In the 1970s, when R&B bands ruled the universe, one band, Parliament/Funkadelic, was ready and willing to take on all competition and show its funk superiority. “Let’s take it to the stage,” was the battle cry of the group’s leader, George Clinton.
In 2025, the NAACP is declaring its willingness to stand on a different stage to fight against a barrage of national and state policies the organization deems as detrimental to the well-being of Black America, and America in general.
“We suing everybody” is the rallying cry coming from the NAACP’s Chief Strategy Officer, Yumeka Rushing.
The call harkens back to the civil rights organization’s roots. The NAACP’s most notable victories came at the hands of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which executed the strategy of seeking social change through the courts. While activists like Ella Baker, Malcolm X, MLK and Daisy Bates pushed for change at the community level, Thurgood Marshall, Charles Hamilton Houston, Constance Baker Motley and others fought injustices in the courts.
According to Rushing, the NAACP is again taking the fight to the court stage. But that’s just part of the organization’s modern-day push to stand for civil and human rights.
Court battles
First, the NAACP filed three lawsuits to prevent the Trump Administration from dismantling the Department of Education, to stop attacks on teaching history and issues labeled as “DEI” and to defend federally funded Equity Assistance Centers.
In late August, the NAACP sued Texas Governor Greg Abbott over the state’s racially motivated gerrymandering to silence Black communities.
This month, the NAACP filed a lawsuit against the State of Missouri to prevent an illegal effort to hold a special legislative session aimed at redrawing political maps in a way that would reduce Black Missourians’ voting power.
“They don’t want to teach true American history; they don’t want us using our vote as our voice, because they’re scared of the strength of our community,” said Rushing. “But we’re not afraid of anything because the NAACP was founded in times like these, and we are leading the counter-offensive to these attacks.”
“The NAACP was made for these challenges – and we won’t back down.”
Yumeka Rushing, NAACP Chief Strategy Officer
A joint statement by Derrick Johnson, NAACP president and CEO, and Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe underscores the urgency:
“Alabama authorities blatantly ignored the Supreme Court’s directive to create a minority opportunity district. Across the nation, including Texas, efforts to dismantle minority-held electoral seats have emerged in Baytown, Galveston, Tarrant County, Fort Bend County and even the Texas Legislature.”
Overall strategy
The NAACP’s strategy, however, involves more than court battles.
“We [recently] launched our Fierce Advocacy in Action Town Halls to mobilize Black communities nationwide, hold decision-makers accountable and build power ahead of the midterm elections,” said Rushing.
And that’s not all.
“The NAACP is using every tool in our arsenal to vigorously defend American democracy on every front, and we will always stand with those targeted and terrorized,” read the NAACP’s website (www.naacp.org).
One of those tools is the Black Voter Defense Fund, which was recently launched to address systemic issues like racial gerrymandering through mobilization, legal advocacy and education.
Current relevance?
In recent years, talk has ramped up about the NAACP’s current relevance, or lack thereof.
Local activist, entrepreneur and radio show host Secunda Joseph is a fan of the NAACP’s legacy.
“When I think about the power of the NAACP in the past, I think about how it aligned in some ways with the people, even if not always in its leadership, but in the work, the media it shared, the legal arm and the coalition building,” said Joseph.” “NAACP is a name the people trusted, willing to go outside the status quo and push the line, more leaning to some radicalness.”
Still, she, like others, questions the organization’s current impact.
“Now I think of the NAACP as more of a conservative Democratic Party that does have some loyalty to the middle-class Black political elite, and so it does have power,” added Joseph. “But, to do what? What is it willing to do with the power?”
But Rushing assures that the NAACP is just as relevant today as ever.
“We’ve seen how far extremists are willing to go to push Black communities back towards a time when we were denied full personhood and equal rights,” said Rushing. “But the NAACP was made for these challenges – and we won’t back down.”
