L. Joy Williams: Leading the Brooklyn NAACP and Impacting Social Justice for All New Yorkers

By Fern Gillespie
Since it was chartered in 1922, the Brooklyn NAACP has garnered a reputation as one of the NAACP’s largest and most effective branches. Under the leadership of L. Joy Williams, President of the Brooklyn NAACP, it continues being a frontline advocate for issues facing not only Black Brooklyn residents by all New Yorkers. Recent successes include being key in abolishing the voters’ “Line Warming Ban” and establishing the New York State Reparations Commission. Our Time Press recently spoke to Williams on the organization’s impact.

What are the major issues that the Brooklyn NAACP is currently focusing on?
A major issue that we’re working on, is turning out voters for the upcoming election. This is also training and getting members ready for next year. Also, to engage in an electoral process when we won’t have the greater attention of the National Election. We’re asking all of our members and partners to commit at least four hours between now and election day in helping us to turn out voters and increase participation overall in the election cycle. There are about 550,000 to 600,000 Black folks registered to vote in Brooklyn. About 250,000, that’s about half, did not vote in the last Presidential election in 2020. In working with Ms. Hazel Dukes, I’ve gone to every region within the State of New York, in training other branches to develop detailed plans on how we can turn out more Black folks in this election. We’re targeting those 250,000 people that didn’t vote last election and including those people who were not yet eligible.
We want to make sure we put a significant dent in increasing the turnout in Brooklyn. The four hours can be helping register people to vote, phone banking and texting. Even canvassing we will be doing in certain neighborhoods, where there is historically low participation.
We are gearing up for our Black Brooklyn Agenda in January. Reviewing what we’ve accomplished from the last legislation agenda. We’re also talking to people about the issues that are of concern to them and feeding that into what our legislative agenda is going to be for at the top of the year.

The Brooklyn NAACP successfully won a lawsuit against New York State’s Line-Warming Ban that prohibited giving food and water to voters in lines. What are the Brooklyn NAACP’s plans for voters’ comfort on Election Day in November?
It was designed to prevent people from giving people something in exchange for their vote. But most recently we’ve seen long lines at poll sites–from a greater turnout at presidential elections or just problems at the polls. Brooklyn NAACP is present and engaged during Election Days.
We are thinking about how else we can support voters, but we were banned from doing something as simple as giving people water or snacks. Like if children are there, or if they’re seniors. It was important for us to be able to provide comfort to voters during this time. We’re immediately operationalizing that for the November election.
In our plans for Election Day support are those poll sites that we know where there’s a heavy concentration of Black voters. Where there have been lines and issues before to make sure that we have voter support captains, who are not only there to help people in case they run into issues, but to also be able to provide comfort and support to people if lines get long. We will be running that as an Election Day operation and people will be able to report and call in those issues so that we can address it.

What do you think about a recent poll by the New York Times and Siena College Research Institute that stated 30 percent of the Black people they surveyed were “leaning” to vote for Trump?
NAACP is nonpartisan. We do not prioritize one candidate over the other. What we’re doing is having conversations with people about issues that matter to them and how to choose a candidate that will best meet those issues. This is based upon their record, what they’ve done, what they said they’re going to do, and the reality and the facts. Being the source of accurate and factual information is a role that we take very seriously.

Studies have said that 70 percent of Gen Zers (ages teens to 30) are involved in social justice issues. Have you observed an increase in younger members?
Our Youth Council is very active. They just had their elections and they’re engaged. We have a Young Adult Committee that is very active. The age for our Young Adult Committee is under 30. The candidate forum that we did was completely done by our Young Adult Committee. We’ve been very intentional in Brooklyn about having a generationally diverse branch because Black Brooklyn is generationally diverse. We’ve been providing opportunities for people to lead no matter where they come from and what age they are.

Why was it important for the Brooklyn NAACP to be involved in the New York State Reparations Commission?
The Brooklyn NAACP was intricately involved in helping to pass the legislation to establish the Reparations Commission, which has passed. We also were involved in helping to lift up the names of people who should serve on the commission. Anything related to Black life in New York, the NAACP and Brooklyn, the Brooklyn NAACP should be at the center and engaged in it. We thought it was extremely important, given our county and the large population of people of African descent in the state, to be involved in that process.

What are the benefits of joining the Brooklyn NAACP?
What you get, as a member of the Brooklyn NAACP, is an organization that is making real concrete change in our community. You get to take leadership and volunteer hours on the issues that you care about.