Local NAACP chapter enjoying rise from the ashes

Thursday, Dec. 9, 1999 | 10:24 a.m.

Two years ago the local chapter of the NAACP was homeless and on the verge of going out of existence in Las Vegas.

Rocked by financial trouble that led to a temporary takeover by regional officials of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the local organization has clawed its way back to being a strong voice locally in the areas of community employment and education of minorities.

Local NAACP officials, longtime members and those who left but have returned to the flock say the organization is on the right track, but there is still some distance to go.

"When Gene Collins was elected president in January, people told him he was crazy to think that he would be able to straighten out such a mess anytime during his two-year term," said local NAACP Second Vice President Trish Geran.

"But things have changed. We've gone from zero to 100 mph and have shown the community that having a strong NAACP can make a difference."

The organization will celebrate its rise from the ashes during its Freedom Fund Banquet Saturday at the Tropicana hotel-casino. The reception starts at 6 p.m., the dinner at 7 p.m. The guest speaker for the event will be Sheriff Jerry Keller -- a sign that relations between the black community and Metro Police also are improving.

"We have been trying to establish a good working relationship with the sheriff, and things are starting to change for the better," Collins said of the selection to have Keller deliver the keynote address.

"A large number of calls from the African-American community to the NAACP are about how people are treated by Metro Police. Sheriff Keller has done more than any other sheriff to bring officers in line after they have committed acts unbecoming an officer. And that has done a lot to improve relations."

In the last year the NAACP has made great strides in working with the hotel industry to increase the hiring of minorities. The organization also has started a transitional program to help first-time offenders of all races get jobs as well as counseling for problems like anger management.

In education, the organization has provided financial assistance for minorities to attend UNLV and the Community College of Southern Nevada and has established a youth representatives office on the UNLV campus.

Members who left the NAACP with bad feelings are returning with a positive outlook.

"It was customary that when you moved to a town the first thing you would do was find a church and then find the nearest NAACP branch office," said 79-year-old Lee Birda Rose, a resident of Las Vegas for 52 years.

"I remember when I first went to a meeting at Zion Methodist Church they were trying to decide who would be president, and suddenly a fight broke out."

Over the years, Rose said, there were a lot of other problems with the organization -- especially with the way it handled its money and treated its members. She said an organization official once sold her a bogus lifetime NAACP pass for $100. "I didn't want anything to do with the branch after that, but now I feel differently," Rose said. "I have faith in President Gene Collins and am surprised at all of the accomplishments he has achieved.

"I am happy to see we are back on the right track, and I can't wait to hear what Sheriff Keller has to say. But there is still a lot of work the organization needs to do to help get jobs for blacks, especially outside the black community."

The NAACP also has reached beyond blacks to other minorities for membership.

"Somewhere along the line, people began thinking that the NAACP was just for blacks when it is there to help all people of color," said Larry Franco, a Hispanic and a local NAACP member the last three years.

"The difference with the organization now is that its focus is on helping people, where in the past it was being buddy-buddy with the establishment. Whether people are black, Hispanic, white, whatever, the local NAACP is helping to protect their civil rights and is not worried about whose feelings are hurt among those in the power base."

Franco, a retired Henderson Police officer, said the NAACP also has improved its relationship with other minority groups.

"In the last year the NAACP has worked closely with the Latin Chamber of Commerce and with the Asian community," he said. "Our goals all may be a little different, but we can all help each other accomplish them."

So impressed were regional NAACP officials with the local turnaround that in September, at the Tri-State Conference in Ogden, Utah, the Las Vegas NAACP was presented with the Most Improved Branch award.

Then again, few branches had as far to go from the depths as the local NAACP.

In December 1997 the branch lost its longtime home at the Nucleus Plaza, 600 W. Owens Ave. Operation Life, a nonprofit community help group and the NAACP's landlord at the time, evicted the branch, claiming it owed more than $5,000 for unpaid sewer fees.

In August 1998 the local NAACP's executive board was suspended for failing to file the year-end financial report for 1996.

The unsent report was only the latest in a long line of setbacks for the branch that included claims from members that the organization had run unapproved fund-raisers.

Another problem was apathy. Although there were about 2,500 NAACP members in the Las Vegas area at the time, only about 50 of them had been active in 1998.

Today there are 3,000 members, about 1,000 of whom are active, including 500 who have been signed up in the last year, Geran said.

Geran said the organization has put its rough days behind it.

The local NAACP now operates at the Hidden Canyon Plaza, 3925 Martin Luther King Blvd., Suite 217.

Collins, a former assemblyman, vowed when he was elected to implement a plan to restore the Las Vegas branch's reputation. Part of that plan called for the branch office to be staffed and operating daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"The big difference in our success has been that we have had an office staff to answer phones and listen to the concerns of those who come in," Geran said. "Before, it was just an answering machine in an office.

"People come in now and feel that not only can they get something off their chest, but they also can be sure we will take some action if their complaint has merit."

The NAACP's plans for the immediate future include:

For ticket information about the Freedom Fund Banquet call the NAACP at 638-6393.

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