The Risky Association

By SYLVESTER MONROE/BALTIMORE

Life has many quirks," Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan is fond of saying. One of the strangest for Farrakhan was sharing a stage last week in Baltimore with a number of African Americans who usually steer clear of him, including Jesse Jackson and Malcolm X's widow Betty Shabazz, who has declared her belief that Farrakhan played a role in her husband's assassination three decades ago. But the person who stirred the most controversy by sitting at Farrakhan's elbow was the man who invited him: Benjamin Chavis, the chief executive of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Farrakhan's presence at the N.A.A.C.P.-sponsored event, a 2 1/2-day gathering of 100 African-American leaders in Baltimore, aggravated criticism of Chavis' attempts to revitalize the 85-year-old civil rights group by taking a more radical posture. In a speech at the meeting, he lashed out bitterly at his critics: "I didn't realize that sisters and brothers could be so envious, so jealous and so spiteful." The conference had been organized with high hopes of hammering out solutions to social and economic problems. "If we can come out of here with a health-care strategy . . . that would be effective," said the Rev. Al Sharpton. "Otherwise, it was just a revival meeting." His fear was justified. The summit produced mostly rhetoric that underscored the risk of Chavis' strategy. By moving the group away from its integrationist tradition and embracing black nationalism, Chavis may alienate the sources of financing that the cash-strapped group desperately needs.

In fact the meeting seemed more a declaration of defiance against anyone who had objected to Farrakhan's participation. "We don't get in your family business, you stay out of ours," Farrakhan shouted at a Sunday-night rally at Baltimore's historic Bethel A.M.E. Church, threatening widespread boycotts of any corporations that withdraw support of the N.A.A.C.P. because of his presence at the summit. "We will march on you like you've never been marched on before," he said. "We will turn you inside out and upside down."

However, the most quietly painful lack of support was from African-American leaders themselves. Though 20 members of the Congressional Black Caucus were invited, the only black elected officials to attend were Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke and Congressmen Kweisi Mfume of Maryland and Donald Payne of New Jersey. Jackson was the only representative from any of the other major black civil-rights organizations to show up. Chavis seemed to be alluding to absentees as well as critics when he declared, "The last time I checked my back, it was someone of African descent that put the dagger in and twisted it."

His record after one year as N.A.A.C.P. leader is mixed. Chavis has succeeded in boosting membership 24%, to 650,000, the group says. But financially the N.A.A.C.P. is foundering, with a $3 million deficit this year in a total budget of $18 million. Just a day after the summit, Chavis laid off 10 employees at the Baltimore headquarters, including the chief financial officer and the manager of Chavis' office staff. The move came only a few weeks after he had given the staff an 8% pay raise. According to insiders, some N.A.A.C.P. creditors have threatened to file lawsuits against the organization, which could jeopardize the group's ability to carry on its annual convention in July. The financial trouble could threaten Chavis' short, shaky tenure as well.

With reporting by Jack E. White/Baltimore