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Missouri NAACP elects new president for first time in decades

ST. LOUIS – For the first time in over 30 years, the Missouri State NAACP will have a new state conference president.

Attorney Rod Chapel will take over the position from Mary Ratliff, who served in the position for over three decades. The ceremony took place in St. Louis Saturday afternoon as the first snows of 2016 fell outside.

Chapel serves as counsel at the Barnes and Associates Law Firm in Jefferson City, where he also serves as the president of the town’s NAACP unit or chapter. Chapel also served as NAACP chapter president at Oklahoma State University when he studied there, and in other roles he has been the director of the Missouri Department of Labor

His new position, state conference president, oversees and organizes all of the NAACP units across the state, which is composed of about 18 towns, county and city chapters. Chapel says this unique time affords his organization to effect change that helps all Missourians.

“I know that there is a lot of work to do, that this is a turbulent time for civil rights in America, let alone in Missouri, which seems to have been the touchstone twice in the last couple of years,” Chapel said. “One of the reasons I want to serve in this capacity is to ensure that the mission and vision of the organization, which is simply equality and justice for everyone, was carried out and done so in a way that respected the dignity of people all around the issues.”

Chapel noted that while the organization had done some good work under Ratliff, he was enthusiastic about the new possibilities the organization could pursue under new leadership.

“The change in leadership is, I hesitate to say needed but at least in my perspective, welcomed,” he said. “I feel the opportunities we have now to talk to people who have a different way of considering issues about what it means to be a person and our humanity, those are things we have to embrace.

“Many of the issues that people in the NAACP face are faced by people in rural America every day: lack of resources, issues about education, questions about health care, will we be able to vote, how are we going to be allowed to vote. Those issues are fundamental to citizenship.”

Some of those issues will be further emphasized and defined in the coming months, most recently at a prayer breakfast to be held in St. Louis where Chapel and others will outline the legislative priorities of the Missouri NAACP.

The new president also noted that he planned to increase the number of NAACP units in Missouri and make them more vibrant, visible and active parts of their communities, not only for the benefit of African-Americans or other minorities, but for all people.

“If there’s one thing that I could communicate, it would be that the NAACP is for everyone,” Chapel said. “We will have an executive board that reflects the diversity across Missouri. We will be populated with women and men, and we’re going to be looking at issues that affect everyone from young to old, from Caucasian to African-American without regard.”