N.A.A.C.P. Names Derrick Johnson as President, Seeking a New Voice

N.A.A.C.P. Names Derrick Johnson as President, Seeking a New Voice

Moving to reclaim its role as the country’s pre-eminent voice on civil rights, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People named a new president on Saturday and took steps to allow for more effective lobbying.

Derrick Johnson will become the organization’s president and chief executive, a role he has filled in an interim capacity for several months. And the group will change its tax exemption status from 501(c)(3) to 501(c)(4), becoming a social welfare group instead of a charity.

The announcements came five months after the N.A.A.C.P. dismissed its former president and promised a “systemwide refresh,” a decision made in the face of increasing racial tensions — and amid concerns that the century-old organization was losing ground to younger, more dynamic social justice groups.

In a phone call with reporters on Saturday, Mr. Johnson, 49, said the appointment was “an honor.”

“In this role, I have an opportunity to work with over 2,200 units across the country to ensure that they are effective advocates, to ensure that they have a strong voice, to ensure that the association can really have an impact on public policy and increase the quality of life for all citizens,” he said.

The tax exemption change is part of a continuing effort to restructure an “internal system that we believed needed to be fixed,” said Leon W. Russell, the chairman of the organization’s board. 501(c)(3) groups are more traditional charities, whereas 501(c)(4) organizations, while still nonprofit, are considered social welfare groups with much more freedom to lobby. The change in tax exemption status will bring the broader association in line with its local units, which already operate as 501(c)(4) organizations.

“We must ensure that we have a strong national voice,” Mr. Johnson said. “For too long, we have operated with restrictions in terms of our voice.”

Mr. Johnson, a Detroit native and Mississippi resident with a law degree from the South Texas College of Law in Houston, has been the interim president since July. Before that, he served as vice chairman of the board and as the president of the group’s Mississippi State Conference.

The organization announced the sudden dismissal of its former president, Cornell William Brooks, in May. At the time, Mr. Johnson called it “a transitional moment.”

The N.A.A.C.P. has been criticized for being risk-averse and bureaucratic compared with younger groups like Black Lives Matter, a racial justice organization that coalesced after the shooting deaths of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., in 2012, Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, and others.

On Saturday, Mr. Johnson said that the N.A.A.C.P. supported young civil rights activists and that he spoke regularly with members of Black Lives Matter. “Activists today are the leaders of tomorrow,” he said. “Our goal is to provide whatever support we can to any configuration of young people who are willing to add their voices to policy discourse.”

Mr. Johnson is the 19th president of the N.A.A.C.P., which was founded in 1909 and has waged battles against Jim Crow laws, segregation, voter suppression and systemic racism. Mr. Johnson said his three priorities for the immediate future were preparing for next year’s midterm elections, fighting voter suppression and ensuring that all children receive a quality education.

Mr. Johnson’s contract is for three years, Mr. Russell said, adding that the N.A.A.C.P. would use the time to continue “identifying the kinds of things that we want to see improved,” which may include further organizational changes.