HOW THE STORY OF
THE NC NAACP “LOSING”
IT’S TAX-EXEMPT STATUS
WAS ALWAYS FALSE
by Cash Michaels
A news analysis
Last Friday, Sept. 2, NC NAACP Pres. Deborah Dicks Maxwell emailed an important notice from the national NAACP General Counsel to all North Carolina units (chapters and conferences) concerning the alleged “auto-revocation” of the state conference’s tax-exempt status.
In essence, the Sept. 1st letter from General Counsel Janette McCarthy Wallace, noted that “…several NAACP units had received letters from the Internal Revenue Service indicating that their tax-exempt status has been revoked.”
It was later reported in the general press Friday that "hundreds" of NAACP branches and state conferences across the country had lost their federal tax exemption status.
The missive from Wallace declared about the revocation, “This is an error because individual NAACP units (chapters, state conferences, etc.) are not required to file Form 990s of their own. As the central organization, the NAACP is required to file a group return every year, reflecting the revenues and expenses of all of our Units and State Conferences on an aggregate basis.”
The Sept. 1st NAACP letter continues, “We collect information from all of our Units and State Conferences via an Annual Financial Report. Our group ruling was just affirmed by the IRS in September 2021, one year ago.Thus, it is our belief that the revocations were done in error.”
General Counsel Wallace goes on to assure that the national NAACP tax counsel is gathering all of the pertinent documentation “…to demonstrate that the IRS has once again erroneously revoked the exempt status of NAACP Units,” and will keep all unit leaders informed.
For those general press outlets across the country that originally ran with the previous headline, “NC NAACP Has Tax-Exempt Status Revoked,” all based on a careless August 30th story in the Raleigh News and Observer/Charlotte Observer newspapers titled, “ NC NAACP Loses Tax-Exempt Status; Audit Assessing Misspending Allegations,” that strongly implied that because of unproven allegations of fiscal malfeasance on the part of past NC NAACP presidents Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman (now deceased) and Rev. Dr. William Barber, along with past inner power struggles within the state civil rights organization, all apparently leading to the NC NAACP being informed last May that it’s federal tax-exempt status had been revoked, the Sept. 1st NAACP General Counsel letter definitely shows that none of those false allegations had anything to do with the facts on the ground.
And yet, the N&O/C&O story alleged, based on “strictly confidential” NC NAACP treasurer information, that “three years of tax forms” had not been filed by past NC NAACP leadership, thus causing the problem.
As sources within the NC NAACP had shared with the Black Press just prior to the Sept. 1st letter’s release, on March 9, 2020, then national NAACP General Counsel Bradford M. Berry sent a letter out to presidents and secretaries of all “units” of the national NAACP, noting that the national office and the Internal Revenue Service had a ‘longstanding agreement” that the national’s “consolidated federal tax return includes the financial information for all compliant units that timely submit their financial reports to [national] as required by the NAACP Bylaws for Units.”
The letter continued, “This arrangement relieves units of the substantial burden of filing federal tax returns, and provides the National Office and the Internal Revenue Service with an easy way to determine which units have met their tax filing obligations. For this reason, chartered NAACP units must be included in the group tax return filed annually by the National Office.”
Berry went on that in 2019, the NAACP Board of Directors “restructured the organization,” thus creating a “newly-created entity (which took over the NAACP name) and “became the “parent” for units and thus the lead entity for the Association’s group tax return.”
Berry then makes clear that “each and every NAACP unit” must submit “…it’s written consent to be included in the new tax-filing group, and in the new group’s tax return.”
All NAACP units were then compelled to complete and return a consent form to be included in the new parent association’s group tax return, and they had to do it by March 30, 2020, according to the letter.
“…[I]n order to maintain …status as a chartered, tax-exempt NAACP unit….,” returning that consent form was imperative.
As the Black Press has reported previously, 2019 is the year Pres./CEO Derrick Johnson led the national NAACP Board to create “NAACP Empowerment Programs, Inc.,” making it a 501(c)3 tax exempt entity.
Donations to it are tax deductible.
