The civil rights battles he witnessed in the late 1960s have set the stage for today’s challenges from the Trump administration, says the president of the Chicago Westside Branch NAACP.
Karl Brinson moved to Chicago’s Austin Community as a child with his family when racial tensions were high as more Blacks moved to what had been an historically white area. This, he says, may have set the stage for his subsequent years of activism.
“In my early life at age 19, I got involved with politics and was a political activist and then a community activist and then got involved with civil rights,” Brinson said. “I’ve always been a community activist.”
The national NAACP achieved numerous significant victories in the fight for civil rights, including the Supreme Court case Brown vs. the Board of Education that declared segregation in public school unconstitutional. Other successes were the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that ensured the federal government would enforce desegregation and prohibit segregation in public facilities, government and employment, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
In a time when President Donald Trump’s administration is making moves to roll back civil rights accomplishments along with Black history, Brinson said when you look at the NAACP’s more than 100-year history, it’s just a new time but the same fight that was fought decades ago.
“This is just a new era of what we’ve been trying to establish and trying to maintain in this country,” Brinson said. “They’re rolling back things that we fought so hard to gain. For some reason or another, I think we thought we had arrived and we took our foot off the pedal in maintaining and still pushing even before Trump got into office.”
With African Americans disproportionately represented in impoverished, high crime, and divested communities, the Westside Branch’s aim is to fight for an equitable distribution of resources in those areas.
The organization’s 17 standing committees focus on housing, youth, criminal justice, veteran affairs, political action, education, environmental justice and more.
As president of the West Side Branch, Brinson pushes back on references to “leader” when it comes to himself, preferring instead to be described as a “representative.”
“I think when you use the term leader, it indicates someone who knows more, has more and is going to do more,” Brinson said. “Most folks call me that and I don’t like that. Being an activist doesn’t make me a leader. I just preside over the organization.”
One of the biggest challenges these days for the NAACP and other organizations is the lack of support from those whom the organization advocates.
“We’re an all-volunteer organization but most people think that me being president, that I get paid but we don’t get a dime for doing this,” Brinson said. “So, when we get held to the fire and all the demands people put on us, they’re not understanding that we do this because we care.”
U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, who recently announced his retirement from office, said in a prior Austin Weekly News interview that engagement and voting is a must if there’s any hope of changing where things stand today and where things are headed in terms of civil rights.
If you’re feeling powerless during these times, Brinson suggested joining organizations like the NAACP.
The NAACP’s upcoming “The Fierce Urgency of Now! 2025 Freedom Fund Concert” fundraising event featuring songstress Terisa Griffin is scheduled to take place Sept. 20 at the Kehrein Center for the Arts, 5628 W. Washington, Blvd.
For ticket cost and other information, go to the NAACP–Chicago Westside Branch at cwbnaacp.org.
