St. Paul Branch President Rev. Richard Pittman, Sr. shares insights
Though not much is said of the work of the Minnesota NAACP, they are busy working on behalf of the Black community. Community members may experience changes based on their accomplishments but don’t know where to give thanks.
Pastor Richard Pittman, Sr. is currently in his second two-year term as president of the St. Paul branch. Minnesota branches include St. Paul, Minneapolis, Duluth, Rochester, and St. Cloud, but Minnesota also represents North and South Dakota.
Pittman has been involved with the NAACP for 14 years and has been a pastor for over 40.
He was inspired to join the NAACP by his wife’s cousin, Nathaniel Khaliq, who served as president for over 15 years. Pittman’s first position was religious chair, then public safety chair before serving as vice president.
Under Pittman’s leadership, the NAACP has made education a top priority. They are actively addressing the lack of diversity in Minnesota’s teaching staff, as highlighted by The Coalition to Increase Teachers of Color and American Indian Teachers in Minnesota (www.tocaimn.com).
“We’ve been to several school board meetings, sitting down with different schools in the Black community,’ explains Pittman. “[We are] dealing with issues as far as our children being able to see people that look like them inside of the schools, in leadership and other facets.”
They are also working with schools to decrease the state’s persistent achievement gap in the K-12 system. Disparities continue at the college level. Among 25-to-44-year-olds, Native American, Hispanic and Black Minnesotans have lower associate degree or above attainment rates, at 29.5, 32.6, and 39.7 percent, respectively, compared to 68.4 percent for whites.
The nationwide housing shortage, specifically affordable housing, affects Black Minnesotans as well. “We deal with many homeless youths now,” Pittman says. “Kids that are going to school but don’t have a place to go after school, don’t have shelter.”
According to a 2024 Minn Post article, though 70% of White families are homeowners in the Twin Cities, the ownership rate for Black families is 20%. Their current housing chair deals with a plethora of housing issues. “We were just made aware of a Black couple selling their home,” says Pittman. “It [was appraised] for $300,000 less than it was worth.”
Their work on public safety has gotten a lot of traction by working with legislators on revising laws regarding pretextual traffic stops. “Individuals [were] getting stopped, pulled over, and then their backgrounds were searched,” says Pittman. Data analyzed from 2016-2020 “found that Black drivers in Saint Paul were nearly four times more likely than White drivers to be pulled over and nine times more likely to have their vehicle searched,” according to the Pioneer Press.
Pittman says these stops are also more likely to end in death for Black men. A December 2022 Minnesota Department of Health report that analyzed fatality data between 2016-2021 “associated with a law enforcement call for service or encounter” found that “Twenty-two percent were Black, African, or African American, though only seven percent of all Minnesotans are Black, African, or African American.”
Pittman sees the result of their work in much fewer stops for things like a broken taillight, expired plates, or tinted windows. “Those are changes that have been made since I’ve been president from working with the Ramsey County Attorney [John Choi] and working with the chief of police.” This includes monthly meetings going over the statistics of not only traffic stops but also robberies and other criminal activities that affect communities of color.
The St. Paul NAACP has over 20 different chairing positions, but filling them is sometimes challenging. “You have to find people willing to volunteer,” Pittman says. “We are a nonprofit organization, so we don’t get paid a salary to do what we do.”
Every third Thursday, they hold general meetings that are open to the public. At these meetings, community members can voice concerns, receive updates from the organization, and ask questions. “It is the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,” says Pittman. However, “We try to ensure that all marginalized communities…are getting fair and equal treatment.”
Pittman is not only president of the St. Paul branch, but also interim president for the state and the Dakotas. State meetings are held quarterly to discuss what each branch is working on and recent accomplishments.
“In the meetings that I’ve been in, the branches have been very busy, and some of them are doing great things to advocate for the community,” says Pittman. However, their efforts are not consistently recognized by the communities they serve.
“Sometimes people become upset if they think we aren’t doing everything we’re supposed to,” says Pittman. “They don’t realize we have full-time jobs, sometimes two or three, and that this is volunteer work.”
NAACP members are not exempt from what everyone else does to support themselves and their families. “Any efforts made by these people volunteering their services to ensure the work of the NAACP continues is important. It’s crucial.”
As a pastor, Pittman says he has a natural capacity for compassion for his community. He spends a lot of time traveling and in meetings. He feels compensated by being a part of the organization’s legacy and seeing how the community benefits from its accomplishments. He encourages people to connect with their local NAACP branch.
“I was sitting in a barbershop one day and [heard] a horrible acronym for the NAACP,” says Pittman. “I just started laughing and saying, ‘Wow, that’s just a shallow view of what the NAACP actually does.’
“We are forefront people—we are out there. We’re at the school meetings, public safety meetings, and city council,” he says. “You may not think that the NAACP is doing something for you, but when you see a change, know that we are in there and a part of the solution that has lightened that load for you.”
The St. Paul NAACP is at 270 Kent St., Saint Paul, MN. They can be reached at 651- 649-0520 or naacpstpaul4052@gmail.com. Visit their website at naacp-stpaul.org.
Support Black local news
Help amplify Black voices by donating to the MSR. Your contribution enables critical coverage of issues affecting the community and empowers authentic storytelling.