New voices in the political process

The NAACP's National Youth Work Committee (NYWC) has been burning the midnight oil. In the past year the committee has written resolutions to oppose the war in Iraq, exchanged ideas with Cuban students and helped organize the affirmative action rally on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The NYWC is the umbrella organization for the NAACP's more than 600 youth councils and college chapters across the country. The committee recommends activities for the chapters, such as encouraging them to host town hall meetings.

"We're working to develop responsible leadership," says Demetrius Prather, 22, the committee's chairman and member of the National Board of Directors. In his second term as chairman, Prather says the committee has worked to enhance youth civic involvement.

The committee is creating proactive agenda items for youth to implement. Most recently it submitted an action item to the Board of Directors to commemorate the death of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers with a voter advocacy day.

"Before, young people didn't know how to create a movement, a march or a sit-in," says Denisha DeLane, National Board of Directors member from Berkeley, Calif. "Now, we're moving proactively. A lot of young people are much better prepared now."

The Youth Town Hall meeting at the Miami convention July 15 will look at issues ranging from affirmative action and advocacy at the local, state and national levels, as well as explore strategies to stop the incarceration of Black youth.

The committee also plays an integral part in developing key resolutions and articulating issues of national concern.

For example, committee member Nicholas Wiggins, 22, was part of the delegation that took a historic goodwill and trade mission to Cuba with NAACP President and CEO Kweisi Mfume to discuss health, education and agricultural and trade issues. Wiggins grew up in the NAACP and encourages other young people to get involved.

"There is this sentiment that the NAACP is not relevant or if it is relevant it's not doing what it's suppose to be doing," Wiggins says. "I would encourage people to look into what the NAACP is doing. If the NAACP is not doing what you want it to do, do you stand by and let it speak for you or do you become a member of it and raise your voice?"

Copyright Crisis Publishing Company, Incorporated Jul/Aug 2003
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