NBJC Adopts New Mission Statement

By Keith Boykin, in sexuality
Monday, October 9 2006, 9:31AM

The National Black Justice Coalition today announced the formation of a new political action fund and the adoption of a new mission statement that will broaden the scope of the organization and set a clear direction for years to come. During a weekend board retreat in Oakland, California, the board of directors of the Coalition adopted the new statement to simplify the group's mission. The statement also adds the term "same-gender-loving" to the mission for the first time.

The board felt that adding the term "same-gender-loving" would reflect the sentiments of members of the organization and others in the community who do not identify with the terms "lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered." At the same time, the board also chose to keep the LGBT language in its mission statement to include those who do identify with the LGBT term.

The new mission statement reads: "The National Black Justice Coalition is a civil rights organization dedicated to empowering Black same-gender-loving, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people. The Coalition works with our communities and our allies for social justice, equality, and an end to racism and homophobia."

The previous mission statement was much more wordy than the new one. The old statement spoke specifically about "educating and mobilizing opinion leaders, including elected officials, clergy, and media." The new statement assumes that work will continue but broadens the mission by not limiting the work to opinion leaders or specific groups.

The revised mission statement also reflects the board's objective to focus on empowering Black SGL and LGBT people. The Coalition will soon launch a major new ad campaign and a Youth Council that may help to achieve that goal. At an earlier meeting, the board had approved plans for the creation of a Youth Council, which will help to train a generation of new leaders and provide valuable resources to black SGL/LGBT youth.

Before the weekend board retreat, board members held a reception in Oakland where they welcomed two new members of the board of directors: Berkeley City Council Member Darryl Moore and Alan-Michael Graves of Los Angeles both joined the board of directors. Pictured in the photo above, from left to right are Jasmyne Cannick (Los Angeles), Alan-Michael Graves (Los Angeles), Executive Director H. Alexander Robinson, Keith Boykin (New York), Darryl Moore (Oakland), Zandra Conway (Atlanta), Samiya Bashir (New York) and Kylar Broadus (Missouri). Not pictured in the photo are Board members Earl Plante (Washington, DC), Donna Payne (Washington, DC), Christina Cobb (San Francisco), Dennis Coleman (Dallas) and Maurice Franklin (New York).

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