Asm Rahman, a Bangladeshi American, has become the first Asian American to head an NAACP chapter in Hamtramck, Michigan: Hamtramck NAACP picks Asian to lead. Rahman joined the NAACP in 2003 after hearing reports about racial profiling and other forms of discrimination experienced by local residents of Bangaldeshi and Middle Eastern descent following the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Pretty cool see some non-traditional faces stepping up in roles like this. Immigrants from Bangladesh and the Middle East now apparently account for almost half the 68 members of the Hamtramck chapter. The chapter, which is at least 30 years old, had been inactive for about two years. Rahman was elected in February. The national NAACP celebrates its 100th anniversary this year.
There have been other non-African Americans who have served in leadership posts at NAACP chapters, including Peter Leung, a Chinese American who served as the president of the Corvalis, Oregon, branch, and Nilakantan Nagarajan, an Indian immigrant who served as state treasurer for the NAACP Delaware State Conference of Branches.
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