I recently ran into a couple of articles about the African-American community that made me stop and take notice.
One was a letter in the editorial section of a Detroit Detroit branch of the NAACP and former executive at Wayne State University in Detroit
Dr. Johnson goes back quite some time in the whole civil rights movement and was president of the local NAACP till 1993. What prompted his long letter was a disappointment with the current local chapter of the NAACP leadership. According to Dr. Johnson, when he left his leadership position, the branch was the largest, the richest and the best run branch in the whole country; it is now destitute!
He specifically mentions the Rev. Wendell Anthony as the man who took control of the branch after he left and, it seems, as the man that brought the branch down to its present sorry state. The Rev. Anthony, if you remember, is one of the Baptist ministers that I mentioned as part of the Detroit culture that supported the now imprisoned Kwame Kilpatrick, former mayor of Detroit
Dr. Johnson presents a partial list of transgressions of NAACP policies and practices which included the non-payment of dues to the national NAACP which led to delegates from Detroit
The branch headquarters is now in foreclosure due to non-payment of property taxes.
The Rev. Anthony established a Freedom Institute which hosts events and collects funds that do not go to the NAACP but to Anthony. The insinuation here is that Anthony collects these funds under the pretext of collecting them for the NAACP.
Dr. Johnson is calling for a forensic audit of all finances of the branch. These are very serious allegations but up to today, the Rev. Anthony continues to collect funds representing the NAACP and is featured in the papers and on TV as representing the NAACP but no one knows where the money is going and it appears, at least to me, that no one is questioning where the money is going.
Usually, the papers or TV news will investigate such serious allegations but nary a peep from them. Are they afraid of being called racists? Are they afraid to anger such a prominent Detroit
Dr. Johnson probably resorted to writing such a scathing letter in a public forum, exposing the inner shenanigans of a once proud branch of the NAACP because he probably did not get any satisfaction when he presented his case to the leadership of the organization; it appears the public does not care either.
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