NAACP Quarrel Leads to Takeover of Chapter in L.A.

The national office of the NAACP has taken over administration of its Los Angeles branch and has begun an inquiry into its activities in the wake of an internal dispute over the use of funds raised for the local chapter.

William H. Penn Sr., director of branch and field services for the national NAACP in Baltimore, said Monday that he will hold the post of administrator of the Los Angeles office until the inquiry is over.

The national NAACP also postponed a Dec. 8 election for officers of the local chapter. In a written statement, Penn said he hoped that the inquiry would be ended in two months.

Penn, who refused to discuss the case on the grounds that “these are internal matters,” reportedly took control of the Los Angeles branch’s general administrative duties, which include all financial and policy-making decisions, on Dec. 8.

Sources close to the Los Angeles NAACP said the national organization’s actions grew from a struggle among the local chapter’s officers and board members. The dispute places at least 10 members of the local office’s 24-member executive board against chapter president Anthony Essex and his supporters.

Essex, who took over the chapter earlier this year, said he continues to manage its daily operations. Essex declined comment except to say “the investigation does not stem from anything I have done.”

But Basil Kimbrew, chairman of the local chapter’s Community Affairs Committee, said that 10 members of the executive board filed a grievance against Essex for incurring “expenses that were not approved by the Executive Committee.”

Kimbrew said the expenses included an inaugural reception held for Essex after he was elected president earlier this year.

Essex, although he declined to discuss the accusations in any detail, said, “There have been a lot of misrepresentations.”

Since the initial grievance, the dispute has reportedly expanded to include Essex’s attempts to control a bank account administered by the Crenshaw Economic Development Corp., a separate agency attached to the local office. Sources said that Essex wants to be able to use the account to defray costs of the local chapter. His opponents insist that the money should only be used to pay for a new headquarters for the chapter.

“He (Essex) also wants no separation between the corporation and the local chapter,” one NAACP member said. “But the big concern is money. Do we sacrifice our long-term security for short-term security?”

James McBeth, a developer who is president of the Crenshaw corporation, said it was created by local NAACP officials in 1985. Its purpose, McBeth said, was to raise funds and purchase property to house the Los Angeles chapter and also to raise general funds for both the local and national offices.

McBeth said the funds raised by the corporation have been split in the past, half going to the corporation’s building fund and half going to the local NAACP chapter, which was then obligated to send half of that amount to the national office. In recent years, the corporation has put on fund-raising events honoring singers Frank Sinatra and Kenny Rodgers.

Last week, a report surfaced in the Los Angeles Sentinel suggesting that over the last two years, the Crenshaw corporation allegedly siphoned off $65,000 from the local branch’s annual Roy Wilkins Award Dinner.

Kimbrew said the allegation originated in a 29-page defense written by Essex of his administration as president of the chapter.

McBeth and his attorney, Gary Bostwick, denied any misuse of funds. “We’ve told the national office that our books are open to them and anyone else,” McBeth said. “All the money is there and accounted for. Not one penny has been spent for personal gain.”

The rancor in the local chapter may have been aggravated, one NAACP member said, by its recently postponed election. In the election, Essex was opposed by at least one other candidate.

“It’s just an election ploy to make sure that Essex is not elected,” said Celes King II, a former president of the Los Angeles NAACP. “This has been blown out of proportion.”

“It’s a corrective step that’s happened before,” Jim Martin, director of the NAACP’s Western region, said of the action by the national office.