ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a broader picture of racial-ethnic discourse in the U.S. and its impact on the efficacy of a key Black organization in the civil rights struggle of the 1960s, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It focuses on the time period beginning after the peak of U.S. civil rights movement concessions in the late 1960s until today to analyze the way in which U.S. presidential administrations and popular cultural understandings of race served to constrain the ability of these organizations to secure programs, policies, and additional concessions that were specifically targeted towards African Americans. The analysis shows how the emerging discourse of race neutrality not only impeded the ability of these organizations to secure increased racial equality, but also has led to the weakening of Black political institutions that historically served as mediators between the Black community and the mainstream. Over fifty years after the peak of the U.S. Black civil rights movement, the organizations at the forefront were systematically undermined. The NAACP has managed to survive, but was and is crippled by shifting racial discourses that create the false perception that this organization is obsolete and unnecessary. The emergence of a post-racial discourse in the 1970s was supported by a U.S. government embrace of federalism as a mechanism to avoid enforcement of civil rights legislation. Even while Black political opportunities and inclusion expanded, the widespread denial that race serves as a powerful barrier to Black incorporation constrained the tactics, altered the strategies, and undercut the leadership and the legitimacy of this historically powerful organization. The contraction of cultural opportunities in the form of post-racial discourses has greatly impeded the efficacy of the NAACP’s pursuit of African-American equality and justice, and poses the question of how can our national Black social movement leaders today carry the movement’s agenda forward.