The old NAACP is thus a 501(c)4 social welfare organization. It’s tax exempt (doesn’t pay federal taxes), but donations to it are not tax deductible.
NAACP units are also 501(c) 4 social welfare organizations.
That March 2020 letter from then NAACP General Counsel Berry made clear that NAACP units, were not required to pay taxes individually, because, by agreement with the IRS, they would be included in a group tax return with the “parent” association.
When Pres./CEO Johnson incorporated the NAACP Empowerment Programs, Inc.in 2019, that became the new “parent” for NAACP units, according to Berry’s 2020 letter.
Question - all of the NC NAACP chapters received the March 2020 letter, and none of them have paid federal income taxes since. Are they under the impression that they are still under the 501(c)3 NAACP, even though they are 501(c)4 groups, and does that have anything to do with the current tax - exempt status confusion?
Stay tuned.
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JUSTINE JONES
BLACK FORMER KENLY MANAGER
CHIDES TOWN COUNCIL FOR SAYING
“SHE DIDN’T FIT IN”
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
The era of Justine Jones in the small Johnston County town of Kenly may be over, but it’s not something folks there, or across the country, will soon forget.
Jones, the embattled Black female former town manager, gave an emotional “goodbye” to her supporters during a farewell “Justice for Justine” rally held at a local black church last Friday evening.
Friday was her last day on the job after the Kenly Town Council voted 3-2 (three whites, two Blacks) earlier in the week to terminate Jones' contract after only three months and a confidential investigation because, in the words of Kenly Mayor "Tooie" Hales, “She just wasn’t a good fit.”
Clearly, to the white people in Kenly, Mayor Hales words meant the well-educated, highly-skilled professional black woman didn’t know how to “go along to get along”, especially after weeks earlier, the entire six-man, all-white Kenly Police Dept. and two town administrators quit, accusing Jones of creating a “hostile work environment,” resulting in a firestorm of controversy, and national headlines.
At least one white business owner told the media that the white officers were “just like family” and that Jones apparently “didn’t like the police.”
"I knew when these officers got together and collaborated about how they were going to resign from their position and they stated hostile workplace, I knew it was bogus because I knew I didn't create a hostile work place," Jones said Friday.
To Kenly’s Black residents, however, Mayor Hales’ words meant a qualified Black woman was being punished for being accomplished, and refusing to lower her standards just to keep her job.
Jones defiantly said as much to her supporters Friday night.
"A good fit for who?" Jones asked the crowd rhetorically. "A good fit for people who want to control and dominate and dictate and make demands of, but I'm not part of that network. [I] don't want to be part of it."
The investigation found no evidence of a hostile work environment, and the white town attorney insisted that Jones’ termination was not based on anything negative from that two-week probe, nor on her race.
The town simply just wanted to “move on.”
But Jones’ supporters made clear that as far as they were concerned, race had everything to do with her firing.
"You see, Black folks have been hearing we weren't a good fit all our lives," Hoke County Commissioner Allen Thomas told the audience.
"People dragged my name, my reputation and my character through the mud," the former town manager said. "While I stood strong, I continued doing the work I came here to do, and for countless people, it wasn't enough."
It was clear from her remarks and demeanor that Justine Jones is a strong, convicted woman. And even though the entire ordeal was visibly painfully for her, she vowed to carry on somewhere else where her skills and talents would be better appreciated.
"This brings tears to my eyes not because I'm sad," Jones said. "What happened wasn't right. "It shouldn't have happened, but what I am heartened by the most is everybody here, and the people who aren't here who said, 'Thank you for doing what you did. Thank you for standing when a lot of people wouldn't have.'"
Jones continued, "Make sure no other town manager, especially one who looks like me, is treated this way again.[I] know that the door that closed here will allow another one to open. A bigger, better place where I can make an impact.
Justine Jones has not indicated whether she’ll file suit or not against the Kenly Town Council. She has sued at least one previous municipal employer in 2015, alleging hostile work treatment. Jones later voluntarily dismissed that lawsuit.
