THE CASH STUFF FOR THURSDAY, JULY 24TH, 2025

                                                     REV, DR. CARDES H. BROWN JR.

                                                       ATTY. PHILLIP E. THOMPSON

EXCLUSIVE

VIRGINIA ATTORNEY SAYS

HE’S FILING LAWSUIT

AGAINST NAACP IN AUGUST

ON BEHALF OF UNJUSTLY

SUSPENDED MEMBERS

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

A Virginia-based attorney says he plans to file a lawsuit against the national NAACP in August on behalf of unjustly suspended members, many of whom are here in North Carolina.

Atty Phillip E. Thompson, a former president of the Loudoun County Virginia NAACP Chapter and former member of the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP Executive Committee, whose primary areas of practice include civil rights litigation, told this reporter exclusively last week that he is not seeking to hurt the civil rights organization in any way, but does feel it important to represent the many dedicated NAACP members and officers across the nation who, in recent years, were unduly suspended without due process and in contradiction to established NAACP bylaws and articles of governance.

“The NAACP should treat its volunteer members a little bit better,” Thompson said in a phone interview last week.

Atty Thompson made clear that his efforts are not connected with any political party or organization.

Thompson’s story is very similar to the personal stories told by other former NAACP officials and members who have shared how they proudly advocated in their communities for many years, until, for some reason, they ran afoul of the national NAACP office, later having to answer to Gloria Sweetlove, Tennessee State Conference president, who was sent in to take control of the Virginia State Conference.

That same scenario played out here in North Carolina a few years ago when Sweetlove was assigned by the NAACP Board of Trustees to oversee the North Carolina State Conference after unfounded allegations of financial impropriety.

Thompson said when Sweetlove took over the Virginia conference, he “punched out," but noticed that friends of his and fellow members then started to be unjustly suspended, and couldn’t understand why.

What was worse, these Virginia NAACP members weren’t be provided due process hearings, as is their right according to the NAACP Constitution and  Bylaws, Article X, as adopted in March 2019.:

When an individual becomes a member of the NAACP, that individual pledges to abide by the rules and policies of the Association and the decisions of the Board of Directors. [Upon satisfactory evidence]…that an officer or member…is guilty of conduct not in accord with the principles, aims and purposes of [the NAACP] as set forth in its Constitution [the Board] may order suspension, expulsion other disciplinary action against the officer or member, after a full hearing  if requested by the respondent in accord with the provisions of this constitution.

Thompson says he and a colleague, Jesse Frierson, weren’t sure what to do until enough disaffected NAACP members, in addition to an episode of journalist Roland Martin’s “Unfiltered” online program focusing on NAACP suspensions in Tampa, FLA., convinced them that something had to be done.

That’s when the 21st Century Accountability Project was born.

“We are reaching out to individuals whose NAACP memberships have been suspended or revoked without clear explanation or due process under Article X of the NAACP Constitution and Bylaws. This questionnaire is part of the work now being conducted by the 21st Century Accountability Project,” Atty Thompson wrote in a June 10th email sent to affected NAACP members across the country, including here in North Carolina.

“…[W]e are now exploring legal action against the National NAACP and its top leadership for their failure to follow the organization’s own governing rules, and for civil violations including slander, libel, and tortious interference.”

“This project is both a legal and moral effort to restore fairness, transparency, and trust within one of the nation’s most historically significant civil rights institutions.”

Attached to the email from Atty. Thompson, as stated, was a questionnaire and confidentiality agreement, used to both collect the complaints of unjustly suspended NAACP members, and also protect their identities.

The email from Atty Thompson also stated that, “The 21st Century Accountability Project was founded by civil rights attorneys and veteran civil rights advocates, working alongside longtime NAACP members, community organizers, and concerned individuals from across the country.”

“I’m trying to get enough plaintiffs from different parts of the country that will give us a global look at this problem,” Atty Thompson said. "I get calls all the time from all over the country everyday. Colorado, California, Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, here in Virginia. People who have been aggrieved by the NAACP without being given proper ability to address their concerns.”

