SCLC officials accused of misspending more funds

By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The complicated struggle for control of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference continued Friday with court filings and accusations that that some SCLC leaders were willing to sacrifice the civil rights group to seize power.

One faction of the SCLC board has asked a judge to order an opposing faction to return more than $12,240 in “illegal and improper” withdrawals from the SCLC’s bank account to pay an attorney to sue other board members and executives.

“Those payments were entirely valid,” said former Fulton Judge Thelma Wyatt Moore, the attorney who filed the suit and received the payments.

She said the decision to withdraw the suit against the board on Friday had nothing to do with court filings on Thursday asking that the money she received be returned.

The SCLC, an organization founded in 1957 and closely associated with civil rights icon Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is embroiled in an internecine battle that pits a group of board members against a faction led by a recently ousted chairman.

“There is a huge divide,” said Markel Hutchins, who said he was added to the board by one of the groups trying to refashion the panel to its liking.

In January, a group led by ousted Chairman Raleigh Trammell tried to reconstitute the board by removing some members and adding 14, including Hutchins. Hutchins ran for president of the SCLC in October but he was defeated by the Rev. Bernice King --  the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., one of the SCLC founders. She has not taken the position yet.

Charles Mathis, the attorney for group fighting the faction Moore represents, said Hutchins is not a board member. "These people, frankly, know who the true board is," Mathis said.

Questions about the group's finances were raised last summer. As the scrutiny increased, several board members voted in December to remove Trammell and treasurer Spiver Gordon, who were suspected of misappropriating SCLC funds. Several weeks later, Trammell's supporters sued to have Trammell, of Dayton, Ohio,  and Gordon, of Eutaw, Ala., reinstated and their opponents locked out of the organization.

In response to a series of court filings, the control of the organization switched back and forth.  The most recent ruling was issued earlier this week when Judge Alford Dempsey vacated all previous orders and said any changes made since the first of the year were void.

Each faction claims to be legally and morally in charge of the SCLC.

"The spirit of litigiousness, the spirit of Cain and Abel ... threaten to bring the SCLC to an untimely demise," Hutchins said.

The Trammell-Gordon backers say they are in control and they will hold a required board meeting in Eutaw, Ala., on Monday and Tuesday. The opposing faction says the board will meet  in Atlanta, also this coming Monday and Tuesday.

"We hope we can resolve this issue and the people who are guilty [of taking SCLC funds] will step aside," said Bernard LaFayette, a long-time board member. "They're the ones who initiated the court action. So we had to respond."

Before the suit was filed, LaFayette said, Trammell and Spiver had agreed to step aside and not interfere with an internal review. LaFayette said they filed a lawsuit instead.

Documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in January suggest that Trammell and Gordon had diverted $569,000 in SCLC funds to themselves and to their special projects. Consequently, the FBI, the Alabama Attorney General and the Fulton County district attorney are all investigating those expenditures.

At a news conference Friday, Hutchins, Moore and another board member Dwight Graves dismissed the investigations as routine for civil rights leaders.

The three were at the Fulton County Courthouse Friday morning to withdraw the suit filed in December to reinstate Trammell and Gordon “because we truly believe it is in the best interest of the SCLC,” according to a statement signed by Trammell, Gordon and nine others who list themselves as SCLC officers.

Art Rocker, the Florida chapter chairman who is with the group trying to replace Trammell and Gordon, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution National that SCLC funds were “mishandled and mismanaged. They are not acting like Christians.”

Friday was pay day for SCLC staff and Rocker said they were not paid because of confusion over who has authority to sign checks.

The attorney Moore “got paid. This is wrong,” Rocker said. “They should have never taken the funds from the corporate [SCLC] account for their personal use.”