CONCERNED NCNAACP MEMBERS
CHALLENGE “STENCH” FROM
NATIONAL NAACP OFFICE
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Asking how some of its national leadership can “…survive the stench of its coverup” in the case of a “young gifted Black employee” who is suing the civil rights organization over an alleged sexual harassment incident, as well questioning the “integrity of the association,” or why it “continues to ignore it’s own constitution and bylaws and allow an unfair election to stand,” a concerned group of NC NAACP members who call themselves “The Justice Coalition,” led by NAACP Life member Rev. Dr. Cardes H. Brown, Jr., pastor of New Light Missionary Baptist Church in Greensboro, issued a stinging written rebuke this week of the national NAACP for allegedly not following its own rules.
Several black newspapers across North Carolina in recent weeks, including this one, have reported first and exclusively about the complaint filed by several NC NAACP members statewide with the national office after an October 23rd election was conducted allegedly in violation of the civil rights organization’s bylaws, calling the results into question.
Incumbent NC NAACP Pres. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman lost reelection as a result to New Hanover County NAACP Pres. Deborah Dicks-Maxwell. The complaint did not accuse Pres.-elect Maxwell of any wrongdoing, and in fact, she maintained she knew nothing about the complaint when asked about it later.
However, the complaint did point a finger at the person put in charge of administrating NC NAACP conference operations, Ms. Gloria Sweet-Love, president of the Tennessee NAACP Conference of Branches, and a national NAACP Board member.
Ms. Sweet-Love was accused of ignoring established NAACP election bylaws and requirements in how the election was conducted. As exclusively reported by several Black newspapers across North Carolina, including this one weeks ago, this is the second time Ms. Sweet-love has been accused of manipulating an NAACP conference executive election, the first being in Virginia a few years ago where she was also administrating.
Dr. Brown writes that at the request of various NCNAACP members, he notified the national NAACP leaders about her “wholesale violations,” however nothing happened. In fact, “…she judged her own conduct as righteous, and did not entertain any discussion of the four complaints we file against her….”
The statement titled, “The Source of the Stench Within the National NAACP” didn’t stop there. It also referenced the Jasmine Childs versus NAACP litigation that’s pending in Durham Superior Court.
Ms. Childs, a former Youth Director for the NC NAACP, alleged in 2019 that she was sexually harassed by then supervisor and former member Rev. Curtis Gatewood. She filed a $20 million lawsuit against the civil rights organization in Feb. 2020. That case is still pending.
Rev. Gatewood, tried run for NC NAACP Conference president in 2019, only to be suspended, and then later reportedly booted out. In a recent “Motion to Dismiss” open letter, Gatewood denies the sexual harassment charges, and blamed accusations against him as part of an “unethical and clear violation of civil, human and worker’s rights.”
Rev. Brown closes the Justice Coalition statement by writing, “We make this statement with a heavy heart . We love the NAACP. We life-members and others who are interested in repairing the constitutional lapses of a handful of NAACP officers want the National leadership to join us in identifying ad specifying the source of the stench. We are long past the deadline for talks….no one with the power to remove the stench has found the time nor the grace to contact us,” Rev. Brown said, adding, “This is not a poker game. Those of us who live on truth shall not fold the hand God dealt us.”
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NCDP CHAIR BOBBIE RICHARDSON
DEMOCRATS BRACE FOR
GOP-LED APPELLATE COURT
REDISTRICTING DECISION
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
It was almost too good to be true for state Democrats, and in particular Black state Democrats, vying for office.
With just 20 minutes to go before the noon opening Monday for candidates’ filings for the 2022 elections, a NC Court of Appeals order came down delaying it for all “contested” U.S. House, state House and state Senate races.
According to a report from the conservative online publication, Carolina Journal, an unidentified three-judge state appellate panel of two Democrats - one of them former House Democratic leader Darren Jackson- and one Republican, issued the order.
Just three days earlier, another three-judge panel had refused to delay the start of Monday’s candidate filing period because of alleged unconstitutional gerrymanders.
After Monday’s turn around, Dems celebrated.
“Today’s decision to delay the start of candidate filings is an important step towards ensuring that North Carolina voters aren’t represented by unconstitutionally partisan gerrymandered maps,” said North Carolina Democratic Party Chairwoman Bobbie Richardson in a statement. “Voters should be able to select the individuals that represent them, not the other way around.”
What Richardson, an African-American former state House member from Franklin and Nash counties, was referring to was two pending lawsuits challenging newly drawn voting maps by the Republican legislative leaders for 2022 through 2030 elections that Democrats immediately complained should be redrawn because they were allegedly illegal.
The Democratic hope was that the courts would delay the candidate filings, review the new maps, agree that they were unconstitutionally partisan gerrymanders, then order Republican lawmakers to redrawn the voting districts until they met constitutional muster, so that they could be used in next year’s elections (2022), instead of starting in 2024.
If that happened, it would bode well for the 12 Black Democrat Senate incumbents and 20 percent of state House members who are Black.
On the congressional side, only two of North Carolina’s thirteen congressional members are Black, but at least they could easily win their majority-minority districts.
Under the new GOP congressional maps, First District Congressman G. K. Butter field recently announced he was stepping down when he realized his district was being made more Republican.
As If brutal tactics of voter suppression were not sufficiently autocratic, North Carolina - along with states such as Georgia snd Texas - is also redistricting its electoral maps to weaken the power of the Black electorate,” tweeted Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, President of Repairers of the Breach.
Congresswoman Alma Adams (D-12-NC), drove from Charlotte to Raleigh Monday just to file for reelection. She told reporters that despite the long drive, she was pleased that the “egregious” GOP maps were being reviewed, pointing out that out of 14 new congressional voting districts proposed, Republicans only drew three that Democrats had a good chance of winning.
Adding insult to injury, North Carolina is a purple state, not a red state where GOP voters outnumber Democratic ones.
On the Republican side, there was displeasure with that Democrat-led state appellate judicial panel stopping candidate filings.
“In less than three hours, a secret panel of three unidentified Court of Appeals judges was able to review nearly 1,000 pages challenging map of 184 distort, read the entire “record,” and block candidate filing in every country in the state,’ tweeted an outraged state Sen. Paul Newton, a District 36 Republican and chairman of the Senate Redistricting and Elections Committee.
Apparently someone at the NC Court of Appeals was listening, because later Monday night, the NC Board of Elections reported that candidate filings for U.S. House, state House and state Senate offices would resume Tuesday morning, December 7 at 8 a.m., after the full
15-member appellate court - ten of whom are Republican - vacated the original three-judge appellate panel’s order. The full court also indicated that it will review the new maps, though it didn’t say when.
A once outraged Sen. Paul Newton, was now gleeful.
“Common sense prevailed with the full NC Court of Appeals reversing this morning's decision,” he tweeted Monday night. “I am not surprised by the full-court’s decision. Our process was the most transparent in NC’s history. I applaud the court's appropriate judicial review.”
Now Democrats are concerned about a appellate review of redistricting maps where ten Republican judges outnumber Democratic judges 2-1.
A new poll released Tuesday by Progress NC Action, showed that “ a majority of North Carolina voters, including Republicans, support state courts ensuring election maps are fair and constitutional…,” with “72 percent saying that gerrymandering is a problem.”
Candidate filings continue into Dec. 17 from 8 a.m. until 12 noon.
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