“Some of these people have been around around forever, and you’re going to toss these people out?,” Thompson asked rhetorically. “They don’t have the ability to fight this [NAACP] machine.”

Thompson says he does not consider himself an NAACP member now not only because of all of the conflicts he had with the national office previously, but because he hasn’t paid dues in some time. He says he’s never gotten a suspension letter.

According to the NAACP Constitution, there’s also the fact that he’s involved in potential litigation against the civil rights organization that’s enough to get his membership tossed in and of itself.

Thompson’s project also has a website at https:/21stcenturyaccountabilityproject.org

which touts “Holding Civil Rights Leaders and Organizations Accountable. We work to ensure that national Civil Rights Organizations (NCRO) follow their Constitutions and Bylaws and provide due process to their members.”

The project has a  “donate” and a “Learn More” button. Scroll down, and a closeup picture of the Washington, D.C. monument honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. appears.

Atty Thompson, who is licensed to practiced law in Maryland, adds he’s trying to get his lawsuit against the NAACP, whose national headquarters is in Baltimore, filed sometime in August.

A number of lawsuits have been filed against the national NAACP in recent years in North Carolina for various reasons. 

In 2023, a $15 million sexual harassment lawsuit from a former female member of the NC NAACP was settled involving former state officer Rev. Curtis E. Gatewood, who maintained his innocence.

In 2022, former NC NAACP Pres. Rev. Dr. T. Anthony Spearman filed a defamation suit against the NAACP claiming civil conspiracy against Pres./CEO Derrick Johnson, National NAACP Board Chairman Leon Russell, NC NAACP Pres. Deborah Dicks Maxwell, and several other state NAACP officers and members.

However, when Rev. Spearman died under suspicious circumstances in 2022, his litigation died with him.

Given the number of suspended NAACP members who've received letters from the national office not only claiming that they were being punished, but had hearings that in fact never happened with them being present, several have been contacted for this story in the past week to get their impressions of Atty Thompson’s efforts, and to see if they had any interest in speaking with him.

One of the most prominent North Carolina suspended members is Rev. Dr. Cardes H. Brown, Jr., longtime pastor of New Light Missionary Baptist Church in Greensboro, and president and founder of the Justice Coalition USA, a national 501(c)3 group of disaffected NAACP members born out of the 2021 NC NAACP election controversy surrounding then state Pres. T. Anthony Spearman and current Pres. Deborah Dicks Maxwell.

Pastor Brown was previously chair of the Religious Affairs Committee for the state conference, as well as a Greensboro branch president for four terms, and a Life member. He was also honored with the distinguished Benjamin Hooks Keeper of the Flame Award.

Pastor Brown was suspended by the National NAACP office in an October 26, 2022 letter. In a Nov. 4, 2022 written response, Pastor Brown wrote that NAACP Pres./CEO Derrick Johnson, in the October 2022 missive suspending him, demanded that Rev. Brown,

“immediately cease and desist making false, disparaging and defamatory statements against the National NAACP, the NAACP national leadership, the NAACP national staff, the North Carolina State Conference NAACP, and all the North Carolina State Conference NAACP leadership.” The letter further demanded that I immediately “remove all disparaging and the defamatory statements, videos, recordings and documents from the Justice Coalition USA website, and any and all other platforms.” Your letter finally demanded that I “remove internal NAACP correspondence from the Justice Coalition USA website.” Is it your understanding that you have the right and/or authority to impose a demand that is in violation or contradiction to my first amendment rights or the rights of others. Your allegations that I have done something to obstruct, harm or hinder, (inimical) the work of the NAACP, I vehemently challenge.”

In that Nov. 4, 2022 response from Pastor Brown, he formally requested a hearing, as was his membership right, but it never happened.

When asked what he thought of Atty Phillip E. Thompson’s potential lawsuit against the NAACP on behalf of unjustly suspended members like himself, Pastor Brown said he was interested in contacting Thompson to hear more.

“I will definitely try to get in touch with atty. Thompson,” Pastor Brown said during a phone interview Saturday.

