Prince George's County NAACP: Making waves, forging change, The

New Crisis, The, May/Jun 2001 by Petrosino, Frankie

For the past three years, tension has run high in Maryland's Prince George's County, which includes an affluent and predominantly African American suburb, sandwiched between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Under the leadership of its second-term president, Edythe Flemings Hall, the Prince George's County branch of the NAACP is at the forefront of battles with the county over school desegregation and police misconduct.

School desegregation in Prince George's County seems to be an intractable problem. In 1972, lawsuits filed by African American parents resulted in mandatory busing. In 1998, an agreement was reached among the plaintiffs, the school board, the county and the NAACP that ended busing and put into place 5-year plans for reestablishing neighborhood schools. According to Hall, the Prince George's County NAACP has held county officials accountable for the school construction and renovation prescribed by the agreement.

"Children weren't intended to be on buses forever," Hall explains. "Busing [was supposed to] give the system time to increase quality, upgrade facilities and build new schools." The branch is working to ensure a "more equitable distribution of resources" that includes science labs, computers and teachers' aides in neighborhood schools.

Last September, clashes between police and Prince George's County residents received national attention when Prince Jones, a 25-year-old Howard University student, was shot and killed by county police corporal Carlton Jones. Jones was the 12th African American shot and the fifth to be killed by county police in 13 months. Hall notes that in 1999 when she became branch president, she was inundated with complaints of police misconduct and allegations of beatings, harassment, excessive prosecutions and wrongful arrests. These complaints spurred her into action.

"If people get involved in situations with Prince George's County police and they escalate, you can guarantee that they will walk away with what some citizens call `the holy trinity - [charges of] resisting arrest, assaulting an officer and disorderly conduct," Hall says.

The branch has begun to see some progress in combating police misconduct. Prince George's County Police Chief John Farrell issued a general order barring police from contact with residents who have filed complaints against them. Farrell also agreed to place cameras in approximately 900 police cars in order to monitor traffic stops. County Executive Wayne Curry - one of only three African American county heads in the country - invited local NAACP branch members to sit on the Police Accountability Task Force.

A study of the complaints called into the Prince George's County branch revealed that African American officers were the subjects of as many complaints as were white officers. "Citizens are just afraid of anybody in a uniform," Hall states. The Prince George's County branch is continuing its efforts to break that "blue wall" of silence and restore the community's confidence in its police force.

In addition to the desegregation and police battles, the branch has also been working on the political and economic fronts. In January, it sponsored a forum that attracted 150 community leaders who were asked to pinpoint issues they'd like to see addressed at the state level. Branch members sit on several boards including the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Resource Board. The group insures that contracts for the Wilson bridge, which straddles the Potomac River, connecting the states of Maryland and Virginia, are extended to minority businesses.

In 1999, the branch formed a partnership with Giant Foods that called for increased minority hiring and philanthropy in the supermarket chain. When necessary, the relationship has enabled the branch to address discrimination complaints against the company "within hours," notes Hall.

The recipient of a 2000 Thalheimer award for its newsletter and the subject of a commendatory proclamation by the Prince George's County Council, the branch has been making waves and forging change. "Three years ago, people thought there was no NAACP in Prince George's County," Hall says. Now they know the NAACP is back in a big way.

- Frankie Petrosino