The Boulder County leadership of the local NAACP chapter announced it will dissolve in a March 28 email. The parent organization is pushing back.
A separate release from the national NAACP on April 1 refutes any claim of dissolution as “completely false,” stating “members cannot close NAACP Chapters. Per the NAACP Constitution, only the Board of Directors has that authority, and it has not voted to do so.”
In an April 2 phone call with Boulder Weekly, the group’s former vice president Judith Landsman says this isn’t true. The chapter “dissolved itself as an entity and filed for legal dissolution with the State of Colorado by unanimous decision of the former NAACP Boulder County executive committee.”
Landsman said no effort has been made by the State of Colorado to halt the dissolution. “As far as we know, it’s done. And if NAACP national wants to push it, then they’ll have to challenge it legally,” she said.
The local chapter cites the ongoing struggle with the City of Boulder, stemming from the organization’s opposition to the appointment of Stephen Redfearn as Boulder Chief of Police, due in part to his involvement the night of 23-year-old Elijah McClain’s killing.
“We faced a relentless campaign from the city manager and police chief to discredit and undermine and ultimately destroy our branch,” the Boulder County NAACP said in its release, “because of our refusal to support the promotion of Stephen Redfearn to police chief or remain silent.”
The release also states the national NAACP succumbed to “the threat of legal action from the city,” issuing cease-and-desist letters regarding statements the local chapter had made against Redfearn.
In its own statement released March 29, the City of Boulder refutes any threat of legal action against the chapter, saying the statement is “simply untrue.”
In October 2024, the city did file a complaint with the national NAACP against three members — president Annett James, vice president Landsman and criminal justice committee chair Darren O’Connor — regarding an incident where the group “threatened” to release a transcript of a meeting with Boulder City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde and Redfearn, which a member of the chapter recorded in secret.
According to the release, the Boulder County NAACP executive board voted unanimously to dissolve after the national NAACP expressed interest in taking over the branch.
“There was a very aggressive response to basically turn the administration of the branch over to someone from the national board as an overseer,” Landsman told Boulder Weekly. “It became clear that part of that administratorship was going to be to remove elected leadership.
“We were backed into a corner. We could either succumb to being another mouthpiece for the city, or we could keep our integrity.”
In an April 2 Instagram post, city council member Taishya Adams expressed her discontent with the situation. “As a member of the NAACP Boulder County branch, I believe the entire membership should have been included in such a foundational decision to close our chapter,” Adams wrote. “I look forward [to] more clarification about the road ahead and continue to be open for the much needed repair within and across our Black identifying community and allies.”
Landsman is uncertain what comes next in the wake of the dissolution. “There is a void, and we can’t say who’s going to step up and when it’s going to happen,” she said.