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NC BLACK YOUTH SUICIDE

PREVENTION ACTION PLAN

LAUNCHED BY NCDHHS

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

According to the North Carolina Dept. of Health and Human Services, there has been a “sharp increase” in suicide rates among Black youth across the state, so a unique targeted suicide prevention effort has been launched.

The NC Black Youth Suicide Prevention Action Plan, coinciding with the Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, is an “…effort [that] sheds light on communities which have been marginalized, where mental health challenges persist, and outlines initiatives to be implemented over the next five years to reduce injury and save the lives of Black youth and young adults.”

According to 2023 data, “Black populations were over represented in emergency department visits for suicidal thoughts or self-injury, particularly among the 10-24 age group.” 

Data also shows that black youth are over-represented in suicides and suicides attempts, but underrepresented in calls to the 988 suicide hotline, especially in urban counties. More than half of black youth and young adults who died from 2013 - 22 did so by firearms.

"A community-led, ground-up approach is essential to address the increase in suicide rates among Black youth and young adults," says Kelly Crosbie, NCDHHS Director of the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Use Services. "NCDHHS wants to ensure everyone has the support they need before, during, and after a personal crisis, especially groups that are disproportionately affected."

An effective action plan to address this particular problem among Black youth in North Carolina just take into account traditional barriers to accessing medical and mental health services, including socio-economic, cultural communications with health providers, and even a lack of access to Black and other providers of color.

The action plan, as developed by NCDHHS in collaboration with the Nc Dept. of Instruction, UNC Suicide Prevention Institute, and other community-based organizations, seeks to achieve six objectives:

1. Establish the Community of Practice and Education (COPE) initiative to lead, develop and champion suicide prevention efforts at the community level, targeting Black youth and young adults in North Carolina.

1. 2. Strengthen supportive mental health services for Black youth, incorporating both peer support specialists and peer-to-peer support systems.
2.   3. Enhance awareness and training for suicide prevention, specifically for Black youth.
3.   4. Reduce access to lethal means among Black youth.
4.   5. Strengthen protective factors for Black youth to support mental well-being.
5.   6.  Establish a comprehensive understanding of the suicide prevention needs of Black youth through data analysis and reporting to inform targeted interventions and increase awareness.

         According to NCDHHS, the agency will “…support a statewide event on Sept. 20 in Rocky Mount: the Stronger Together Conference. This unique conference is a free one-day, interactive experience centered on cultural connection, creative expression and community care. The event will bring together youth, young adults and advocates for a day of learning, healing and community building. Registration is open and available on the website. NCDHHS will provide more details about the event in the coming weeks. 

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THE CASH COMMENTARY FOR JULY 17, 2025

                                              

                                                                    CASH MICHAELS

                           TO ALL OF MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF

                                   THE CAUCASIAN PERSUASION 

                                          by Cash Michaels

                

        To all of my brothers and sisters of the Caucasian persuasion, you really have no idea what it feels like to live in a country where the elected president sees you, and citizens who look like you, as invaders and interlopers. 

A president who regularly issues executive orders to diminish your history, citizenship and opportunities, has government attorneys - paid with your tax dollars - working 24/7 to find ways to further legally cripple your right to have a voice. Sic federal law enforcement after you if you exercise your right to openly protest.

Inspire a nationwide MAGA movement with a lynch mob mentality to threaten you. And cajole the major political party in power to crush the social safety net that has undergirded the poor, weak and elderly among you.

Being the target of such inhumanity in your own country because of the color of your skin is an experience hopefully you will never have to go through, or wish on anybody else, and yet, it is happening everyday unabated.

Case in point - there are morons, like the Republican legislature and attorney general of the great state of Idaho, who are saying that it is against the law for anybody in a public school in that state to display posters welcoming people of different colors and ethnic backgrounds, because they’re expressing a “political point of view.”

Lord save us! It’s damn ignorance like this that makes me want to invent new cuss words!

At issue was a poster a white Idaho teacher reportedly displayed in her middle school classroom back in February showing the illustrated waving hands of different races of children with the words, “Everyone is welcome here.”

