Lorenzo Ervin: Why I Won't Accept The NAACP's Award

The Chattanoogan.com ^ | October 13, 2009 | Lorenzo Ervin

[Freedom_Is_Good]

Valoria Armstrong Branch President Chattanooga-Hamilton Co. NAACP Branch

Dear Ms. Armstrong:

It is my understanding that on the evening of October 17, 2009, the Chattanooga NAACP is going to have a gala affair to award 12 persons with a Ruby Hurley plaque, including myself, for serving as plaintiffs in the 1987 lawsuit against the city of Chattanooga. There is no question that this lawsuit was a seminal event in the history of the city of Chattanooga, that changed the political structure and allowed the African-American community to reverse years of racism and disenfranchisement. Before that, there had been only one African American elected to a city government position from 1911 to 1990, when the decision was made in federal court that the entire city government was unconstitutional and discriminated against the African American community in Chattanooga. It allowed the creation of a modern city council, from nine districts, of which four African-Americans were elected. Compared to years of old-boy cronyism and outright racial discrimination, this was an important victory.

However, all is not what it seemed, then or now, and it is for that reason I will not attend this event, and reject the “award”. In fact, I denounce this entire thing as a scam and a farce designed to rewrite history. I am not so desperately in need of public attention that I would stoop this low. It really is an insult to those of us who actually struggled to bring this case, in opposition to the entire Chattanooga white power structure in those years. The Chattanooga NAACP Board did not play a positive role in the case, and they never helped us bring the case. They stood in our way, even though they now propose to pat themselves and their allies on the back for accomplishments they did not really perform. There is even some “rumor” being circulated that myself and others who did the hard work to bring the case did so because we were working on behalf of the NAACP, Operation PUSH or some other of the old civil rights groups around at the time. This is treachery, and I for one won’t be used for that purpose. Even though over 20 years have passed, the truth must be told. This letter will do that.

The truth is that the lawsuit against the city government could have been brought by the NAACP as early as 1965, shortly after passage of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964-65, or in 1971, a few months after the election of the first African-American city Commissioner, John E. Franklin, as the Education and Health Commissioner. The racist response of the mayor and white commissioners was to strip his office of power even before he took his position, and then give his powers to separate administrative boards presided over by white administrators. Most importantly, in order to ensure that another African-American could never be elected to the city government, the mayor and white commissioners annexed several white areas, which took the black population down from 46% to 31.9%, where it hovers presently. This was clearly done to drive down the black voting population, extend the white at-large voting bloc, and limit the black community’s ability to serve in or impact city government. This is not speculation on my part, it was proven in the 1987 voting rights lawsuit.

So even though they could have filed this lawsuit 20-25 years earlier, the case was not actually brought by the Chattanooga NAACP, Operation PUSH, or the other old-line civil rights misleaders at the time there, because they could get special privileges for themselves, their families, and their class of traitors by gently letting the Chamber of Commerce and the Lookout Mountain Power Structure know that they could bring a case by contacting their national offices about the issue at any time. They never had any intention of bringing such a case however, just used the issue as leverage.

But the Concerned Citizens for Justice, and myself as President, (which came into existence after the failure of the NAACP, Operation PUSH, and other groups which dropped the Wadie Suttles jail death case in 1983), never engaged in such social bribery or “race hustling.” We were not interested in merely ruffling the feathers of the white elite. We were serious about bringing a case, and tried to enlist these groups as allies. Beginning in 1985, I personally went to their meetings and talked to each of the leaders of these civil rights groups: Rev. H.H. Wright of the Action Coordinating Council, Johnny Holloway, moderator of Operation PUSH, (and even their attorney at the time, Myron McClary), and George Key and various board members of the NAACP, and they all told me in unison that it “was not possible” to bring such a case, and that they would not help. These forces did not help us in anyway, except to obstruct, and then claim credit when they could not stop us and saw that the lawsuit was indeed moving forward.

Hard work was actually done, however. I personally did two years of legal and documentary research, accumulating 4,000 documents from the state archives, public library clipping and archive files, Chattanooga Times archive, and other sources. Almost all of the files were later used as exhibits in the lawsuit. In addition, myself and Maxine sent over 200 letters to civil rights attorneys asking for assistance and/or information in a lawsuit. No other group in Chattanooga did a thing to even contact their national office until the case was already moving forward. The local NAACP could have gotten their national office to put tremendous pressure on the city of Chattanooga, and even provide legal assistance to all the Plaintiffs, but this did not happen. Here is what they did do, which almost destroyed the case:

One of the first legal groups to respond was the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York city, and they referred the case to their Mississippi affiliate. Victor McTeer, the attorney who was originally assigned to the case, was someone who had worked with the Chattanooga NAACP before, and he and George Key of the NAACP Board attempted to remove myself, Maxine Cousin, and Annie Thomas (all CCJ members) from the lawsuit, even though we had made this case possible. Key, James Mapp and other members of the NAACP Board, along with Rev. Wright and Holloway, even held a series of public meetings at area churches to denounce us as “troublemakers” for bringing the case, and why they were better suited to be Plaintiffs.

Because of this treachery and class snobbery, accompanied by the attorney misconduct of McTeer, I filed an ethics complaint with the Tennessee and Mississippi bar associations, and Mr. McTeer ultimately resigned from the case. I also went to the ACLU Regional Office Voting Rights Project in Atlanta (led by nationally known voting rights expert, Laughlin McDonald), and asked them to represent us in the Chattanooga case. In addition to the three of us, I personally talked to and persuaded Bobby Ward, then the new president of the Chattanooga NAACP, to sign on as a Plaintiff with the ACLU, in order to build a basis of unity, instead of publicly fighting with the NAACP Board. Mr. Ward did sign on, but was later criticized and undermined by the NAACP Board, who ultimately removed him when he publicly denounced City Commissioner Franklin for being a “safe Negro” who never once spoke out against racism in the government. The NAACP board used this statement, made in the heat of the litigation, and a series of other trivial excuses to contact the national office and have him removed as President, but the real reason was to punish him for signing on as a client of the ACLU with myself, Maxine and Annie.

I know that there are many among the black elite that did not like the fact that poor and working people put together this lawsuit, and they have tried for years to explain how we did it. They never wanted the case to be filed, even if helped the overall population by reforming the government. The truth is they just went along to maintain credibility for their organizations. The Chattanooga NAACP never played a constructive role in the bringing of the 1987 case, nor did they rally their membership or national office to our side, which could have brought in critically needed resources. Their sectarian activity and hostile attitude almost brought down the case. Now, they and others united with them want to rewrite history, and claim that they were not only heroes, but even the true initiators of the case. That is far from the truth, so I will not participate in this farce to mislead the Black community.

But the most telling thing is that the NAACP still is not doing anything to protect the civil rights of African Americans in Chattanooga right now. Mayor Ron Littlefield, one of the original defendants in the 1987 legal case, now is trying to annex more white areas into the city to bring the black population down to under 25%, and whites have now whittled away at the number of black officeholders on the city council. My question is where are the next group of plaintiffs?

I don’t need any NAACP award to validate what I did, I just need you all to recognize that the fight is not over, and to finally get this NAACP to do something now, not to falsely claim that they did something over 20 years ago. Sincerely,

Lorenzo Ervin Power to the People PO Box 60251 Nashville, Tn., 37206

[Freedom_Is_Good]

He takes the Chattanooga-Hamilton Co. NAACP branch to the woodshed. Excellent

[Riptides]

Dittos Lorenzo!

[Pagey]

bttt

[mountn man]

Thats going to leave a mark.