The Manchester NAACP is celebrating its 60th anniversary this week. President James McKim joined NHPR’s Julia Furukawa on All Things Considered to talk about the progress and evolution of the chapter, and its work here in New Hampshire.
Transcript
New Hampshire has seen some demographic changes over the past 60 years. It's becoming more racially diverse. How has the work of the Manchester NAACP evolved over that time and along with those changes?
Interestingly, I don't think the work has evolved. I think the volume has evolved. The type of work that we've always done as an organization – taking reports of discrimination, trying to help people out to receive justice and working toward systemic change – that's been around since the inception of the organization overall in 1909. But I think there's been an awareness raising of the discrimination that does happen even in New Hampshire. We hear people say, "Oh, we don't have any racial problems here in New Hampshire," because they think we don't have any racial diversity here, but we actually do. So I'd say it's been the volume that has changed more so than the work itself.
What do you see as one of the chapter's biggest accomplishments?
I think one of our biggest accomplishments is probably in 1999. Lionel Johnson, who was one of our founders, actually teamed up – he was a state legislator at the time – joined with a number of other organizations to get the state to pass MLK Day as a holiday. We were the last state in the Union to pass that, but it was through the efforts of Lionel and a number of others that we actually accomplished that. Then Gov. Jeanne Shaheen signed that bill into law. And that, I think, is one of our biggest accomplishments because it signaled at a statewide level this recognition that we need to honor MLK and we need to honor people of color here.
And what have been some of the biggest challenges in leading an NAACP chapter in New Hampshire?
I think one of the biggest challenges is that there's this perception that there are no people of color here, and educating people that there are, and there needs to be an effort to address the inequalities that exist. Another misconception, a challenge, I think, is that people tend to think that only people of color can belong to the NAACP, and that's absolutely not true. In fact, I'd say 85% of our members are white. And so getting over that notion that we can't become members and really can't join in because we're not Black, that's totally false. And that's been a big roadblock to getting people to join us and to engage in the work.
James, what would you say to someone who's hesitant to get involved in this work because it might not directly touch their life?
Well, I would say that it actually does touch your life directly as well as indirectly. So anyone who lives in a city pays taxes, and because of the inequalities that we face, more tax dollars need to go into addressing those inequalities rather than providing services that might be more directly impacting you. So from a monetary perspective, this work does have a direct impact, but also just this notion that and as Martin Luther King said, when one of us are oppressed, we're all oppressed.
And so we have to think bigger than ourselves and understand that by helping address those inequities, we're actually helping ourselves, because right now we live in fear of the other. And the way to address that fear is to actually start to interact with people who are not like you and change these systems through that interaction, making sure you're aware at the statehouse what legislation is happening, or it's your city or town level. Go to town meetings. Let your voice be heard. Contact your representatives. Let them know. Contact your Executive Council members. Let them know what you think needs to be done to change systems to improve the quality of life for everyone here in the state, making it a more welcoming place.
