ABSTRACT
Robert Woodson, president of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise and a skeptic of forced busing, recalls a televised debate with the then-head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense Fund. The NAACP's leading competitor as spokespeople for black Americans has been the National Urban League. While the NAACP has focused on enlarging the political rights of African-Americans, the Urban League has focused on economics. The NAACP established a Washington bureau in 1941 and within several years became a significant lobbying force. The NAACP also supports a minimum wage hike, which most economists agree would harm unskilled minority workers by pricing them out of the necessary entry-level jobs. The incredible infusion of government money permits the League to advocate with powerful voice a number of policies, the general tone of which seem indistinguishable from those supported by the NAACP.
