BLACKNJ.COM HONORS THE CIRCLES OF COLOR ORGANIZATION (COC) WITH THE OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD!!! Monday, January 15, 2007 By CAROLYN FEIBEL STAFF WRITER (Photo) "I have a dream." Those words of Martin Luther King Jr. will be quoted today -- in rapture and reverence -- at celebrations across North Jersey. The successes of the civil rights movement have spawned a multiplicity of dreams, voices, and leaders in black America, even as traditional civil rights groups such as the Urban League and NAACP struggle to reinvent themselves. There are associations for African-American firefighters, Web developers, chefs and human resource managers. There are groups for black skiers and scuba divers. And black churches, fraternities and sororities abound. "People have options," said Stephen Brown, a black securities lawyer from Englewood. "There are more organizations out there, and that's a great thing." Brown's father was once president of the Urban League in Queens. But Brown, 35, is not a member of that group or the NAACP. Yet he's active in community life -- he belongs to the black lawyers association and the predominantly black fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi, and serves on economic development boards in Harlem and Queens. He also mentors black youth for the National Black MBA Association. RELATED STORIES The Record: Holiday closings The Record: Rights groups victims of their own success The Record: King celebration tonight in Tenafly AP: N.J. leaders honor memory of King AP: Kin keep alive King tradition AP: MLK Jr. Day honors will be twofold AP: Calling on the next generation In some ways, civil rights organizations like the NAACP are victims of their own successes. After the civil rights era, many blacks took advantage of new opportunities and freedoms -- moving into new jobs, neighborhoods and political offices. Brown exemplifies that trend. He went from Yale to Columbia Law School, and now works for financial giant TIAA-CREF. He is also president of the Englewood school board. The NAACP and Urban League have more competition for membership now. "I would describe them broadly as being in a period of stagnation," said Joshua Guild, professor of history at Princeton's Center for African-American Studies. The past generations of middle-class teachers and civil service workers who took out lifetime memberships to the NAACP are dying off. "I don't think their children or grandchildren have inherited that same sense of obligation or allegiance to organizations like the NAACP," Guild said.