Urban League Chief, in Moving Farewell, Is Silent on Reasons

Former San Diego Urban League President Herb Cawthorne bade goodby to an emotional, supportive throng at the Catfish Club Friday afternoon, offering no explanation for his sudden resignation from the post that made him perhaps the city’s most influential black leader.

In a speech at the black political forum’s weekly luncheon, Cawthorne told several hundred listeners: “I have resigned my position at the Urban League of San Diego for personal reasons. The details I will not discuss on advice of my attorney.”

At an ensuing press conference, Cawthorne’s attorney, Robert Baxley, refused to respond to questions about whether Cawthorne resigned amid allegations of financial mismanagement unearthed by an internal audit of his spending.

“No comment means no comment,” Baxley said after reporters asked whether Cawthorne had spent Urban League funds on Super Bowl tickets or diverted the organization’s money to personal use. He said that he knows of no criminal investigation of Cawthorne.

Cawthorne also refused to answer questions before and after his Catfish Club address Friday.

Cites ‘Personal Reasons’

The charismatic Cawthorne resigned his posts as president and executive director at an emergency meeting of the Urban League’s board of directors Wednesday night, citing only “personal reasons,” according to a news release issued Friday. Executive Vice President C. Terry Whitesides will fill both positions on an interim basis.

“I can only tell you that it was personal reasons, and he did come in and resign in front of the board, voluntarily,” board Chairwoman Patricia McQuater said Friday.

McQuater refused to respond to published reports that the audit raised questions about Cawthorne’s travel expenses for out-of-town speeches or the purported diversion of Super Bowl tickets obtained for a raffle to his personal use.

But an Urban League source said Friday that it was McQuater who launched the audit of Cawthorne’s spending after allegations of financial mismanagement of Urban League funds were brought to her by other board members. After a report to the board that offered few specifics Wednesday night, a tearful Cawthorne resigned.

Cawthorne also has recently received criticism for his performance as executive director of the Portland, Ore., Urban League, the post he held before coming to San Diego. In a May 7 article in The Oregonian newspaper, a board member of the Urban League there held Cawthorne partly responsible for the organization’s huge debts and financially precarious postion.

Board member Larry Raff said Cawthorne persuaded the board to buy a new headquarters building at twice its tax-assessed value “in an environment where we didn’t understand our financial position.”

According to The Oregonian, the Urban League owed more than $180,000 in mortgage payments and delinquent taxes of more than $32,500. The organization has voted to sell all its property to pay its bills.

In acknowledging his resignation before the Catfish Club in the room where he made his first public speech in San Diego nearly two years ago, Cawthorne remained outgoing, almost defiant, at a time when others might have shied from the public. He worked the crowd before and after his speech, slapping the backs and shaking the hands of an unusually large crowd attracted by his presence as the featured speaker.

Presented With Flowers

The largely black audience packed the meeting room at Christ United Presbyterian Church, along with news reporters eager to hear Cawthorne’s public comment on his resignation. About 2 dozen Urban League staff members attended and gave Cawthorne a bouquet of flowers.

“You’re not looking at a man who is down. . . . You won’t find me feeling sorry for me or asking you to feel sorry for me,” Cawthorne said.

“If you want to feel sorry for somebody, then you feel sorry for that woman with three children who has to use the indignities of food stamps. . . . You feel sorry for that young boy . . . who dropped out of school and doesn’t know what to do, and he’s afraid, he’s frightened. . . . You be sorry for the old people in this community who eat cat food.

“But don’t be sorry, whatever you do, for me.”

Most of the crowd stood and applauded that statement.

Cawthorne spoke of the Urban League’s successes, particularly its improved financial position, and vowed to continue working in San Diego on the education of black children, fighting gang violence and the need for jobs in minority households.

“You may not have agreed with us, but we always tried to take a position that was the right position to take at the right time, and we had the guts and the courage to do it,” Cawthorne said to loud applause.

Cawthorne also invited the entire crowd to his June 25 wedding to Francheska Ahmed, noting with a smile that, because he is newly unemployed, there will be numerous “money trees” at the ceremony.

The afternoon’s most emotional moment came when the Rev. George Walker Smith, head of the Catfish Club, broke down while criticizing those who spread news of Cawthorne’s pending resignation even before the Wednesday night meeting.

Cawthorne closed his address by thanking his supporters:

“The honor is in serving you. That’s the pleasure. That’s the glory, and that’s the thing for which I’m most grateful.”