BALTIMORE - [size=-1] Saying he needs a break, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume announced Tuesday that he's stepping down as the head of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights group.
[/size] [size=-1] The organization's legal counsel, Dennis Hayes, will serve as interim president while a national search is conducted. [/size]
[size=-1] "For the last nine years, I've had what I believe is both the honor and the privilege to help revive and to help restore this great organization, which has ... really become an American institution," Mfume said.[/size]
[size=-1] He said he wanted to spend more time with his family. "I just need a break. I need a vacation," he said. "I'm just not going to do anything for a while. [/size]
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[size=-1] Last month, the organization's chairman, Julian Bond, announced that its tax-exempt status is under review by the government in an investigation he contends stems from a speech he gave that criticized President Bush . Bond said IRS agents were investigating his keynote address July 11 at the NAACP's annual convention in Philadelphia. [/size]
[size=-1] For an organization to keep its tax-exempt status, "leaders cannot make partisan comments in official organization publications or at official organizational functions," according to an Oct. 8 letter to the NAACP from the IRS office in Louisville, Ky.
