'A driving force for change': Harold Bailey, NAACP president, dies at 78

Albuquerque NAACP President Harold Bailey died on Monday, putting to rest a half-century fight against racism and bigotry in New Mexico. He was 78.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People announced Bailey’s death. The organization did not give a cause.

The Rev. Charles Becknell Sr., who founded the Africana Studies Program at the University of New Mexico, said Bailey was intelligent and disciplined as an advocate for people of color. Most of all, Becknell said, “he was my best friend.”

“He had this burning desire to help people to bring about change in the community... He didn’t have an ego. I mean, he never beat his chest and said, ‘I did this and I did that,’” he said. “And a lot of things that he did in our community, he never got credit for, but he never tooted his own horn. He was one of the most humble people I’ve ever met, but he was willing to take a stand if it meant progress for our people.”

Over 50 years, the two men were inseparable after joining forces at UNM. Becknell recalls the early days, when FBI agents and local police would follow them around as they promoted civil rights.

“We didn’t care because we weren’t doing anything wrong or illegal, we were standing up for what we thought was right and nobody was going to deter that,” he said. “ He and I was joined at the hip, so we did a lot of stuff together and I’m going to miss him. I’m going to miss him terribly.”

Becknell added, “If you had Dr. Bailey as a friend, you had a friend for life, and you can always depend on him.”

The NAACP, in a statement Monday, called Bailey “a beacon of hope and a driving force for change.”

“He worked to break down barriers, fight systemic racism, and promote civil rights for all,” the NAACP said. “His work extended beyond advocacy, involving direct engagement with local government, schools, law enforcement, and community organizations, to ensure that the voices of marginalized people were heard and valued.”

Bailey was best known for pushing civil rights at UNM and in his own backyard, where he championed New Mexico as a multicultural — as opposed to a tricultural — state and spoke out against injustices affecting people of color on and off campus.

“I felt that if I wanted to be a president of a college or somewhere and I had the certain capabilities and education... why can’t I offer it to my own community?” Bailey once said in an interview with UNM. “So that was the decision I made, to just stay here in Albuquerque to try to make a difference.”

‘Shaped by the times’

Joe Powdrell, another man who counts Bailey as a best friend, said Bailey’s pursuit of a better world for people of color was spurred by his roots.

“He came up in an era of time where civil and social unrest was very prevalent,” Powdrell said. “We were shaped by the times. The game place among African American people was to address it in your own home, be a steward to the equalization, and I think he was moved by that.”

Bailey was born in McKinney, Texas, in 1946 and his family briefly moved to Compton, California, before settling in the South Broadway area of Albuquerque. His father, John Curtis Bailey, worked on the Santa Fe railroad and his mother, Dorothy, was a cook.

Bailey graduated from Albuquerque High School in 1964, and he soon returned to teach special education and coach basketball. Becknell taught history at the school.

At the time, Bailey was a student athlete at UNM, studying for a bachelor’s degree while on a track scholarship. He continued his education and received a master’s degree in 1971 in special education. Four years later, Bailey would receive his Ph.D. in American Studies.

It wasn’t long after Becknell got hired as the founding director of UNM’s Africana Studies Program, that he brought Bailey on as an associate. There, Bailey sowed the seeds of his work with the Black community, serving as UNM’s director for the Institute of Social Research and assistant director for the Africana Studies Program.

Bailey used his role to take a stand against UNM’s discrimination around Black students’ hair and lack of Black academic counselors while promoting an African American summer youth program to get students ready for UNM. Becknell said Bailey was also a black belt, a “little known fact,” and would teach karate to students eager to learn, telling them “this is not an aggressive tool. This is about self discipline and mental focus.”

In the spring of 1974, Bailey joined Black student athletes in calling for a boycott of all UNM sports after the baseball team’s sole Black player, the first to be recruited in nine years, was kicked off the team.

“He got accused of directing that boycott, but he was more about helping the students focus on the issue that they were concerned about, rather than going off helter-skelter ,” Becknell said. “He felt that they needed some some leadership... He was the one that really kept that boycott in perspective.”

The boycott lasted 14 days until UNM gave into some of the demands, stopping short of firing the baseball coach. Bailey told the Journal in a 1974 article, “I don’t think all of the problems have been resolved but I would say a relationship has been established that could lead to solutions.”

In 1980, UNM would not renew its contract with Bailey, a decision friends and Bailey believed was related to his involvement with the boycott. Bailey called attention to the decision, leading to a protest as students and parents demanded Bailey’s return.

Bailey would later file a lawsuit against UNM for wrongful termination and retaliation, and was awarded $147,500.

Bailey was elected president of the Albuquerque branch of the NAACP in 2000 and served until 2004. Following that, Bailey was appointed director of the New Mexico Office of African American Affairs by former Gov. Bill Richardson. As director, Bailey created programs designed to meet the needs of Black people in New Mexico. He held the role until becoming NAACP president again in 2012.

“His belief was you got to stay with this thing until it yields the kind of fruit we all know is beneficial for the whole, and that characterizes him in a statement,” Powdrell said. “He was committed to his work along with being a parent and a citizen, and he loved being a person of African descent.”

Notably, in 2014 the city of Albuquerque hired Bailey as a consult to help oversee reform within the Albuquerque Police Department. In a statement on Instagram, APD thanked Bailey for his work with the department, stating he “spearheaded an initiative to help recruit more officers from minority groups to the department.”

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, in a statement Wednesday, said Bailey’s legacy “will continue to inspire us.” She said, under his leadership, the NAACP endorsed the Elizabeth Whitefield End of Life Option Act in 2020, championed expanded health care options and addressed disparities in education and access.

Lujan Grisham added, “I thank him for his advocacy and commitment to ensuring dignity and choice for all.”

Past, and present

Becknell said, over the years, he and Bailey became so close that Bailey’s mother was like his own, and whenever she would bake “a mean 7Up cake,” she would make an extra for Becknell. In the past year, he and Bailey made a point to have lunch every other week.

“Lately, we were just trying to reminisce. ‘Hey, did you remember when the FBI was following us?’ ‘Yeah, man... those were the days,’” Becknell said. “And we would not only talk about things of the past.”

He said the two had been cooking up an idea: the Center For Social Justice, a one-stop shop for resources to promote the needs, goals and aspirations of Black people in New Mexico.

As the men learned long ago, funding was hard to come by. It’s not that it was never enough, Becknell said, “Most of the time, it’s not any.”

“We’re overlooked, and I think that’s one of the things that really pained Dr. Bailey, is that we could not get the resources we need,” he said, adding that Bailey was a big critic of New Mexico being called a tricultural state, “He felt African American people should be counted, as well.”

Becknell said he last spoke to Bailey on Friday, when he was in the hospital. Becknell had just been released for his own health concerns.

“And my final words to him were, ‘You know, Dr. Bailey, you’re in the hospital. You’re in and I just got out, what the heck is going on?’” he said. “And I said, ‘Well, look, I’m working on a few things here, and I’m going to get by to see you,’ and I regret that I didn’t get a chance to get by to see him. I didn’t know how serious his situation was.”

Becknell was shocked when he got the call on Monday — his best friend was gone. He said the state lost something else: a great humanitarian.

“A man who stood up for justice, a man of compassion, and a man who believes strongly that everybody deserved an equal opportunity in our society,” Becknell said. “And it didn’t matter to him what color they were, he would stand up for the little guy, and he was a true servant of the people.”