The restarting of a Belmont County NAACP chapter appears headed in the right direction. Chapter member Jerry Moore of Bridgeport outlined the group’s path in a story printed in The Times Leader earlier today.
St. Clairsville resident Bill Brooks was one of the initial few people calling for a rebirth of the county chapter in recent months. He helped organize some of the first initial meetings.
But the more he learned and talked with organization leadership on the state and national level, the more he started to feel the purpose of the group was getting lost in bureaucracy.
That’s why Brooks and more than 10 other interested parties opted to go a different way and are starting their own group with a broader scope, yet focused squarely on the Ohio Valley and Belmont County in particular.
“I respect the NAACP because it’s done a fantastic job of securing civil rights for people of color,” Brooks said. “But in talking with the state president of Ohio, I didn’t like the way things were headed. I didn’t like the money they were asking for.
“So, we decided to start our own group and see if it will work better with what we’re trying to accomplish.”
What costs did Brooks discover? He noted that
Each chapter must have 50 members, each of whom pay $ yearly for membership.
Of the $1,500 minimum in membership dues, the state-level organization will return $500 to operate the chapter. However, $200 of that total returns to the state organization for operating expenses.
A Freedom Fund banquet is held yearly, with 25 percent of the profits being sent to national headquarters.
The local chapter also must send 25 percent of all funds raised or donated to the national headquarters
All past debts by previous iterations of the Belmont County NAACP must be squared away.
Focusing the Money and Energy Locally
For Brooks, all those stipulations begged the question—who is really benefitting here?
In addition to the money, Brooks and some of his group took issue with not being able to use the NAACP name at any time without written permission from the national and state headquarters.
It felt like you’re paying for the name, but without the right to use it expeditiously.
“The situation that happened in Martins Ferry, if I was in charge of the local chapter, I could go down and say I’m Bill Brooks, president of the Belmont County NAACP. But I couldn’t speak on behalf of the NAACP. People couldn’t picket and hold signs, not without written permission.”
That was the thinking of James Casebolt from the Belmont Zen Center, a fellow group member who joined Brooks at his home Monday afternoon to discuss plans and ideas.
“This gives us more flexibility and sometimes, a situation happens that requires a pretty quick response,” Casebolt said. “You can be more effective if you’re not having to wait around for emails to go back and forth. Also, it’s about a return on investment.
“People are usually more willing to invest their time and dollars if they are seeing a return.”
That’s where this group will differ. It’s local people focusing on local issues that affect Belmont County residents—all Belmont County residents.
Brooks and Casebolt are inviting all interested parties who want to work together to better Belmont County to their next meeting. That meeting is set for Thursday, Sept. 3 at 6:30 p.m. at the St. Clairsville amphitheater behind the rec center.
For Belmont County
Tentatively, the group has a name: 4BC, meaning “For Belmont County.”
Brooks noted it’s tentative and will need to be voted on in case anyone else comes up with a better name. But the sentiment behind it stands. This is an all-inclusive organization and will remain as such.
“We have some rough ideas of what we want to do,” Casebolt said. “We’ve talked about civil rights, but in more broadly defined terms. We will include all ethnicities, all religions, LGBT issues.
“We obviously want economic development to happen, but development that is good for people in the long term, that will benefit everybody.
“Our focus is still evolving and we want input from all interested parties.”
Brooks said the group is 14 committed members strong presently. He’s hoping to grow it to at least 30 before it can hold elections for leaders.
“I don’t want this to be a Bill Brooks’ group,” Brooks said. “If someone has an idea, let’s vote on it. Even though I have a big mouth, I don’t want to be the only one doing the talking.
“I wasn’t other people to be able to voice their opinions to the press and others.”
In terms of inclusiveness, Brooks also doesn’t want a partisan group. Both he and Casebolt agree that Democrats and Republicans, Conservatives and Liberals, are all welcome.
Fighting the Local Fight
Brooks knows that discrimination is still an issue in the Ohio Valley. But he feels progress has been and is being made and, while the area has its issues, it’s not near the magnitude that the NAACP would send a state or national leader here or feel the need to organize a march in response.
“I use the example of the two local incidents, one in Bellaire and one in Martins Ferry, as the changing of the times,” Brooks said. “Both involved discriminatory remarks and both city administrations acted quickly.”
Martins Ferry John Davies and Ferry PD leaders moved quickly to remove a longtime officer after he posted a disparaging post on Facebook. A similar situation happened in Bellaire to a village employee.
So while issues happen locally, there is now a response to those issues instead of ignoring until they drop out of the media cycle and public discourse. There is more of a need, and opportunity, for wider-spread representation locally.
‘If you look at the demographics, the way the area has changed in the last few years because of fracking–and I’ve been here 24 years–in just the last few years, there has been a big increase in the number of Hispanic people in the county and there are issues of race and ethnicity connected to that,” Casebolt said. “And I know from personal experience that people of Asian decent are experiencing some hostility locally because of the ‘Chinese Virus’ and stuff like that.
“There are issues around civil rights and ethnicity not specifically aimed at someone at African heritage.”
That’s where 4BC comes in. It wants to champion them all.
Brooks envisions the group to be a social group as much as it is a community action group. There will be social events for members in addition to fundraising and membership drives.
After all, it’s hard to have community action without a sense of community.
For more information, contact Bill Brooks at (740) 695-3639.
