Columbia Tribune - NAACP Puts Focus on Minority Hiring: Group to Survey, Rate Local Businesses

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Columbia Tribune - NAACP Puts Focus on Minority Hiring: Group to Survey, Rate Local Businesses

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People turns 100 in February, and leaders said it is the perfect time for the venerable "watchdog" organization to show it still has bite.

For the first time in more than 15 years, the Columbia unit plans an "economic reciprocity" survey where every major business in the city will be evaluated for its rate of minority employment. Businesses will receive a grade, said Mary Ratliff, president of the Missouri NAACP and the Columbia unit, and those that score poorly will pay a price.

"If we find companies that are not living up to what we think they ought to do as far as our community is concerned, we will award a" low "grade-point to them," she said. "And we will be presenting that to the churches and the African-American community, and we'll say, ‘We spend our money where people support us.' "

Ratliff made the announcement last night before the 2008 Freedom Fund Banquet at the Courtyard Marriott on LeMone Industrial Boulevard. She said the survey will begin in late July or early August, but there is no date set for its release.

This will be the first time the Columbia unit has graded the blue-collar sector on its record of minority hiring, and Ratliff suspects it is lagging far behind other places.

"We have some suspicions that things won't look as good in this survey as they did in the last one," she said. "We'll have to look at whether or not it has to do with the declining economy or whether or not there are other reasons."

The banquet attracted a veritable who's who of local politicians, and one by one, they made their way up to the dais to give speeches in praise of the NAACP. Two of the notable speakers included the Democratic competitors for the Ninth Congressional District seat who will face off in an Aug. 5 primary. Former Senate Minority Leader Ken Jacob told the audience the nation is at a turning point and needs leadership on things such as universal health care. "Things are going to change dramatically, and they are going to change quickly," he said.

State Rep. Judy Baker echoed that feeling, paraphrasing Martin Luther King, who cautioned against complacency. "Make sure progress is not precarious and we go forward from where we are," she said.

The night's keynote speech was given by Donald McNeal, the former pastor of Second Missionary Baptist Church in Columbia who now serves as pastor of Hopewell Missionary Church in St. Louis. In a rousing speech, McNeal recalled attending a segregated school in Texas until 11th grade and enduring the humiliation of teachers who questioned his good grades once the public school was integrated. He lamented that "racial disparities have never disappeared."

McNeal said blacks make up 14 percent of the U.S. population but only hold 3 percent of the nation's assets. The black unemployment rate is about twice the general level. He advocated holding elected officials accountable and to defy expectations. "We are the sole determinant that predictions are just that predictions," he said to loud cheers.

The banquet's top honor, the Roy Wilkins Outstanding Community Service Award, went to Teresa Maledy, president and CEO of Commerce Bank, Central Missouri Region. Maledy serves on the board of numerous charities, including the Central Missouri Food Bank, Boys & Girls Town and the United Way.

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