing activists with a clear understanding of how to advocate for civil rights.
He said he also wants to change the style of leadership.
Jimmie Griffin (pictured), a former president of both the state and local Waterbury branch of the NAACP who has challenged Esdaile himself in the past, called the organization’s election process flawed. He challenged the legitimacy of not only Esdaile’s election, but also that of Greater New Haven NAACP President Dori Dumas.
Closer to home, Esdaile’s leadership drew criticism from longtime local NAACP member and New Havener Shirley West, who said the state organization can do a better job engaging young people and participating in conversations about youth violence.
Allen McCollum, a former state treasurer of the NAACP, called Williams the right man for the job because he is “an intelligent man, very honest and up front. Russell’s leadership will take us where we haven’t been for a long time.”
Carroll E. Brown, a former state vice president from West Haven, said that there is new and fresh activism happening among young people, but the NAACP, at both the national and state level, has been silent. “We have never been silent,” she said. “We have never been afraid to speak up and to speak out. It’s time for a change.”
Esdaile (at center in photo), who was first elected state president in a contested 2003 election, said the accusations are all made by people who are no longer particularly active in the organization. At least two of them, Williams and Griffin, he beat in other elections for president.
“They’re not even active in the association,” he said. “They’re not serving in any leadership capacity. If you talking about what we’ve done: the NAACP was protesting and making sure that the ‘second chance bill’ and the excessive force bill, groundbreaking national legislative pieces, passed.” Click here to read a story bout Esdaile’s efforts at the Capitol.
Esdaile pointed to other legislation that he said the organization led the fight on, including the abolishment of the death penalty; an education reform bill; and a taser reform bill.
“People all across the country are coming to Connecticut to see how we’re getting stuff done,” he said. He noted the state NAACP won a national award for bringing in 600 new youth members. The NAACP has an unprecedented five active, local youth chapters, and another seven in other parts of the state, he said.
Esdaile said there also is no truth to any allegations of unfair elections, pointing out that while his 2003 election was contested, a second election was held that following year in which he won in a 96 to 5 vote. He has been reelected biannually at the NAACP’s statewide convention, and plans to run again this year when elections are held in November.
“Check their record,” he said. “They don’t have the history of advocacy that we have, they haven’t stopped any violence in the community.”
Greater New Haven Branch President Dori Dumas (pictured above to Esdaile’s right) assumed the local presidency when Jim Rawlings stepped down in July 2014 and was subsequently elected in November of the same year. She’s sticking with Esdaile.
Dumas said that election policy is clear at the local level. She said that everything that the organization does for elections is not only documented at the local and national level, but made public through advertisement in local media.
“I, along with my entire board, were elected as a slate,” she said. “We were unopposed.”
She said because Williams is a member he is within his right to run. But she questioned how active he is in the organization given that she is a branch president, but she had never heard of him before a reporter called about his candidacy.
Dumas said she believes that Esdaile has been an innovative leader in attracting young people to the organization,and he has held branches accountable.
“I think Scot has been consistent and he is doing a good job,” she said.
I agree with Mr. William, Griffin, Brown, West and others. The NAACP have be extremely quite on violence in our community with black on black crime.Our young black males are killing each other at and enormous rate in their communities and the only times the majority of blacks protest is when a white cop or a white person shoot another black saying "black lives matter". So what you are baselly saying is when a black kill another black it's acceptable. The NAACP should be out in the black community talking ,mentoring kids and teaching them that if black lives matter so much stop killing one another...no body become angry and challenge these kids in these communities when they shoot another person of color...every block should have monitors to evaluate the trouble makers and try to mentor them to do the right thing and explain to them they have taken more black lives than Law Enforcement...then we got two and three churches on every block that show up on Sunday in their best attire praise the lord and drive right by the ones that will be committing theses crimes without flickering and eye....why is it that some of our people insist on everyone else come into our community to fix the problem when they don't live there and have to endure the violence like they do...it's your community if you don't get out there and clean your street and report crimes when it happen who else is..After all these year everything is still the same because we are waiting and blaming everyone else for our short coming when we haven't done enough ourselves to make it our long coming !!
The NAACP need new strategy because the major problem is youth violence we are loosing generations of black males without hearing a word of protest nor are they working on a solution to attempt to fix the problem...the NAACP is just a name now...It appears to have no movitation on fixing the real problem and that is " black lives will really matter when we have enough discipline to prove we don't have to kill