The city has received a number of inquiries from media and community about an announcement over the weekend from members of the local chapter.
City responds to inquiries about reported closing of the Boulder County NAACP
This statement was shared with local media on Saturday, March 29, 2025:
The City of Boulder was saddened to learn today of the decision by the leadership of the NAACP Boulder County Branch to dissolve the chapter. We believe deeply in the mission of the NAACP, and this was not the outcome to months of conflict that we wished for.
It is unfortunate that in the chapter’s statement announcing its decision, the leadership seeks to place the responsibility for its failure to operate effectively and in good faith on the city. It is particularly ironic that the allegations made against the city in this statement include behavior like “spreading false rumors” and “character assassination” – as these are the very tactics that led to a failed mediation attempt between the city and members of the Boulder County NAACP leadership team in July 2024.
During that mediation, despite signed agreements to keep the conversation confidential, a board member secretly recorded the session and then threatened to release it publicly if City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde chose to promote Stephen Redfearn as Boulder’s police chief.
It was this unethical behavior, not any rejection of the chapter’s right to critique government, that led to this conflict.
While today’s announcement states that the city threatened legal action against the chapter, this is simply untrue. What the city did do – as shared publicly in October 2024 – was to file a complaint with the National NAACP, and that complaint was specifically filed against three specific individuals of the Boulder County NAACP chapter, not the local chapter as a whole. That decision was not made lightly.
As Rivera-Vandermyde said at the time, “I am a firm believer in engaging authentically with community members and organizations who bring perspectives of racial and social justice to our collective work; I take the pursuit of equity and justice extremely seriously -- particularly for our Black and Latino community members and other historically and currently marginalized groups of people … What I cannot tolerate is unethical behavior by people who purport to stand for progressive community values but then act in intentional ways that break trust, undermine public processes, and distract us from our collective mission of making Boulder a more equitable, safe, and thriving city.”
We respect the right of National NAACP leaders to provide whatever guidance and take whatever action they felt was appropriate. They did this independently from us, based on their own objective evaluation of the situation.
The city remains committed to working collaboratively with community partners and doing all it can to advance racial equity. We look forward to forging deeper and constructive relationships with the state chapter of the NAACP, as well as with National NAACP, and others right here in Boulder who are doing tireless work to dismantle historic and ongoing oppression of Black and African-American people.
Update on Monday, March 31, 2025:
Today, Portia Prescott, president of the Rocky Mountain NAACP, told an audience on Instagram that the Boulder County NAACP cannot be dissolved by a handful of members. According to the organization's by-laws, this decision can only be made at the national level.
Additional Background:
The City of Boulder issued a press release on Oct. 16, 2024 about this matter. Read that original background release.