Now be honest. How many times, back in the day when your child was just a cute and innocent little spark of life on two legs with a giggle, did you go to his or her classroom, see similar posters hanging prominently and lovingly on the walls, over the blackboard, hell, even on the classroom door, letting you know not only that this was a place for learning, but a safe sanctuary for all children to come and share, play, be together and learn not only with each other, but from one another?

Posters like that one assured you that the teacher was committed to promoting the best kind of learning environment for ALL children possible.

And now, here’s comes this clown from white potato country, so anxious to impress his anti-woke boss in Washington, D.C. that he’s fighting the good fight, so he’s actually criminalizing a poster that promotes diversity and harmony among children.

According to the Idaho AG’s office:

“These signs are part of an ideological/social movement which started in Twin Cities, Minnesota following the 2016 election of Donald Trump. Since that time, the signs have been used by the Democratic party as a political statement. The Idaho Democratic Party even sells these signs as part of its fundraising efforts.” 

Never mind that these so-called “facts” here are way, way off , and deliberately so! But that’s not the point.

From The Idaho Statesman newspaper:

“The right-wing crusade against anything they think has a whiff of  “wokeness” has reached ridiculous levels…”

Ya think?

The school teacher who originally put the “illegal” poster up, took it down when first ordered, then thought about it, and put it back up in her classroom. The school district then jumped on her bones about it, saying the message on the poster was a problem because it “is not something that everybody believes.”

The Idaho Statesman obtained school district emails that documented what officials found objectionable on the “Everyone is welcome here” poster as the different colored hands, ranging from beige to dark brown, all with hearts in their palms, reaching out together.

Really? Have we become that sick as a nation to criminalize such a thing?

Are the MAGA white supremacists out in Idaho that bold where they feel they can pull such a stunt?

Is this what our country has come to?

        If this madness is allowed to continue, we might as well start dismantling the Statue of Liberty. Why waste the space when America no longer believes in Lady Liberty's inspired inscription, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”   

        If that's not a national "Everyone is welcome here" sign, I don't know what is.  

        We're a nation of immigrants, whose ancestors came here from everywhere. 

         For the record, that white teacher has resigned from the offending middle school (good for her), and will start work August 4th at a different junior high school in a different Idaho school district where, apparently, folks don’t feel so threatened by illustrations of GOD’s human family.

Again, good for her, and blessed people like her. It’s when we stand strong for what is right in this nation, either individually or collectively, that we get something positive done.

But the nonsense doesn’t stop in Idaho by any means, and the sickness isn’t all government-inspired.

The AP reported this week that the Sesame Workshop, producers of television’s beloved and legendary Sesame Street children’s show, is trying to regain control of its "Elmo X (formerly Twitter) account" after heartless hackers broke in and posted “a string of racist and antisemitic messages” there.

Is this country serving up so much deep dish hatred and anti-“wokeness” right now that even everybody’s favorite imaginary pal, the friendliest little red children’s puppet in the world, becomes a target? 

I mean, this is Elmo, for goodness sakes!

And then, of course, there’s always the destructive nonsense direct from Washington, D.C..

We have the National Institutes of Health, apparently on executive order from the Trump Administration, canceling biomedical research grants just because they involve DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion). So a black researcher at Duke trying to discover the cure for sickle cell anemia, a painful blood disorder that primarily affects black people, is left high and dry with no funding now right in the middle of her research.  

Am I to assume that if the disease afflicted only white people, and a cure was being researched only by white people, that NIH wouldn’t have touched a dime in grant money?

But according to The NY Times, Trump’s executive order banning federally funded diversity, equity and inclusion programs, “…accused the programs of using race- and sex-based preferences that it said were “dangerous, demeaning and immoral” and “deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement.”

The Times continued, “But Mr. Trump’s push to end D.E.I. has been a blunt instrument, eliminating highly competitive grant programs that defined diversity well beyond race and gender. Those who have lost grants include not only Black and Latino scientists, but also many …who are white and from rural areas, which are solidly Trump country. The administration has denounced universities as hotbeds of liberal elitism, inhospitable to viewpoint diversity. The canceled diversity grant programs were intended to make science less elite, by developing a pipeline from poorer areas of the country that tend to be more conservative.”

