Thu 25 Mar 2010
By Richard Fausset
Reporting from Atlanta-- Richard Jackson was walking past the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference's handsome $3-million
headquarters this month, just blocks from the grave of its first
president, Martin Luther King Jr.
Jackson, an aspiring rap producer, hadn't heard about the outbreak of
scandal and infighting rocking the storied civil rights group.
But the 32-year-old also confessed, a little sheepishly, that he had
trouble recalling their story at all: "Who are they, exactly?" he said.
Such is the plight of the modern-day SCLC.
Back in the 1950s and 1960s, the organization, under King's
leadership, was at the vanguard of the historic struggle -- part of a
coalition that organized the March on Washington, registered black
voters and through protests focused the world's attention on the
injustices of segregation in cities across the South.
In recent decades, however, the SCLC has largely been defined by
internal bickering and financial problems.
The latest feud, over thousands of dollars in allegedly missing
money, has split the group so seriously that there is disagreement
about who legitimately sits on the group's board. Each side has
evoked the King legacy -- if only to accuse the other of tarnishing it.
On one side are the SCLC general counsel and a board member, who have
accused the group's chairman, the Rev. Raleigh Trammell, and its
treasurer, Spiver Gordon, of embezzling more than $560,000 from the
group since 2006.
The board member, Art Rocker, declared recently that the SCLC "will
not allow pimps to pimp on the name of Dr. Martin Luther King."
Rocker's board membership, meanwhile, was revoked in January by
Wilburt Shanklin, the SCLC compliance chairman -- although Rocker and
his board allies call the move invalid.
Earlier this year, Rocker, along with SCLC general counsel Dexter M.
Wimbish, took the bookkeeping concerns to the district attorney in
Fulton County, Ga., where the national office is located.
Fulton officials and the Justice Department have acknowledged they
have launched investigations. On Feb. 11, the FBI raided Trammell's
Dayton, Ohio, home and the SCLC's offices there, which are headed by
Trammell, said Fred Alverson, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office there.
Trammell could not be reached for comment, but Gordon -- a
70-year-old SCLC veteran who survived some of the ugliest
anti-integration violence of the 1960s -- called the allegations
"absolutely false" and part of a power grab.
With chapters and affiliates nationwide, the nonprofit organization
aims to battle what King called the triple evils of racism, poverty
and violence, but the group has struggled to make the kind of
forceful impact on the culture that brought it worldwide fame in the '60s.
The current controversy has marred what was billed as a time of
renewal for the 52-year-old group.
In October, it elected as president King's daughter, Bernice A. King,
a 46-year-old motivational speaker and minister who is expected to
reach out to a younger generation. But since the feud erupted, King
has not spoken publicly about the discord.
The lack of visible leadership is worrisome to members like the Rev.
Eric P. Lee, president of the SCLC of Greater Los Angeles and
California. "She needs to come in there and say, 'This is what we
need to do to restore SCLC's integrity,' " he said. "Unless that
happens, this could be potentially devastating to SCLC."
The allegations against the group's chairman and treasurer were laid
out in a Jan. 29 letter from Wimbish to Paul Howard, Fulton County
district attorney.
Wimbish alleged that an internal investigation had found that
Trammell and Gordon submitted "apparently false" reimbursement claims
connected to a prison ministry, drew on a board travel account for
personal use, and, among other things, "circumvented the internal
controls of the finance committee for personal gain and benefit."
Gordon, who has been with the SCLC since 1963, said those allegations
were being lodged by newcomers who didn't understand how the
organization worked. "These people are out running around saying
things without facts," he said.
The SCLC has been tossed by internal squabbles for years. Bernice
King's brother, Martin Luther King III, served a rocky stint as
president from 1998 to 2003. It was punctuated by a weeklong
suspension by the board in 2001 over concerns that his leadership was
too hands-off.
He was succeeded by civil rights veteran Fred Shuttlesworth, who
bitterly resigned after a few months -- and charged that Trammell was
spending SCLC funds without board approval.
Last November, Rocker joined the SCLC board, a few months after being
chosen to head the Florida state chapter and the office in Pensacola,
where he hoped to use the SCLC name to work on HIV and education issues.
He has expressed concern not only over the money that is allegedly
missing, but also with Trammell's and Gordon's pasts. Both men,
high-profile leaders in their communities, have criminal records.
Trammell was found guilty of larceny and grand theft in September
1978 as part of a welfare fraud scheme, and served a year in state
prison, according to court documents and officials in Montgomery
County, Ohio. Gordon served time in Alabama after convictions for
voter fraud and sexual misconduct with a teenage girl.
In October 2009, a number of SCLC board members held a phone
conference in which they voted to remove Trammell and Gordon from
office. But an Atlanta judge reinstated the men after their
supporters, in a lawsuit, argued that the meeting violated the
group's constitution and bylaws.
On March 6, 23 of 44 board members issued a resolution calling on
Trammell and Gordon to resign.
"Our position is that they're innocent until proven guilty," said
board member Bernard Lafayette, one of the signers. "In the meantime,
our organization is suffering . . . and we don't need that."
Back outside the SCLC headquarters, Jackson, the hip-hop producer,
eventually remembered the group.
"Oh yeah," he said. "It's Martin Luther King and them."
Jackson, who is black, wished the SCLC the best. The nation, he said,
still needs such groups. "I feel that just because we have a black
president, that doesn't make everything all right," he said.
--
richard.fausset@ latimes.com
.
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