SCLC tries to re-capture MLK's mission

But some wonder if the Southern Christian Leadership Conference would be better off with fresh ideas on how to fix itself, instead of retreading old ones.

Chapters in Florida have bolted from the once venerable organization to form a rival group, while the president of the Los Angeles chapter has had his job threatened over his support of gay marriage.

Nationally, the SCLC, which has had three presidents since 2004, has not set a firm date to pick a new leader. Only four people held the position between 1957 and 2004.

“We are going through growing pains,” said the Rev. Eric P. Lee, president of the Los Angeles chapter. “After King was assassinated, there was no real infrastructure put in place that set a course for SCLC going into the 21st century.”

Ralph David Abernathy III, whose father helped start SCLC with King and served as its second president, said they would not recognize the group today.

“Their lack of understanding and inability to be in touch with the needs of the people would make my father and Uncle Martin very frustrated,” he said.

Clay said that while the SCLC might not be perfect, it is moving along. The organization, housed in a new $3.3 million headquarters, runs on a $1.8 million annual budget and has more than 100 chapters. Membership numbers fluctuate between 5,000 and 10,000 members, but Clay admits those figures include members from chapters as well as affiliated churches and organizations. Only a small percentage of the members that SCLC claims actually pay dues.

Observers would be hard pressed to find significant contributions the group has made, at least since Martin Luther King III held hearings on racial profiling and police brutality nearly a decade ago. The last president, Charles Steele, aside from raising money, tried to build international conflict resolution centers in seemingly obscure places in Israel and Italy.

There have been a few recent marches, most notably in Louisiana over a school busing issue, but it is a far cry from the organization that was instrumental in getting the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts passed.

Earlier this month, the Florida State SCLC announced it was leaving the SCLC to form the National Christian Leadership Conference, because, “the national organization has lost its way,” said its president Sevell Brown.

SCLC officials said they had already fired Brown in June because of “ineffective leadership,” and cut ties with Florida because at least three local chapters were not organized.

NCLC attorney Jonathan Alpert said their major concern was the national office’s failure to account for $1.5 million in donations to the nonprofit SCLC Foundation. Alpert said the money didn’t show up on Form 990, a yearly IRS financial report. But SCLC attorney Dexter Wimbish, said the foundation filed its own 990 form and added that the money was used for the new offices on Auburn Avenue.

“We have complied with all that has been expected of us by the federal government,” Clay said. “I have never witnessed any individual doing anything illegal and unethical.”

Founded in 1957, the SCLC was the organizational base for the civil rights work of King, as well as Abernathy and Joseph Lowery, who both served as president.

By many accounts, in 1997, when Lowery stepped down after 20 years as president, the group lost focus. King III, came next and was seen as the natural heir. But the highlight of his term might have been an attempted coup by the board. He survived, but the damage was done as power shifted from the president to the board.

“Only God can give life to the dead,” said former president Fred Shuttlesworth when he quit in 2004 after too many battles with the board. Steele followed and built the new offices, before quitting earlier this year.

Board Chairman Raleigh Trammell, from Dayton, Ohio, refused to speak with the AJC after returning a call not knowing he was calling a reporter.

A slate of presidential candidates should be made public at the convention, but Clay said a new president would likely not be selected until later in the year.

At least five people have applied for the position, including Samuel Mosteller, the president of Georgia State SCLC; Markel Hutchins, the founder of the National Youth Connection; and Bernice King, King’s youngest daughter.

Abernathy III withdrew.

“I didn’t think they were going to choose me,” he said. “It would have been a waste of my time and I didn’t feel like fighting them.”

Another person who won’t be running is Lee from Los Angeles.

“I considered it, threw my name in the hat and spoke to some board members,” Lee said. “But I am on the other side of their understanding of justice and equality.”

Lee fell out of favor with the SCLC because of his opposition to Proposition 8, an amendment to the California State Constitution that banned same-sex marriage.

“SCLC has never had the conversation about gay rights,” said Clay, stressing the organization’s neutral position on the ban that ultimately passed.

But Lee said he saw it as a civil rights issue that would deny the rights of one group of people.

“Two men or two women together does not effect my relationship with my wife and children,” Lee said. “My contention is that African-Americans, more than any other people, have the moral obligation to speak out against injustice. We can’t just speak out on issues concerning black folks.”

For his efforts, Lee was ordered to come to Atlanta for a board hearing, but said he couldn’t afford to come on such short notice and suggested a conference call. He didn’t get a response, but soon got a letter threatening his firing. Lee said that when reporters started asking questions, the national office seemingly dropped the charge. He hasn’t heard from Atlanta since.

“We just asked him to come and clear up what he said to the press,” Clay said.

Lee said he hopes the SCLC’s troubles shine a light on the need for younger, open-minded leaders on the board.

“We are experiencing this kind of tension because we have not, for quite some time, been on the leading edge of important issues,” Lee said. “There are individuals within SCLC who are unwilling to move with the times. If they don’t change, they will eventually have to stop being a part of SCLC.”

Some, however, are not content on waiting.

“If you can find 500 real SCLC people, I would be surprised,” Alpert said. “We are done with them. They are irrelevant.”