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From the AJC:
The feud between rival factions of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference escalated to new heights Tuesday, with charges of vandalism leveled at one participant in the dispute.Analysis
The Rev. Markel Hutchins said Tuesday that he is the legitimate president of the SCLC and has the right to weld shut and change the locks on some of the buildings on the doors of the headquarters on Auburn Avenue.
“I am the person responsible for SCLC … and to secure the office of the property,” Hutchins said. “They claimed we broke into the office. I cannot break into my own office.”
Hutchins on Monday night went to the SCLC offices and removed some equipment and computers, and he had a bolt welded to the back door and the gates padlocked.
He said he waited until nightfall because he could not do so when the staff was still in the building.
He said he also would take out arrest warrants for the SCLC staff who removed the lock when they showed up this morning for work.
He accelerated the rhetoric between two factions fighting for control over the organization by accusing his opponents of being “renegades and dissidents.”
That faction includes the Rev. Bernice King, the youngest child of SCLC co-founder the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Hutchins has insisted for several months that he is a board member for the decades-old civil rights group, even though a judge has said the vote that put him on the board was void.
"Hutchins has no right to be on SCLC property. His conduct of vandalizing and damaging SCLC property proves that Hutchins will do anything to try to control the SCLC,” chairwoman Sylvia Tucker, of Virginia, said. "I am troubled by this conduct. It is the act of [a] reckless individual. Markel Hutchins has stated that he would take over SCLC. He has stated that he would be president, and like a dictator or bully in a foreign land, who takes power by violence, Hutchins entered the headquarters after knocking in the back door, had the doors to the headquarters welded shut and chained."
Hutchins ran for SCLC president last year but lost to King. Hutchins said he was among 20 people added to the board earlier this year by a faction led by ousted chairman Raleigh Trammell. A judge has since ruled that those decisions were void. There is a motion pending in Fulton Superior Court demanding that Hutchins, Trammell and several other former board members be prohibited from saying they are still on the board.
“Hutchins has never been a member of the board of directors or a national officer of the SCLC," Tucker said. "Hutchins has never been elected as CEO or interim president. This conduct is criminal and deplorable. It is like a hate crime; it makes my stomach churn,” Tucker said.
According to attorney Charles Mathis, Hutchins went to the SCLC headquarters on Auburn Avenue between 9 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Monday. He had with him a locksmith and a welder, and he was seen taking equipment from the building.
The police were called, but the officer said it was a “civil matter" and left, Mathis said. The civil case demands that Hutchins, Trammell and others be prohibited from claiming membership on the board.
“APD was called. They did nothing to stop his reckless conduct and criminal conduct. He seized the SCLC office and we are dealing with it,” Mathis said.
The APD declined to comment until it talks to the city.
Mathis said Hutchins and several other people, whom he could not name, took SCLC equipment, including computers, damaged the building’s security system and vandalized offices. Mathis said Hutchins put chains on the back door -- inside and outside -- then had the door welded shut. He also padlocked the gate to the parking lot, Mathis said.
An AJC photographer was able to enter the building through the front door Tuesday morning.
“The SCLC headquarters contains valuable articles which depict the civil rights movement," Tucker said. "Hutchins' acts have breached security and placed those items in jeopardy. Hutchins' actions do violence to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Enough is enough; it is time that we stop Markel Hutchins and the dictators whom he serves. They have no respect for democracy or the judicial process."
This situation with the infighting at the SCLC is way past ridiculous. These people really have no dignity or shame.
I wish that they indeed had a mandate to "keep their dirty laundry on the inside". Instead the skid mark that they are leaving in their undergarments now soils the whole of Auburn Avenue and is about to turn the corner and go down Edgewood Ave.
Some people don't choose to listen to my analysis of the situation. They do this at their own peril.
The truth is that this present "death spiral" of intractable infighting at the SCLC is merely proof that THEIR JOB IS DONE. They are done, that is, in the context of the mission that they were originally christened to accomplish. No "the presence of racism" is not dead. Instead - the ability of a racist to have his way with Black people without legal sanction is a relic of the past in America and the South specifically. This presence of an external adversary had a unifying effect upon individuals who would otherwise be prone to fight over table scraps inside of the organization. Today the SCLC stays "inside" too much and are fighting over "who gets the corner office". This all is shameful.
At this same time there exists an area within the Black community that presently suffers from "benign neglect". In fact the role of the SCLC as "Christians" and as "Leaders" would greatly assist in this area.
Of course I am talking about the "cultural consciousness" void in our communities.
Keep in mind that the SCLC is nothing more than a "501c3" that decided to gather together for a particular purpose. This means that there is nothing "official" about them with regard to the Black community. This present episode merely erodes their credibility and integrity as an organization.
Ultimately this message is being directed to the "Black Rank & File". Whereas we are inclined to "look and wait" for these old line "Civil Rights Organizations" to lead the way and "help" the Black community. With the abundant problems that are presently going unmanaged it is clear that there is time for a new movement which is defined on different terms. Something other than the permanent chase for "Civil Rights" (or that which has been branded as 'civil rights' but are not).
We have a tremendous "Human Resource Management" NEGLECT problem within our community. The credibility of these organizations and the people within them is hinged upon their ability to transition from "racism chasing", political operative entities over to organized efforts to insure the "advancement" of the people in our community. This is proven not by the "fed state" that our people can be made to become after their intervention but instead the COMPETENCIES that are engendered within these communities after 30 years of living under the "human resource management program" that is rendered by these organizations.
Here are some excellent problems to begin with:
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