Bruce S. Gordon selected as NAACP president and CEO

Jet, July 11, 2005

The NAACP's board of directors overwhelmingly selected Bruce S. Gordon as the organization's next president and CEO.

Gordon, 59, previously served as president of retail markets at Verizon Communications, starting out as a management trainee in 1968 and rising through the ranks over the course of his 35 years with the company.

During his last year with Verizon, Gordon managed its largest business unit, which employed 34,000 people, served 33 million telephone and Internet customers and recorded more than $25 billion in sales. He retired in 2003. Gordon told JET that his first priorities would include "building the membership base to provide more financial stability to the organization and getting more youth participation."

Gordon holds a bachelor's degree in sociology and liberal arts from Gettysburg College and a master's degree in management from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His father, Walter Gordon, was a founder of the Camden (NJ) NAACP branch.

During a press conference in Atlanta to announce his selection, Gordon recalled: "Led by my father to NAACP meetings since I could walk, I know firsthand the critical role the NAACP plays in fighting for justice and equality. And as a direct beneficiary of the NAACP's efforts to create opportunities for young African-Americans, I am eager to give something back to this noble institution, its dedicated members and the diverse nation it serves."

He continued, "Thanks to the dedication of leaders like W.E.B. DuBois, Thur-good Marshall and Julian Bond, the NAACP has diminished some of the most overt threats to equality. Today, however, we face subtler and more complex threats to equality in education, employment and other areas that are harder to recognize and just as hard to overcome. My goal as president will be to build on the legacy of this organization, to help it continue adapting to this new reality..."

Gordon succeeds Kweisi Mfume, who resigned to run for the U.S. Senate in Maryland. Since that time, Dennis Courtland Haynes, the NAACP's general counsel, served as interim president and CEO.

The Board Executive Committee is now authorized to enter into contract negotiations with Gordon before a final vote to confirm him as president and CEO during the board meeting at the NAACP national convention in July.

Gordon and his wife, Tawana, reside in New York. His son, Taurin, 27, resides in Philadelphia.