“The sweeping cuts will make it even harder for the United States to develop the next generation of scientific talent.”

This crap is both diabolical AND racist!

And then, also according to The NY Times, we have this tech billionaire and friend of Trump’s, Marc Andreessen, who apparently is on the warpath against universities that promote DEI, promising that they will “pay a price.”

Andreessen apparently has an itch up his craw against Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, alleging that they “…discriminate against supporters of President Donald Trump.”

The Times quotes Andreessen from messages he reportedly sent to a group chat with White House officials as stating, “My people are furious.” 

Gee, what “my people” are these, Marc?

More from Mr. Andreessen:

“The combination of DEI and immigration is politically lethal,” Andreessen wrote. “When these two forms of discrimination combine, as they have for the last 60 years and on hyperdrive for the last decade, they systematically cut most of the children of the Trump voter base out of any realistic prospect of access to higher education and corporate America.”

Gee, it’s hard NOT to see the“whites only” sign as a middle moniker in Marc Andreessen’s name after those words of clear intolerance and hate.

As has been pointed out previously, it’s a real hoot that Trump justifies his war on DEI as a battle against attempts to discredit and “…undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement,” when he’s hiring spectacularly under-qualified clowns to run our government like Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and “Ice Barbie” Kristi Noem to serve in his White House Cabinet.

        "This attack on diversity, equity and inclusion is really an attempt to suppress, erase, and make some people invisible, while elevating others,"says Rep. Marilyn Strickland, Democrat from Washington state.

        Smarter words never spoken!

And finally we get to the kicker - Trump’s attempt to have the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution junked like cheap scrap metal.

The 14th Amendment, ratified in July 1868, originally granted U.S. citizenship to African-Americans after years of chattel slavery, and served as the basis for the legal framework of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

It also has served to clarify that the children of undocumented immigrants born on these shores are, in fact, American citizens, the moment they enter our world. Trump doesn’t like that, and wants it stopped.

Again, if we were talking about undocumented immigrants from lily-white Sweden or Germany or Norway, I don’t think King TACO would find reason to stay up late at night about this. But since he has such high concern about dark and brown people from other places coming here “…eating the cats, eating the dogs…” and having babies, and now has his U.S. Supreme Court currently figuring out the legal nuts and bolts of a right-wing ruling that will justify what he wants done, he’s on the verge of hitting a major MAGA white supremacist home run.

Look, according to the researchers, the United States population will soon be majority of color in less than a few decades, which means in many places, the power dynamic will shift from white to black, brown or yellow.

That doesn’t mean America ceases to be America.

It probably would mean more interracial marriages. Hell, Madison Avenue is already trying to prep us for that with all of those television commercials showing salt-and-pepper couples living harmoniously together raising families of mixed children.

If the greedy advertising agencies see a dollar in diversity, then you know, like it or not, it’s truly part of the American human fabric. Can’t stop human beings from loving who they choose, even though there are those who sure would like to once more.

So, again, to all of my Caucasian brothers and sisters, give all of the above some thought. We all have to live on this rock together, and hopefully, with a little effort, we can do so in peace, justice and harmony and as GOD intended.

Our children, who I am convinced are born without an ounce of hatred in their hearts until we imbue them with it, are the best examples to follow when they play together, laugh together, and hold hands together, as Almighty GOD created them to do..

Who are we, just because we’re now grown, to screwup that ultimate natural design?

That clown in the White House cares nothing about GOD’s natural design, because he can’t claim credit for it. And that’s why he’s working so hard to destroy it.

DON’T LET HIM!!!

Let’s use our heads, and our hearts, to realize that we were all created in different hues and from different backgrounds for a reason - to grow in our understanding of He who created us, and of each other!

That’s the hard part, isn’t it? Making the effort to truly understand one another.

The day we all can reach that seemingly impossible goal, is the day we can hang our banner across this nation - EVERYONE IS WELCOME HERE!

In the face of undeniably divisive evil ruling our land, THAT should be the goal of every citizen who truly believes in the promise of America, and the beauty of GOD.

Amen!

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