This is a picture of Dr Mark Elgart, CEO of the "Southern Association of Colleges and Schools".
They control the accreditation of high schools in southern states.
- When Clayton County GA schools suffered from at least a decade of leadership fights in their school board and a revolving door in their superintendent spot - SACS stepped in to enforce sanity, demanding that the adults that are charged with educating the 54,000 children in the school system to stop focusing on their own personal conflicts. As a result Clayton schools lost their accreditation until they came up with a new system management plan. In a court hearing in which SACS was asked to testify the attorney for one of the school board members that was seen as a troublemaker asked if the entire SACS investigation was motivated on racism against Black leadership. The judge saw that the preponderance of evidence proved otherwise and bounced the board member off of the board. After resignations, court action and subsequent elections refreshed the school board membership - the accreditation was restored.
- When Dekalb County GA schools suffered from a stinging series of indictments against its leadership in a construction contracting scandal, these leaders being seen doing a "perp walk" while another board member is seen on the news making physical threats against a local television reporter who asked about nepotism - SACS stepped in and asked the interim superintendent to response to a series of questions related to its leadership. The unspoken threat to its accreditation causes the concerned parents to lean on the school board to get its act together.
- When Atlanta Public Schools were found to have a suspicious amount of erasures on a standardized tests answer sheet that switched from wrong answer to right the testing integrity firm triggered an investigation in several schools. The school administration initially rebuffed the charges, choosing to do their own "blue ribbon" investigation. Their own panel found little evidence of organized cheating and rebuffed the state investigation. A battle between factions on the school board surrounding the way forward in relation to the state investigation triggered a mid-term vote to change board chairmanship. A court lawsuit ensued from this action. Noting another school board with massive leadership instability which threatened to compromise the education of the 49,000 children in APS - again SACS stepped in to rattle the adult leadership back into focusing upon the best interests of the school children
In all three of these large school systems in Metro Atlanta there exists a series of "Portraits Upon The Wall", which trigger pride in the spirits of many who walk into the school administration building. For some people it is a sign that the voice of activism that once was outside of the building, protesting on the steps are now insiders.
The undertone in many of these running conflicts which has triggered attention from an OUTSIDE accrediting agency is that SACS is seeking to "remove Black people from position of power". With all due respect - I believe that this is a popular sentiment housed within the Metro-Atlanta "Concerned Black Clergy". They were vocal opponents of the testing investigation that transpired in the Atlanta Schools, claiming that the scrutiny by the state was indeed "racially motivated".
While I search through my video archive from "MLK Day 2011" to find the footage of the angry crowd in Charlotte NC who waged a protest AGAINST the schools that were OPENED on Monday Jan 17, 2011 but only because the schools were shuttered due to a Southern ice storm for 5 days prior - the gross irony seen in this region which suffered tremendous conflict over education as a racial wedge issue where today a BLACK mob of protesters are demanding the closure of schools could not be missed.
The "Portrait Upon The Wall" And Associated Rituals
The metaphor of "The Portrait Upon The Wall" details the process of how embedded political operatives seek to emote certain "ideological unification" responses out of their "flock" by having them focus upon the symbolic accoutrements that emanate from a "favorable person" in an institutional seat of power, allowing "their guy" to escape the classical scrutiny and previous activist agitation against the previous occupant of that same leather chair, when the establishment force in question were on the outside of the array of power. In as much as they can fuse the community's pride with the presence of that particular person they will go into PROTECTION mode, looking past the assault of "sqandered results" that fall short of the promises. Any outside "sun" shined on the deeds done in darkness will be spun as an attempt to knock their "favored son" out of power instead of functioning as the muckraking that this same community used to appreciate.
When I make the case that our community needs to have a controlling framework that works to sublimate the establishment machine to our community's "Permanent Interests" this type of functionality is found within SACS. While the local combatants get entrapped into their own inter-clique battles they are given to lose focus. Sadly and unfortunately the remnants of the "Black Democratic Establishment" and the "Civil Rights Industrial Complex" which has a fused mission and a clear protection racket in support of retaining power over these seats we find an unjustifiable amount of silence and an unwillingness to rebuff and redirect the combatants who have lost sight. The ultimate irony seen in Georgia is that these "Intra-Democratic Cliques" listed above are forced to turn to the state government authorities or the external court system in the county in order to resolve their "inter-clique" conflicts. The same phenomenon was seen with:
- The "King Kids' " Battle Over Licensing Of Their Fathers' Content
- SCLC Faction A against SCLC Faction B in the Fulton County Courts
- The NAACP internal election battle where one side attempted to have the election results thrown out
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