Let's see. The last time I recall seeing the SCLC publicly was last year at about this time. They held a protest against HIGH GAS PRICES. There was a parade of mostly old Black men, walking down the street holding signs against the oil companies. Many of them had canes and support hoses to keep their blood circulating in their legs.
I don't think that it is unfair for me to point out all of the "lack of leadership" that is going on about 5 blocks away from this entity's headquarters on Auburn Ave in Atlanta. Just a short distance away on "Boulevard" (that is the name of the street), bound between North Avenue to the north and Ralph McGill on the south there is nothing short of a killing field for Black residents that are bound within. (I believe this section is called "Buttermilk Bottom" but don't quote me).
Indeed if the SCLC and the NAACP and others have positioned themselves as the "voice of justice" for the Black community - WHERE ARE THEY where they are needed the most?
Recall a few years ago that the SCLC notified us all that they had planned to open up offices in several international cities as a means of spreading the news of "non-violent social change" to the rest of the world.
My goal is not to slam the SCLC about its internal strife. I have been in enough organizations to understand that personal conflicts come with the territory. When the organizations decides to 'go in another direction' those who face the loss of power are the main one's fanning the flames of dissension.
My challenge to the SCLC is to detail exactly what it is doing TODAY in the locations where that which it rhetorically says that it is all about. Surely the White Racist proved to be a more discernible enemy to them. Despite the fact that today's enemy to the civil rights of Black people create the very same end results - organizations such as the SCLC and NAACP are loathed to make use of the same tactics for they are seen as "friendly fire". IF ONLY they applied the very same tactics that they use against the Black Conservative - "All of my 'skin folks' are not my 'kin folks'" then we'd see the SCLC in a more visible light.
The problems in Florida would be easily patched over because no petty grievances would be allowed to derail the active mission of the organization.
Former officers of the Florida state chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference are refusing to step aside after national leaders in Atlanta dissolved their chapter.
Earlier this month the SCLC dissolved ties with the Florida chapter. New leadership will be elected Friday.
National leaders say they cut the ties because Florida failed to keep at least three local chapters organized and because of other factors they would not discuss.
Florida leaders allege the move is in retaliation for questions they are raising about how the SCLC is spending money. After the SCLC moved against the state chapter, the Florida president Sevell Brown III wrote to the U.S. Attorney General alleging that money is missing from national coffers.
Dexter Wimbish, the SCLC’s attorney, said those allegations are based on mistakes in reading financial documents. Former Florida chapter members are just trying to keep power, he said.
“It is unfortunate that some people, when you wrest power and control from them, will do anything to try and keep it — even destroy the organization,” Wimbish said.
The SCLC was founded by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other icons of the civil rights movement in 1957.
By 2005, it was teetering financially, bringing in little more than $300,000. The organization hired former Alabama state Sen. Charles Steele as president. Under his watch, income passed $1 million. Expenses also grew, and the board increased Steele’s salary from $32,000 in 2005 to $75,000 in 2007.
Steele resigned six months ago. Efforts to reach him were unsuccessful.
The Rev. Byron Clay of Louisiana is interim president.
This is the fourth state chapter reorganized in three years, Wimbish said. The others were Louisiana, Virginia and Maryland.
A Compliance Committee can recommend dissolution for many reasons, such Florida’s lack of effectiveness, he said.
Brown, the former Florida state president, and its attorney Jonathan Alpert claim they remain legitimate office holders. Brown said he raised questions to the SCLC about finances before the current disagreement, but he did not notify federal authorities because he did not think the Bush administration would react fairly.
Brown said his questions about missing money came from SCLC documents turned in to the Internal Revenue Service.
Alpert said that in 2007, more than $1 million given to the nonprofit SCLC Foundation, a separate organization controlled by SCLC board members, did not show up in the SCLC form 990, a yearly IRS financial report.
Wimbish said the foundation files its own 990 form. He said the money was used for new offices on Auburn Avenue and did not have to be routed through the SCLC.
Both the national office and the foundation are audited every year, Wimbush said.”We welcome any review by the attorney general,” he said.
A spokesman at the attorney general’s Washington office confirmed it received the complaint from the Florida chapter.
Typically, complaints are reviewed and sent to appropriate departments in the office for any follow-up.
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