Dissolution of the NAACP Boulder Branch

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March 28, 2025

Dear Beloved Members, Donors, and Friends of NAACP Boulder County Branch,

It is with profound sadness that we announce the dissolution of the NAACP Boulder County Branch.

Our decision comes in the wake of persistent retaliation from the City of Boulder. The city manager, police leaders, and associated governmental entities have actively sought to suppress and undermine our efforts toward racial equity. These tactics, well-known for their authoritarian and racist nature, have included division, co-opting, isolation, spreading false rumors, character assassination, and threats of legal action. The aim has been clear: to remove the leadership of NAACP Boulder and reshape our Branch into a powerless symbolic entity that serves the city’s interests rather than the community’s—one that provides mere performative gestures, a prop for inclusion, rather than real empowerment. The fact that Boulder City officials would and did so brazenly involve themselves in the governance of NAACP Boulder County, a unit of the oldest civil rights organization in the country, is truly outrageous and should deeply trouble all of us.

The struggle for racial justice demands that we not be silent and complicit about things that matter.

We faced a relentless campaign from the city manager and police chief to discredit and undermine and ultimately destroy our Branch, because of our refusal to support the promotion of Stephen Redfearn to police chief or remain silent. In his poignant letter, “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation,” civil rights icon John Lewis encapsulates our plight perfectly. final letter to the world

Regrettably, our attempts to stand firm against these pressures resulted in NAACP National succumbing to the threat of legal action from the city. They issued cease-and-desist letters, demanding we refrain from what they termed “unsubstantiated and inflammatory statements” directed at Redfearn, the Boulder Police Department, and City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde. This language mirrors the accusations from city officials, and to date, we have not been informed of any infractions on our part; we have consistently operated in accordance with the mission of the National NAACP.

Recently, our criminal justice chair faced suspension from the National NAACP after authoring a guest opinion simply to inform our community about a forthcoming police data dashboard, available here. This was followed by a dictate to appoint an overseer for all substantive decisions within our branch that made it all too clear that our ability to carry out the mission had been compromised, effectively placing our Branch under impositions by the city with national enforcement backing it. This crosses a line from the empowered legacy we sought to uphold in our community to unacceptably stifling our voices. While NAACP Boulder County will no longer exist, our commitment to safety, justice, and equality will grow stronger.

It is precisely because of the work we have done with your necessary and greatly appreciated support that our decision to dissolve the Branch lands heavy for all of us. We appreciate your support and interest in making Boulder County safer and more equitable for all members of the community. Our unanimous decision was made because we, [you] would prefer to let this great local Branch conclude rather than to exist as merely a façade, unable to take the necessary actions to hold our city and county accountable. With this dissolution, we call upon city officials and the National NAACP to be held responsible for their actions.

In solidarity and power,
NAACP Boulder County Branch Unit #40AB-B

We aspire to build an inclusive community grounded in equality where all can exercise their civil and human rights without fear and discrimination.