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[THE FOLLOWING STORY WAS REQUESTED BY THE URBAN NEWS, BUT I SEE NO REASON WHY OTHER PUBLICATIONS CAN'T RUN IT IF YOU WISH. I TRIED TO INCORPORATE A BLACK AND NORTH CAROLINA PERSPECTIVE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. PLEASE NOTE THAT EACH OF YOUR MARKETS ARE EITHER IN OR NEAR A SANCTUARY DESTINATION COUNTY]
WASHINGTON D.C. MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER
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TEXAS GOV. ABBOTT BUSES
ILLEGAL MIGRANTS TO THREE
BLACK-RUN CITIES
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Since last April, conservative Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered approximately 10,000 illegal immigrants who came across the border to his state, bused to the “sanctuary” cities of New York, Washington, D.C. and Chicago.
All three cities have Black Democrat mayors.
The mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, has called Gov. Abbott’s action “inhumane” and “horrific.”
The mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser, suggested that immigrants were being “tricked” into getting onto buses in Texas to be shipped to Democrat-run cities.
And the mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, continues to blast Gov. Abbott as “racist and xenophobic” while more buses from Texas roll into her city.
Still, Mayor Lightfoot says Chicago “welcomes” the immigrants, and maintained that they will all receive proper care from city, state and county, as well as local nonprofit agencies setup to meet their needs.
The federal government is expected to assist as well.
“The governor’s actions are not just inhumane; they are unpatriotic,” Lightfoot said. “This cannot be who we are as Americans. We have to stand for a different and better set of principles. If we are going to be a leader in the world, on an international stage and even here at home, we must reject these policies and practices.”
Mayor Lightfoot also doubted Gov. Abbott’s professed faith in Christianity.
Washington. D.C. Mayor Bowser told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that what Gov. Abbott was doing was filling up the homeless shelters in the nation’s Capital with illegal immigrants by “tricking them.”
“We have for sure called on the federal government to work across state lines to prevent people from really being tricked into getting on buses. We think they’re largely asylum seekers who are going to final destinations that are not Washington, D.C.. I worked with the White House to make sure that FEMA provided a grant to a local organization that is providing services to folks. I fear that they’re being tricked into nationwide bus trips when their final destinations are places all over the United States of America," Bowser maintained.
When a second bus of about 40 immigrants arrived at New York city’s port authority, Mayor Eric Adams held a press conference.
"This is horrific when you think about what the governor is doing," Adams said, noting that many of those on the bus didn’t even know they were being transported to New York.
"We're finding that some of the families are on the bus that wanted to go to other locations, and they were not allowed to do so," Mayor Adams said. "They were forced on the bus with the understanding that they were going to other locations that they wanted to go to, and when they tried to explain, they were not allowed to do so."
"They’re not letting us know when the buses are leaving. They’re not letting us know what are the needs of the people on the bus," Adams said, later adding on Twitter that Abbott was manufacturing “ a crisis”. "They are not giving us any information, so we’re unable to really provide the service to people en route."
Abbott says he sees nothing wrong with what he’s doing. He plans to bus more illegal immigrants across the country just to make the point that the Biden Administration isn’t doing enough to close the U.S. Mexico border, and maintains he’s tired of Texas border towns bearing the brunt of the massive influx of refugees from countries like Mexico and Venezuela.
“The busing mission provides much-needed relief to our overwhelmed border communities,” the Texas governor says.
Thus far, Gov. Abbott has spent over $12 million to bus unwanted migrants out of his state, according to the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
Democrat critics like Texas gubernatorial opponent Beto O’Rourke, Lightfoot, Adams and Bowser call what Gov. Abbott is doing a partisan political “stunt” whose only goal is to stick it to the Biden Administration.
But Abbott’s defenders say while what he’s doing is reprehensible, because the innocent human lives of men, women and children are at stake, the federal government put him in that position by failing to properly manage hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants who come across the U.S. - Mexico border each year.
Those migrants are being bused out of Texas free-of-charge only after they give their written permission, published reports say.
In North Carolina, Buncombe, Durham, Forsyth, Mecklenburg, Orange and Wake. counties , as of 2021, are considered “sanctuary “ destinations. Texas, or Arizona could easily send buses of illegal immigrants to any of these counties in our state.
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