‘We’ve got to keep it moving’: After Boulder NAACP’s dissolution, cultural group carries on Black History Month events

After the Boulder County branch of the NAACP effectively dissolved last spring, triggering an ongoing legal dispute with the national organization, community members have expressed concern about who will step in to fill the void. The branch was the only civil rights advocacy group rooted in Boulder’s Black community.

Madelyn Strong Woodley, a former member of the Boulder County NAACP branch executive committee, said she has heard concerns from the community that without the NAACP, many cultural events “would go void.” 

But last month, the Executive Committee African American Cultural Events (ECAACE), a separate cultural group founded by Woodley, announced it would step in to ensure that does not happen, hosting cultural and educational events during Black History Month and Juneteenth that the NAACP previously took the lead on. The group, which has sponsored Juneteenth events in the past and partnered with the NAACP on others, recently formed a nonprofit to formalize its work. 

“I’ve just been just reassuring people that there’s much work to be done, and it will not go undone,” Woodley said. 

In past years, the NAACP hosted a “Freedom Fund” event during February to celebrate Black History Month. This year, ECAACE is hosting a number of February events, some of them “along the lines of what we did under the name of the branch and Freedom Fund,” according to Woodley.

Upcoming ECAACE events include the dedication of a bench at the Museum of Boulder honoring Dr. Charles and Mildred Nilon — CU Boulder’s first Black professor and librarian, respectively — in partnership with CU Boulder, the Museum of Boulder and the Toni Morrison Society’s Bench by the Road project. The group is also hosting a gospel concert by the local group ACE (All Created Equal) at the Dairy Art Center, as well as a live performance on KGNU on Feb. 8.

Full event schedule

For the past eight years, the Boulder County NAACP branch organized most of these cultural events, either independently or in partnership with ECAACE and others. The branch also played a significant role in local policy and civil rights advocacy, including helping establish CU Boulder’s Center for African and African American Studies, fielding complaints about racial bias, and playing a key role in creating the city’s Police Oversight Panel, formed in the aftermath of a Boulder police officer drawing his gun on Zayd Atkinson, an unarmed Black college student, as he picked up trash outside his home.

But last spring, after escalating conflicts with the City of Boulder, internal governance disputes, and a growing rift with the national NAACP, leaders of the Boulder County NAACP branch announced it was dissolving. The national organization said Boulder NAACP lacked the authority to dissolve and sued the former executive board, including Woodley, in June. The branch has remained inactive while the legal fight plays out, leaving residents wondering where to look for leadership. 

While ECAACE is taking on celebratory and cultural programming, no group is currently positioned to take on the branch’s former political or civil rights advocacy work, according to Woodley. Those concerns include recent backlash from members of Boulder’s Police Oversight Panel over changes that prevent them from reviewing certain internal investigations into complaints of officer misconduct. City staff have characterized the changes as administrative and aimed at maximizing limited resources; panel members argue the changes weaken one of the panel’s core functions.

The former NAACP Boulder executive committee discussed the possibility of creating a new advocacy group when they announced the branch’s dissolution, but no such group has been created to date.

The national NAACP and 14 former members of NAACP Boulder’s executive committee are engaged in settlement negotiations, the next of which is scheduled for Feb. 18. The national NAACP’s complaint alleges former executive committee members overstepped their authority by filing dissolution documents with the Colorado Secretary of State, and in doing so “deprived the NAACP of the branch’s existing assets and new donations, converted the Branch’s assets, misappropriated trade secrets” and “publicly disparaged the NAACP.”

The dispute grew out of a monthslong clash between the local NAACP’s executive board and city leadership over policing and oversight, led by the committee’s opposition to the city’s appointment of Police Chief Steve Redfearn. Branch leaders accused city officials of retaliation and efforts to undermine their work, claims the city has denied. After the national NAACP intervened in the branch’s governance, which local leaders said curtailed their advocacy, the board announced the branch’s dissolution, triggering the lawsuit.

While the national branch has consistently maintained that the NAACP Boulder branch was never formally disbanded, NAACP national representatives have said that the organization is waiting until the legal issues are resolved before restarting branch activities. Woodley said former executive committee members are similarly waiting before addressing the need for a local advocacy group. It remains unclear what either process would look like or who would be involved.