Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Board Bound: Willow Glen resident Glenna Brambill is a longtime member of the NAACP and soon-to-be board member. Glenna is also a gospel singer and recently recorded her first CD of gospel music.
Next generation of NAACP is a 'new hope in the San Jose area'
Local branch hopes to lead other groups pursuing civil rights on modern issues
By Kate Carter
Glenna E. Brambill remembers being teased at school because of her New York accent when she first moved to Willow Glen in 1962.
But the names she was called by her fourth-grade classmates at Gardner Elementary didn't refer to how she spoke, but to her African-American ethnicity.
"It just never happened," Brambill says now, reflecting on what school had been like in New York before she moved here. "When I first got here from New York, I really didn't understand why they thought I was different. [In New York,] we knew we were all different and we just got along. [Coming to Willow Glen] was a rude awakening."
Brambill's mother, also Glenna Brambill, refused to accept that her daughter's classmates didn't know what they were saying or doing by ridiculing her daughter's skin color and ethnicity. She went to the school and talked to the principal and the teacher, explaining that she wasn't going to tolerate that kind of behavior. The kids got a lesson in what the words they used meant and why they were wrong. After that, Brambill says, it never happened again.
Brambill went on to graduate from Willow Glen High School in 1971, the only black student in the graduation ceremony. She now works for the Santa Clara Valley Water District and is moving back to Willow Glen where her mother still lives.
Brambill says her mother and her mother's commitment to justice and equality for her and for others is an inspiration to her. Brambill carries on that tradition, as well. She is one of the new board members of the San Jose branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or the NAACP.
"I'm not so much in the bold fashion," Brambill says of her approach to civil rights activism. "You always choose your battles and you choose them carefully, but you want to let them know you won't stand for everything. People shouldn't be judged on the basis of their skin. The battle is not over yet."
Brambill is only one of the local NAACP branch's new contingent of board members under the leadership of recently elected president Rick Callender. Callender and his board, whom he largely handpicked, are undertaking the challenge of breathing new life into an old movement.
"We're starting to see the birth of a new generation as a whole," Callender says. "We're trying to make sure we have the next generation of civil rights leaders involved."
The NAACP was founded in 1909, by a group of black leaders and intellectuals who were responding to the need for greater civil and political rights for black people. It was a lead organization in many legal battles for equal voting rights, integrated communities and juries and, perhaps most famously, school desegregation with Brown v. Board of Education. Its members have included founders W.E.B. DuBois and Ida Wells-Barnett, as well as former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
The grass-roots organization works for equal rights for all people, especially members of ethnic, religious and other groups who have historically been disenfranchised.
The NAACP is now an international organization with more than 500,000 members in branches in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Japan and Germany.
The San Jose branch is celebrating its 49th year at its annual fundraising dinner on Feb. 17, during Black History Month. The event's guest speaker will be Los Angeles Assemblyman Herb Wesson, one of only six black state legislators. He is also rumored to be the next Speaker of the Assembly, Callender says. The group will also present awards to longtime civil rights activist Tommy Fulcher, U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren and Amy Dean, CEO of the local branch of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council.
Callender says the local branch has a membership of about 1,500 people. One of the goals for his presidency is to double that number.
Callender says the branch's former president, Aminah Jahi, was of an older generation that wasn't attracting the younger generation, or responding to such modern issues as land use, housing, energy and the environment.
"Now, it's reinvigorated with a more youthful crowd," he says of his approximately 26 new board member choices, mostly in their 30s and 40s. But he adds that his selections also "bring a historical perspective" and experience to the group, to better implement his vision.
Callender also brings a new organizational approach to the group. He wants to raise enough money to fund a full-time staff person for the office that currently is run entirely by volunteers. He wants to improve the branch's communication so more people know what it is doing. He wants to add more events to the group's schedule and give more people more ways to get involved. He says he wants to get the NAACP positioned to have a place at the table in public policy discussions and decisions.
The NAACP is one of the few local groups positioning itself for a public policy voice, he says.
"In terms of advocating from the social justice standpoint, the NAACP is pretty much it," he says.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Moving Experience: Glenna Brambill says coming to Willow Glen from New York in 1962 'was a rude awakening' when she first went to Gardner Elementary.
