Local attorney is replacing Mack as head of NAACP

Local attorney Alfoster Garrett Jr. has taken the helm at the Seattle/King County NAACP, after the resignation yesterday of Carl Mack, who is leaving to become the executive director of the National Society of Black Engineers in Alexandria, Va.

As the NAACP's new president, Garrett inherits a position that will make him one of the most recognized African-American activists in the city.

Garrett, who had been chapter vice president, has been just as passionate, if not as visible, as Mack in advocating for racial equality and social justice.

In 2002, Garrett represented a man in a wrongful-termination case, securing the biggest single settlement victory for the local organization. Last year, he helped several families file a $10 million racial-discrimination claim against the Kent School District, alleging undue force by school security officers against black students.

Garrett's first case as a criminal attorney came when he represented Mack during a trial in 2003; before then he had practiced construction law. Mack had been charged with blocking traffic during a street protest concerning the fatal shooting of a black man by a King County deputy. A jury later found Mack not guilty.

GREG GILBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES Carl Mack has stepped down as president of the Seattle/King County NAACP to become the executive director of the National Society of Black Engineers in Alexandria, Va. With him is his 2-year-old son, Joshua.

"Carl has taught me well. I'm like a son who does not want to disappoint his father," Garrett, 34, said at a news conference yesterday morning.

"I'm a little more reserved and will take a board-room/corporate approach to some matters," Garrett later added. "But at the same time, there are certain matters that deserve that thunder and lightning, and we're still going to be that."

Garrett, originally from Southern California, graduated from law school at Oregon's Lewis & Clark College in 1999. His two-person law practice, which specializes in criminal defense, is based in Seattle.

The leadership position at the NAACP is non-paid.

"Drum of injustice"

As one of the city's major civil-rights organizations, the NAACP was always certain to be a newsmaker. But NAACP members and non-members alike credit Mack, its leader for two years, with reinvigorating the chapter with a charisma and a fiery — sometimes blistering — approach.

"Carl was more than a loud voice. He speaks the truth," said James Kelly, president of the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, adding Mack heeded the call of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "to sound the drum of injustice."

Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske called Mack "a tremendous advocate."

"He has been straightforward and direct. We have valued his relationship with us to improve the department," Kerlikowske said, also at the news conference.

Mack, who has acted on stage and who is regularly tapped to speak about African-American history, is a powerful orator who defined his role as "an agitator."

On the receiving end of Mack's criticism has been an array of public entities: law-enforcement agencies; government leaders and school officials.

Yesterday morning, Mack again blasted Kent school officials and "their arrogance," calling them both "a warden" and "a prison board" for the district's record of handcuffing students, particularly black youth.

He singled out the academic-achievement gap and the criminal-justice system as two areas that merited continued public scrutiny. He chided his own employer, King County, for not doing more toward the employment of black contractors on public-works projects. And he urged increased public accountability with local law enforcement.

Mack leaves his $77,000 engineering job with the county's Department of Natural Resources to move his wife, also an engineer, and their two sons to Alexandria. Officials with the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) declined to disclose Mack's new salary.

The group, which has a $7.8 million annual budget, advocates for increased recruitment and retention of blacks in engineering.

NSBE officials said Mack's engineering background and community activism makes him an ideal executive director.

In a gesture that spoke to the lengths of that activism, Seattle police presented Mack yesterday with a Taser mounted atop a plaque.

Mack once joined Chief Kerlikowske in being shot with the Taser's 50,000 electrical volts. The act was meant to better understand the complaints of people who have been shot with the Taser as well as to strengthen the relationship between black community and law enforcement.

Florangela Davila: 206-464-2916 or fdavila@seattletimes.com