Larry Nelson was settled into retirement. However when given the chance to step up because the president of NAACP Vancouver, he felt there was nonetheless essential work to be executed.
Nelson was formally elected as the brand new president of the Vancouver chapter Jan. 4, following the nonprofit’s 2024 election. He’ll succeed Yolanda Frazier, who served the group for 2 years.
Nelson, a Vancouver resident for greater than 30 years, served the town of Portland below 5 totally different mayoral administrations all through his profession. Though his time as a public servant formally resulted in 2020, his dedication to the group made returning to this area really feel like the correct alternative, he mentioned.
“My feelings as a public servant — that’s what drove me back,” Nelson mentioned. “I’m looking at marginalized communities of color and how they’ve been treated. I’ve fought that fight over in Portland, but I’ve never really fought it in my own city.”
Traditionally, the NAACP has advocated for political, instructional, social and financial equality rights for all throughout america.
That mission continues to be simply as related at present, Nelson mentioned.
He noticed the necessity for this kind of work to proceed throughout Clark County, particularly inside the upcoming era of younger folks.
“I looked at it as an opportunity to help the kids out here — to let them know they have a voice and that we’re here to protect them, protect their civil rights and their civil liberties,” Nelson mentioned.
NAACP Vancouver Vice President Bridgette Fahnbulleh mentioned the group can be very busy over the subsequent 4 years.
“I admire Larry’s approach. He seems to really understand the mission and assignment,” Fahnbulleh mentioned. “The NAACP will be very busy defending the mission we have, which is to unite all mankind. I couldn’t pick a better person to be president of our Vancouver branch.”
Group connection
Nelson has a deep-rooted connection to Clark County. Throughout World Battle II, his grandparents moved to Vancouver to work on the Kaiser Shipyard.
“That was when NAACP was established out here in Vancouver, to assist them with discrimination and injustice that was happening out here back then,” Nelson mentioned.
He grew up in Minneapolis however moved to Vancouver in 1989. His profession in public service included working with 5 Portland mayors in numerous capacities.
“That’s kind of where I got my start cutting my teeth,” Nelson mentioned. “I always had the view of a public servant.”
A month earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic, Nelson retired. However shortly after, he started serving on NAACP Vancouver’s board of administrators earlier than making the transition into his present function as president.
Nelson mentioned he appears to be like ahead to carrying on Frazier’s legacy and imaginative and prescient for the nonprofit.
“I knew she was going to transition out, so to speak, and she trusted me with carrying on the legacy of the NAACP,” he mentioned.
Nelson’s imaginative and prescient
Nelson needs to sort out numerous group points throughout his tenure, together with racial discrimination, wealth fairness, reasonably priced housing, homelessness and unemployment.
His imaginative and prescient for NAACP Vancouver contains advancing racial justice and advocacy, strengthening native efforts to fight systemic racism, and selling fairness and insurance policies in practices throughout the town.
“We will do that by collaborating with city and county leaders to create actionable plans for criminal justice reform,” he mentioned.
NAACP Vancouver already collaborates with numerous nonprofit teams in Clark County, together with The Basis, Odyssey World Worldwide Schooling Companies, Council for the Homeless and LULAC.
Nelson needs to not solely strengthen these relationships but in addition work in tandem to serve extra folks locally.
One other relationship on which he’s focusing is between NAACP Vancouver and native regulation enforcement. Nelson mentioned he hopes to extend advocacy for accountability and transparency inside regulation enforcement practices.
“I want to build upon what my predecessor has done,” he mentioned. “We have a great relationship with the police chief. If you have a trust factor with the police chief, with the county sheriff, then you can have a difficult conversation and nobody will be worse for the wear.”
Nelson mentioned the group will start internet hosting quarterly city halls to have interaction group members and gather suggestions on racial justice initiatives.
As well as, NAACP Vancouver needs to cut back racial disparities inside wealth, employment and housing, particularly inside communities of shade, Nelson mentioned.
“The homelessness issue is a big deal, especially for people of color. A lot of landlords are taking advantage of the situation and kicking people out with nowhere else to go,” he mentioned. “We want to work with the Council for the Homeless to alleviate the issue.”
Cultural impression
NAACP Vancouver’s companion company ACT-SO — the Afro-Educational, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics — is a free, yearlong program to encourage excessive tutorial and cultural achievement amongst Black highschool college students.
That is the third yr the Vancouver department has run this system, which was based in 1978 by writer and journalist Vernon Jarrett.
Fahnbulleh additionally serves because the CEO of Clark County ACT-SO.
“The idea is to be seen — to see other successful people who look like you,” Fahnbulleh mentioned. “The main thing we heard from working with Black youth is that they felt invisible in their schools. This is one of the reasons why we formed ACT-SO, because it is culturally specific.”
College students can join the ACT-SO program by visiting www.naacpvancouverwa.org/act-so.
Nelson can be sworn in because the NAACP Vancouver president at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Group A.M.E. Zion Church, 3605 E. thirteenth St., Vancouver.
Karen Morrison, government director of Vancouver nonprofit Odyssey World Worldwide Schooling Companies, will lead the ceremony.
“I am honored to be the one to swear him in,” Morrison mentioned. “He’s a beautiful soul.”