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The NAACP Years: Newman as South Carolina Field Director
- University of South Carolina Press
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63 The NAACPYears Newman as South Carolina Field Director Millicent E. Brown Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. John F. Kennedy, speech prepared for delivery in Dallas the day of his assassination, November 22, 1963 Newman assumed a leadership role in the NAACP beginning in 1943. During that time (1940–46) the NAACP experienced an increase in black registered voters. The period of his leadership, the 1950s through the 1960s, was one of revitalization of commitment and was a legacy of rich activism and courage. Inside the NAACP Rarely are the internal policies and bureaucratic mechanisms of the NAACP described in civil rights accounts. Rather historians focus on its legal and governmental challenges without sharing the intricacies of the operations of its many chapters. Close examination of the extensive records, archived at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and contained in 114 linear feet of storage boxes, makes it possible for meaningful scrutiny of day-today operations that can make the seriousness and dangers of their historical, nationwide confrontations almost secondary by comparison. There is an eerie attention to record-keeping detail that demonstrates part of an ability to keep a “well-oiled” national organization functional. Of possible surprise to those not familiar with these records are personnel and financial accounts revealing another side of this organization and countless employees.1 Newman’s 64 Millicent E. Brown employment letter dated December 2, 1959, was sent to his North Converse Street address in Spartanburg, where he, his wife, Anne, and their one child, Emily, then resided. The duties of that contract had been discussed a few days earlier with Roy Wilkins, executive secretary (1955–77), who wrote the official agreement marking January 1, 1960, as Newman’s start date. As a field director, Newman was directly supervised by the longtime director of branches, Gloster B. Current (1946–78). Newman, in relinquishing his role as itinerant pastor and Methodist minister after thirty-one years of service from the pulpit, would work closely with Ruby Hurley, the southeastern regional coordinator in the Atlanta office. A one-year probationary period was stipulated , after which an evaluation would be made as to whether the following responsibilities had been met: “You will be expected to assume responsibility for the direction and conduct of state-wide membership and fund-raising campaigns, organization and revitalization of branches, youth councils, and college chapters, conducting such investigations as may be required by the Newman and Roy Wilkins. Courtesy of the Newman family. [44.192.73.68] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 09:54 GMT) The NAACP Years 65 national and regional offices or state officers and further, keeping the national and regional offices as well as the state conference advised of your activities.”2 Immediately Newman’s schedule and correspondence reflected his dedication to these duties. The first month’s summary of activities submitted to his new employees included speaking at a prayer pilgrimage in Greenville, editing the monthly newsletter, packing and moving to Columbia from Spartanburg , conferring with the state conference president in Sumter, meeting with executive board members of the South Carolina Council on Human Relations to map out cooperative strategies, speaking at Greenville and Spartanburg Ministerial Alliance meetings, and attending the Statewide Conference of Religious Leaders held at both Benedict and Allen Colleges in Columbia, South Carolina. Such detailed recaps of his work are exhausting to read, much less fathom, given the daily, weekly, and monthly demands of this position. Newman’s commitment to the full-time field director post made him entirely dependent on a small, fixed salary, carrying none of the obvious advantages of pastoring a church. Especially the lack of a parsonage put pressure on the family to find suitable housing, in a more urban area. The Newmans moved to their first Columbia, South Carolina, residence, from which all NAACP organizational business was conducted. The plans to construct their own home were begun shortly after their arrival in Columbia, and a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan provided much of the necessary funding . By the fall of 1960 Newman was forced to request an additional loan of twelve hundred dollars from the national office of the NAACP, as purchase of the lot and closing costs had depleted the family’s savings. The money was sorely needed for bridging the gap “between the money I borrowed from FHA and the actual cost of construction, and also, to be prepared to purchase several articles of kitchen ware and some other household furnishings.”3...