By Dr. Carla Buntyn
December 14, 2025 | Editorial Desk

In the African American community, conversations about oppression, racism, and systemic inequities remain constant. These discussions echo across social media, in churches, barbershops, classrooms, and political spaces. Yet, despite the persistence of these concerns, membership in the NAACP, once the backbone of organized Black resistance, has steadily declined since its height in the 1960s. The question we must ask is not whether racism exists, but whether traditional civil rights organizations are still meeting the needs of the people they claim to represent.

Generational change is often cited as the primary reason for declining membership. Younger Black Americans tend to organize differently, favoring digital activism, grassroots movements, and decentralized leadership over legacy institutions. But this explanation alone feels incomplete. Many Black Americans are politically aware, socially engaged, and outspoken, just not through the NAACP. That disconnect deserves honest examination.

The tension between activism and economic empowerment is not new. Even W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the NAACP’s founders, grew disillusioned with the organization in his later years. He believed it had become dominated by a Black elite and had lost touch with the common Black worker. Du Bois argued that integration without economic power was insufficient, and that true liberation required self-sufficiency, ownership, and structural transformation. His resignation in 1934 should not be viewed as a footnote in history, but as an early warning.

Today, the NAACP continues to fight legal battles and issue public statements on racial injustice. While these efforts matter, many in the community question whether they translate into tangible improvements in everyday life. Too often, activism feels reactive, designed to provoke outrage rather than build solutions. Meanwhile, economic disparities persist, Black-owned businesses struggle, and working-class families are left without meaningful institutional support.

This raises a difficult but necessary question: Are we facing racism alone, or are we also facing a failure of advocacy to evolve? In 2025, we understand what systemic racism looks like. We can name it, document it, and debate it endlessly. But naming the problem is no longer enough. The focus must shift toward building systems that work for Black Americans, systems rooted in economic development, workforce pipelines, entrepreneurship, and community investment.

The NAACP was founded at a time when Black Americans had little to no legal protection. Today, while some rights feel threatened and others unevenly enforced, we live in a vastly different reality. That reality demands a broader vision, one that prioritizes economic empowerment alongside civil rights litigation, and one that includes not just the educated or elite, but the everyday Black worker.

If the NAACP is to remain relevant, it must reconnect with the people at the margins of its mission. It must move beyond symbolism and return to substance. Fighting the system has its place, but building our own may be the work that finally closes the gaps that activism alone cannot.