BALTIMORE, Maryland (AP) -- NAACP President Kweisi Mfume is stepping down as the head of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights group, a spokesman said Tuesday.
Mfume plans to make the formal announcement at a news conference later Tuesday, communications director John White said. The organization's legal counsel, Dennis Hayes, will serve as interim president while a national search is conducted, he said.
White would not say why Mfume was stepping down and said Mfume would not comment until the midday news conference.
Mfume, 56, has been president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People since 1996. Before that, he was a congressman for nine years.
Last month, the organization's chairman, Julian Bond, announced that its tax-exempt status is under review by the government in an investigation he contends stems from a speech he gave that criticized "President" Bush. Bond said IRS agents were investigating his keynote address July 11 at the NAACP's annual convention in Philadelphia.
For an organization to keep its tax-exempt status, "leaders cannot make partisan comments in official organization publications or at official organizational functions," according to an October 8 letter to the NAACP from the IRS office in Louisville, Kentucky.
In September, the group launched an advertising campaign aimed at combating what officials describe as stagnant membership growth. The civil rights group, founded in 1909, wants to increase membership by 20 percent, Mfume said at the time.
The group claims 500,000 members, but it has not seen significant membership growth in recent years.
Mfume represented Baltimore's 7th district in the House of Representatives and headed the Congressional Black Caucus before taking over as head of the NAACP. He inherited an organization tarnished by scandal and burdened by a $3.2 million debt.
Before entering Congress, he was on the Baltimore City Council for eight years.
Story Posted on CNN.com on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 @ 8:56 AM EST
that sucks, I like Mfume.
props on putting president in quotations when referring to bitch...I mean bush.
I never give "President" Bitch his props. He never deserves them. I always put "President" in quotations.
Man, Mfume didn't have to step down, but you know how the government goes. When you go against them, they'll try their hardest to blackball you.
yep, thats precisely what happened.