WS Chronicle

While national and state elections still hang in the balance in some respects, the election for the new officers of the Winston-Salem Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is final.

The Rev. Alvin Carlisle was elected president of the local NAACP branch on Tuesday, Nov. 22. He had announced his candidacy earlier this year.

This year’s election was quite different than the one held last year. First off, the final election was held months behind schedule, into 2015, when the final election should have been held in November 2014. Several election irregularities with the first election in November 2014 led to two other elec-tions, with the third one being the charm.

Unlike the previous election cycle, too, Carlisle ran unopposed. Before, two candidates for president jockeyed until one dropped out, leaving Isaac “Ike” Howard as the victor. Howard has been elected third vice president this time around.

The bad news is that Carlisle and most of the elected officers ran unopposed and a few posts are unfilled because no one ran for them.

The good news is that Carlisle is a young man with a vision for the organization. (See story on page A1.) He is third vice president of the Ministers’ Conference of Winston-Salem and Vicinity now, but will give up that seat to head the local NAACP. Elections for officers of the Ministers’ Conference will be held next month.

With all that has happened and is happening on the national and state scenes, such as national and state recounts going on or are about to happen, with the president-elect still tweeting divisive missives, with a probable Democratic governor who did not help Kalvin Michael Smith get out of prison, with who-knows-what-else will happen to African-Americans in these United States, we need a viable NAACP in Winston-Salem working with the N.C. branch and the national organization. It appears we will have that now.

The new officers will be sworn in during the meeting on Jan. 31.