NAACP SHAKEUP

About half of the NAACP's staffers have offered to work without pay to pull the group through its most turbulent political and financial period. The oldest civil rights organization in the country yesterday announced that it was laying off all of its 90 employees for a week to try and make up a $3.5 million deficit in its budget. Today about 40 workers agreed to come in voluntarily.Ben Chavis was fired this Augustfrom his executive director post under a cloud of financial mismanagement and sexual harassment charges. But an even bigger shakeup is around the corner, predicts TIME national correspondent Jack E. White. "Now the pressure is on to change the chair of the board, William Gibson," he says. Gibson is considered aChavis allyand has himself been charged with using NAACP funds for personal purposes. "The organization needs to get rid of Gibson to restore corporate confidence" in order to attract donors who will save it from going under, White says.