Premature Capitulation: The NAACP's Snub of Trump Was a Poor Tactic

By John Woodford / Ann Arbor, Mich.

NAACP leader Derrick Johnson decided that President Trump would be the first president to be uninvited to address the civil rights organization

This June, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) announced that for the first time in its 116-year history, it would not invite the sitting US president or vice president to address its annual convention.

In justifying its unprecedented decision, NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson used some militant-sounding rhetoric. He accused President Donald Trump of “attacking our democracy and our civil rights,” of believing “more in the fascist playbook than in the U.S. Constitution,” of signing “unconstitutional executive orders to oppress voters and undo civil rights protections,” of “illegally turn[ing] the military on our communities,” and of “personally benefit[ing] from the U.S. government.”

Neither Johnson nor I can declare, without a judicial ruling, that Trump has committed an “unconstitutional” or an “illegal act.” But while I agree with the gist of Johnson’s criticisms of the president, I maintain that the NAACP’s non-invitation is an instance of folding up one's tent and retreating before a battle rather than an example of defiance or dissent.

Unlike the universities, corporate media, white-shoe law firms or other institutions that have buckled under Trump’s actions and threats to hurt them economically, the NAACP was under no such pressure, so far as the public knows. Furthermore, the seeming snub is probably just what Trump would hope for, much like Brer Rabbit’s being thrown into other briar patch. The president was freed of the burden of even having to feign a respect for law, fairness and progress against historic injustice.

Even African leaders whose homelands Trump has called “shitholes” have sat down to negotiate with him, not because they like or admire him but because they’re realistic that he’s someone to be reckoned with because of the office he holds and the power still inherent in that position. So they hold their noses, display the maturity and discipline required of leaders, and do the best they can for the people they represent by negotiating with Trump and his retinue.

In modern times, President Ronald Reagan was perhaps the “free world” leader most associated with political views and moves that were hostile and damaging to the interests of Black Americans. But when presidents speak publicly on democratic freedoms and civil rights, they know the nation and world are listening, and they, or their speechwriters, tend to want to look as honorable as they can.

As the following excerpt shows, Reagan presented himself as a champion of what today might be called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion when he addressed the NAACP at its convention on June 29, 1981:

"A few isolated groups in the backwater of American life still hold perverted notions of what America is all about. Recently, in some places in the nation there's been a disturbing reoccurrence of bigotry and violence.… If I were speaking to them instead of to you, I would say to them, “You are the ones who are out of step with our society. You are the ones who willfully violate the meaning of the dream that is America. And this country, because of what it stands for, will not stand for your conduct.” My Administration will vigorously investigate and prosecute those who, by violence or intimidation, would attempt to deny Americans their constitutional rights."

When staunch reactionaries among a right-wing president’s supporters hear such words, they may feel dismayed, or they may dismiss such comments as a smokescreen their leader was wise to deploy. But many moderate voters agree with those sentiments and even expect their leader to live up to them. The NAACP, however, has freed Trump and his image-makers from having to decide whether to take the high road or go low.

Trump improved his vote totals among Black, Hispanic and Asian men and women in 2024 versus 2020 election, but the NAACP’s snub is unlikely to weaken his support from this voting bloc because a non-event has no impact. Instead, the NAACP’s refusal to engage with the White House is more likely to increase the apathy that has infected so many voting-age U.S. citizens of all backgrounds rather than overcome it.

Before Reagan’s speech at its convention, the heads of the NAACP back then, Benjamin Hooks, and Margaret Bush Wilson, the first woman to chair the group’s national board, met with the president in the Oval Office to iron out the details of his appearance. But such formalities did not prevent Wilson from expressing her assessment of Reagan’s record when she introduced him. According to historian Gil Troy, whose 2007 book Morning in America depicts Reagan as a unifying communicator, Wilson did not shy away from declaring her opposition to his politics:

“When she [Margaret Bush Wilson] introduced him before his speech to the NAACP's 1981 national convention in Denver, she openly attacked him for reviving ‘war, pestilence, famine and death,’ visibly upsetting Reagan and his wife Nancy Reagan.”

But Wilson was the kind of gutsy, effective civil rights leader in short supply today. Two years after the Reagan speech, she temporarily ousted Hooks as the NAACP president, citing his incompetence and possible malfeasance in several areas. But the organization’s board — yet another example of an “old-boys network” — overruled her and barred her from speaking at its next convention. She then resigned and returned to practice law in her native St. Louis, until her death at 90 years old in 2019.

The NAACP’s decision to silence Trump at its convention was not courageous, wise or effective. If its leader Derrick Johnson truly though the president is following a “fascist playbook,” he would have been doing his organization and the country at large a great service by forcing Trump to run those plays on an open field.

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John Woodford lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he retired after two decades as the executive editor of Michigan Today, a University of Michigan alumni/ae publication. His career in journalism includes editing and/or reporting duties for Ebony magazine, Muhammad Speaks newspaper, the Chicago Sun-Times, the New Haven Register, the New York Times and Ford Motor company publications.