The St. Petersburg Times has a long article today asking whether the NAACP is “still relevant as it nears 100”?
The article is worth a look, but I believe the most serious problem of the NAACP, and the civil rights movement today in general, was unintentionally revealed in statements by a local leader quoted in the article.
Talmadge Rutledge, who was president of the Clearwater NAACP and led the fight against school segregation in Pinellas County, said:
We thought if we got the schools desegregated, that would take care of education. We have the same problems we had in 1950s. The problems were more blatant then. Now they are more subtle.
Any organization led by someone who believes that the problems now are “the same problems we had in the 1950s” except that “they are more subtle” is in deep trouble.
