St. Louis County NAACP elects new officers

Plans to launch model Labor/Industry committee

By ED FINKELSTEIN
Publisher

With a commitment to work closely with Organized Labor, the business, civic and religious communities to advance the work of civil rights and workers’ rights, John Gaskin III was unanimously elected last week as the new president of the St. Louis County NAACP.

Gaskin, 26, is the youngest St. Louis County NAACP president in the branch’s 75-year history.

Other executive officers elected: First Vice President John Bowman (veteran UAW member), Second V.P. Andreal Hoosman, Third V.P. Kenneth Murdock, Treasurer Hon. Maggie Strong, Assistant Treasurer Harriet Weaver (UFCW Local 655), Secretary Lula Hall and Assistant Secretary Phyllis Knight.

Esther Haywood, an active NAACP leader in various national and local positions for nearly five decades, will end her 25-year run as branch president, but will stay on with Emeritus status.

“Our branch is on solid footing and will be in the hands of a visionary leader who was trained by the NAACP since birth. With the support of our executive leadership team and other civic, labor and business leaders, our branch will continue to prosper and support its new president,” Haywood said.

One of Gaskins first efforts will be the formation of a Labor/Industry Committee co-chaired by Bowman and Clint McBride, government affairs director for Laborers Local 110.

“We are looking to create a national model for how the NAACP and Labor can advance civil and labor rights efforts in throughout the United States,” Gaskins told the Labor Tribune.