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Lindsay Curtis has decided six years is enough. The president of the Norwalk chapter of the NAACP announced he will not seek another term. Though the election of officers is not until November, he said he thinks the community should begin looking now for a strong candidate who can lead the organization forward.
First elected to fill the unexpired term of Carvin Hilliard, Curtis was then elected to two full terms. While he thinks the Norwalk NAACP has achieved a level of credibility during his tenure, he said the challenge for his succesor would be to help the organization remain relevant and focus on the issues of the day.
We need to be at the table, he said. But access without influence is not the direction we seek.
Curtis, who is also the pastor of Grace Baptist Church, said he considers the diversity of Norwalk one of the communitys strengths and what makes it such a great place to live. This same diversity, he said, helps support tolerance and minimizes racism but it does not make the community immune to challenges. The issues he thinks the NAACP must continue to address are the achievement gap in the schools and the continuing need for affordable housing, both of which disproportionately affect the African-American community.
And we need to continue to talk about race, he said. As a society, we think we are beyond race but we are not.
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