Above is a decent discussion of the relevancy, or not, of the current manifestation of the NAACP, an organization all-but founded by a hero of mine, W.E.B. Dubois, who  authored “The Souls of Black Folks” and the epic, “Black Reconstruction.”

Today, most certainly, the NAACP is all but irrelevant and unnecessary. Twenty to 30 years ago, it was probably not irrelevant. Forty years ago, it played an instrumental part in winning civil rights for many who had previously been treated as second class citizens. On this, just imagine: almost 100 years prior, slaves had been emancipated. But the real fun was yet to come, wasn’t it? As if slavery wasn’t bad enough, the newly freed slaves had to figure out how to make a living and raise their families and amalgamate with white society, and they did this, largely, in spite of jeers, sly remarks and snide glances from their still skeptical and racist neighbors. The horrific Black Codes were already in place, but even more fun began in 1890, when some Southern states adopted new constitutions restricting certain people from being able to vote. Those same people who had been able to vote for more than 30 years prior were turned away on the claim they did not qualify to register.

So, up through the 1960s, the NAACP was very much a necessity, and it can even be argued, up through the entire 1980s decade. But today, we don’t call African-Americans colored anymore, we call them black, which to me, at least symbolically, says that we have far advanced past the need for such an agency. We don’t use cutesy terms for groups of people anymore, like colored or yellow (Asians). Plus, we now have an African-American leading the free world, untold numbers of black folks teaching in colleges and other schools around the world, black doctors, black astrophysicists, black astronauts, you name it. Admittedly, some inner-city communities are still struggling, and the opportunities for self-improvement are still nill for some, but the equalization is nearly complete. That said, racism has not been snuffed out yet, I’m sad to say. And for us to look anything like a progressive country like some in modern Europe, it must be.