NAACP to Close Offices and Make Large Cuts in Staffing

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, announced late last week that, due to a budget shortfall, it will close its seven regional offices and cut its national staff by 40 percent. Through attrition and layoffs, staff at its national office will be cut from 119 to 70.

Many of the layoffs are from the NAACP’s public policy group, which is concerned with monitoring civil rights violations. Bruce Gordon, former president of the NAACP, told the Washington Post, “It’s tragic. They are the talent. They are all leaving.”

Gordon resigned earlier this year after clashing over the future direction of the NAACP with the group chairman, Julian Bond, and other members of the executive board.

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