National NAACP Office Refutes NC Justice Coalition Complaint
Rev. Brown insists that the entire NC NAACP election process was mishandled last October.
By Cash Michaels – Exclusive to the Urban News
The national office of the NAACP has responded to the NC Justice Coalition of concerned NC NAACP members who filed a complaint about the controversial October 23, 2021 executive officers election.
The press statement effectively says the election controversy is over.
Advised of that statement, which he says was never sent to him or any of the Coalition members, Rev. Dr. Cardes H. Brown, Jr., servant leader of the Coalition, dismissed it, and vowed to press the case to have the elections held again.
The December 17, 2021 press statement from the national NAACP office states that the NC NAACP State conference was placed under “administership in 2020 [when] the regularly scheduled election was postponed resulting in then [NC NAACP] Pres. T. Anthony Spearman serving two additional years beyond his term.”
The NAACP statement continued, “In July 2021, the NAACP National Office designated an Administrator to the NAACP North Carolina State Conference to address recurring matters and ensure that the state conference’s bi-annual election followed rigorous NAACP bylaws.”
The national NAACP statement then states that “all-State Conference elections, including the North Carolina State Conference, were conducted using the Election buddy technology system.”
In effect, the national office is saying Election Buddy was used for the October 23, 2021 election.
After describing how Election Buddy works, the statement says NC NAACP incumbent Rev. Dr. Spearman “…was defeated by a margin of two to one in the most recent election.”
The NAACP statement then adds that “No grievance filed warranted a re-administration of the election, and the Committee voted unanimously to dismiss the complaint. The duly elected officers of the NC State Conference have been installed by the Chairman of the Board…” identifying the new NC NAACP president as Deborah Dicks-Maxwell, among other newly election officers.
Then the national NAACP office makes a direct rhetorical assault on Rev. Dr. Brown’s group.
“There is no Unit of the Association that is identified or authorized to act as ‘North Carolina Justice Coalition.’ That group has no standing or affiliation with the NAACP.”
Rev. Dr. Cardes Brown Jr., Coalition servant-leader and pastor of new Light Missionary Baptist Church, dismissed the Dec. 17, 2021 NAACP press statement as “flawed” and mistake-ridden, and that before it was shared with him Monday night, he had not seen or heard of it before then.
Rev. Brown made the point that all NAACP elections are held in odd-numbered years, so contrary to the statement, the “regularly scheduled” NC NAACP executive office election was postponed in 2019, not 2020.
Brown recalls NAACP Pres./CEO Derrick Johnson going to the NC NAACP Convention that year and calling off the election because of the Rev. Curtis Gatewood’s alleged sexual harassment allegations.
Gloria Sweet-Love, the president of the Tennessee NAACP conference, was also designated administrator of the NC NAACP then.
Rev. Brown insists that the entire NC NAACP election process was mishandled last October, and not held according to established NAACP Constitution and Bylaws. He disagreed that an Election Buddy system was used, saying that qualified voting members were left out because two elections were held on Oct. 23, with the results of the first election inexplicably thrown out.
Rev. Brown also noted that the new NC NAACP executive officers were virtually installed just a few weeks ago in January, not in December or before, as suggested in the press statement. And he also had difficulty with the statement, “no grievance filed warranted a re-administration of the election.”
According to the NAACP Constitution and Bylaws, an Article 10 complaint, beyond consideration by “the Committee,” must also be considered by the NAACP Board of Directors, which hasn’t happened yet.
Rev. Dr. Brown reiterated that the Coalition’s problems are not with the national NAACP, which they all still love and cherish, but with Pres. Derrick Johnson and those with him running the civil rights organization.
