Concerns for New Orleans NAACP

I am 98 years young and have been a member of the New Orleans Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Color People, also known as the NAACP, since the 1940’s. I am a Life Member and my passion and my purpose for being active since the 1940’s evolves from the disadvantages I have witnessed from the Great Depression until today. I was one of the three plaintiffs that successfully desegregated the New Orleans Municipal Auditorium. My children were in the Class Action Suit that desegregated the New Orleans Parks and Playgrounds. My work in the organization clearly proves my commitment to the organization and the people of New Orleans.

I have been involved in several Civil Actions that desegregated City Park Golf Course – desegregated public places among others. I have watched the New Orleans Branch be a leader in Civil Rights and watched the rights of minorities increase with the actions of the NAACP.

Unfortunately, the legend of the New Orleans Branch NAACP has lost its focus, lost its drive to bring about racial equality in New Orleans. We have embarked upon the election season for the New Orleans Branch NAACP without most of the general public of New Orleans understanding the damage that has befallen the Branch. The NAACP of old has been changed by recent administrations to reflect an organization set on fundraising with no oversight and no accountability from the national organization. The Freedom Fund Banquet has been replaced by the Scholarship Fund, a fundraising opportunity not sanctioned by the national organization or to the financial benefit of the national organization. Moneys being collected for membership are being deposited in personal accounts of the Secretary, Ms. McMillian. The current President, Gloria Johnson, can sign on the bank account alone, which is a violation of national by-laws. Worst yet, she gives no accounting for the monies received or dispersed to the Executive Committee or the General Membership. National By-laws are not followed and meetings are noticed to selected members of her choice, while meetings are kept from the general membership who oppose current administrative policy. Under Gloria’s administration, records of meetings are not kept and monies are not accounted for.

The aim and purpose of the NAACP is being ignored and national is not given a correct accounting of the money collected and spent. Ignoring the aims and purposes of the NAACP has caused New Orleans to be venerable to injustice and prejudice. New Orleans public schools, the electoral process and the criminal justice system has been left to the imaginations of the same principals that brought New Orleans segregation. The NAACP is no where to be found when it comes to championing the causes of minorities in New Orleans. Unless the people of New Orleans demand a change in the leadership of the New Orleans Branch NAACP, New Orleans will continue to suffer under a cloud of obscurity.

This is why I must alert the New Orleans community to the serious Civil Rights approved motions that have been ignored since 2007 by the Local, State and National Office of the NAACP. These motions are to benefit all people, especially the unanimous motion at the January 2012 regular meeting, not only for people of color, but all people.

Through the decades of my involvement, I have found non-members were enthusiastically invited and encouraged to attend the regular Branch meetings. They were invited as observers who were not allowed to vote. Yet, the current Administration seems to have a problem with non-members participating and discourage members who hold tight and steadfast to following the By-laws of the National organization. Check and balance measures required by the National Organization are non-existing today in the New Orleans Branch. Executive Committee meetings are not held according to the By-laws and General Membership have no say in approving or denying the direction of the New Orleans Branch. To have an effective NAACP Branch, the By-laws must be followed to the letter. As a 501© 3 organization, National is skating on thin ice with the operations of the New Orleans Branch.

By this Branch rejecting the traditional fundraising mechanism, the Freedom Fund Banquet, the Branch moved to a Scholarship Fund-Raising model, without approval of the Executive Committee or the General Membership. This gives this administration the ability to solicit funds without the safe guards of multiple signatures required on the checks written from revenues donated under the pretense of the National Organization. This makes it appear the New Orleans Branch has gone from a Civil Rights organization to a Scholarship Fund raising organization without any of the required safe guards provided by the National Organization.

The problems don’t stop there. The current Secretary was confronted with new membership money being deposited into her personal account. She also instructed people to send money to her personal Post Office Box. This has never been addressed and the current administration has turned a blind eye to this and other questionable activities. Interestingly enough, the elected Treasurer was removed from her duties without board approval or National directives. The current President is under a Level II Administrative hold which dictates an overseer approves any and All activities and transactions. Unfortunately, the current President (Gloria Johnson) has found ways to continue the non-sanctioned behaviors of the New Orleans Branch.

In this season of electing new leadership, I employ you to take in to consideration the history and legend of the National NAACP and it’s accomplishments by asking yourself; Will our children and their children have the same opportunities we had from this National Organization? If we keep the same leadership currently in place, the answer has to be NO! So, look at the alternative to what has been draining the New Orleans Branch and taking the Branch backwards instead of forward. You have the power to make the necessary change with your vote. Vote wisely!

– Anderson “Andy” Washington

This article originally published in the December 10, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.