Although many people perceive the NAACP as a rabble-rousing group operating through civil disobedience actions, Callender says he wants his group to try to work with the system rather than against it. But he says if negotiation doesn't work, they won't be afraid to use other means to get their voices heard.
And Callender says he really wants to make the NAACP an organization that other groups pursuing social justice look to for leadership.
"We're going to be the umbrella that everybody's going to sit under," he says. "There's strength in numbers. We have to all stand by each other on our own issues."
He acknowledges the similarity of his organizing goals with those of the Direct Action Network, which drew thousands of demonstrators from hundreds of different groups to the World Trade Organization's summit in Seattle in 1999.
Callender admits that there will be times when all groups won't see eye to eye on how to resolve socioeconomic problems.
"Sometimes we have to agree to disagree," he adds.
Callender is also very clear about the NAACP's goals to include people of all colors, religions, genders and sexual orientations, which he says are reflected in his board member choices.
"We need to represent all communities of color," he says. "I like people to understand that when they're working with the NAACP, they're not just working with the African American community. We need to stand up against all racism, anti-Semitism, all the '-isms' out there."
David Ginsborg is one of those new members who helps round out the board's diversity. The Willow Glen resident, who is Jewish, was chosen by Callender because of his in-depth experience working for civil rights-oriented politicians. He now works for county Assessor Larry Stone.
Ginsborg says he is pleased to be involved with the NAACP, even though he's new to the organization and, superficially, doesn't seem to belong.
"There's a bit of awkwardness because I don't relate directly to their experience," he says of his relationship with the mostly black membership. But he adds that a number of the founders of the NAACP weren't black; in fact, one was Jewish, he says.
The direction in which Callender is taking the group is what attracted Ginsborg to become involved with it, he says.
"The NAACP is going through a growth stage, expanding so it is more inclusive," he says. "It is building on its historical tradition to eliminate bias against African Americans and fight for the liberties of all minorities, people who traditionally don't have a voice in our society. The NAACP is a catalyst for people of disparate backgrounds to come together to discuss policy issues."
Ginsborg says he will be involved with the public policy goals of the group. He says he will bring with him his experience and interest in performance management, or implementing policies that are proven to achieve the desired results.
"Government performance...tends to respond to the squeakiest wheel rather than the greatest needs," he says. "If you don't have the connection to performance, you're never going to get to the point where this is what our residents want."
Ginsborg says his passion for social justice is part of a long tradition in Judaism. He and his wife, Elisa Koff-Ginsborg, help make the connection between faith and civic involvement for students in a class they volunteer-teach at Temple Shir Hadash in Los Gatos.
"The Jewish community has been closely aligned with social justice activism," Ginsborg says. "Within the Torah, there is a real discussion about how we interact with people and between how the world is today and how we'd like to see things."
Brambill also sees the connection between faith and work for equality. She is an active member of the San Jose Word of Faith Christian Center in the Gardner neighborhood of Willow Glen. She says she appreciates Callender's efforts to reintegrate the religious community with the goals and activities of the NAACP, because it is in line with the history of the civil rights movement.
"When you couldn't call on anyone else, you could call on Almighty God," she says.
Brambill says she hasn't been very involved with social activism in the past, but she is very interested in black history and in the cultural, social, economic and political contributions African Americans have made. Callender asked her to join the board because he saw the many emails she sends out to people about local events and issues of interest to the black community.
"We have really contributed to this society in a large, large way," she says. "I'm interested in letting people know about how blacks have contributed. We've made some strides as a nation, but there's still some more to make."
Fundraising and art, specifically singing, are where Brambill says her interests lie. But she mostly just wants to learn for herself what social activism is all about.
"I'm trying to figure out what's going on and make as much of a difference as I can," she says. "There's a new hope in the San Jose area; if we can't [help with a specific problem,] at least we can turn them on to the people who can."
Members of the new NAACP board say that emphasis on partnership to achieve more civil rights for those who are often unheard and undeserved is what will make the next generation of the NAACP even stronger than before.
"As individuals, we stand alone," Ginsborg says. "It's only when we come together that we have power."
The NAACP of San Jose's 49th Annual Friendship Banquet is on Feb. 17, at Lou's Village in San Jose. For more information about San Jose's NAACP branch or to buy tickets for the banquet, call 408.295.3394, or visit www.sanjosenaacp.org.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
