Internal Friction Threatens to Split NAACP Chapter

Over the last few years, the Beverly Hills-Hollywood chapter of the NAACP has thrived on friction, earning national attention in clashes with everyone from the motion picture academy to talk show host Arsenio Hall.

But these days, friction threatens to tear the branch apart.

In recent months, a longstanding philosophical rift between supporters of chapter President Willis Edwards and a splinter group has widened, resulting in bitter charges and threats from both sides--including a call for Edwards’ resignation.

Now in his 11th year as chapter president, Edwards has used ties with big names in entertainment and politics, such as Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and actor Tim Reid, to bring a higher profile to the group.

Battle on Racial Barriers

Edwards insists that his branch should deal primarily with tearing down racial barriers that still deny many African-Americans jobs in the movie and TV industries, and has openly criticized the Hollywood power structure for alleged racist practices.

But for Connie Watson, leader of the splinter group, Edwards’ public attacks amount to little more than posturing. In reality, she contends, Edwards has deserted blacks’ fight for equal rights in order to hobnob with the stars, draw attention to himself and line his pockets.

Watson feels that the branch should place greater emphasis on grass-roots civil rights work outside of Beverly Hills and Hollywood, in addition to bulldozing barriers in the movie industry.

Different Directions

“The philosophies on how the group should be run is the issue,” said one branch officer, who asked not to be identified. “People are just trying to hang hats on all this other stuff. . . . One group of people wants to go one way with the branch, another wants to go another way.”

The Beverly Hills-Hollywood branch--formed 22 years ago to increase the number and influence of blacks in the entertainment industry--is one of the most visible branches within the longtime civil rights organization.

Made up of only about 200 members a decade ago, the chapter’s membership has swelled to 1,500--most of them not in entertainment. The branch is the second-largest chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People in the county, behind only the Los Angeles chapter.

To fuel the chapter’s growth, Edwards said, the branch has collected thousands of dollars in donations through fund-raising events and the annual NAACP Image Awards, which members said earned the group about $200,000 alone.

“I brought prestige to the group,” Edwards said. “That’s one of the reasons people reelected me.”

But there are many who want Edwards out.

“Willis talks a good game, but he isn’t doing anything,” said Brandy Burton, a former secretary at the Hollywood branch who is still a member of the chapter. “The branch needs better leadership.”

There has long been disharmony within the chapter, members and observers said. Watson and Edwards have feuded for years, mostly behind closed doors, they added.

But the private battle spilled over into a public feud in early September.

At a general membership meeting Sept. 2, branch members accused Edwards of wrongfully accepting $25,000 for serving as co-executive producer of the 1988 NAACP Image Awards, presented last December.

In an announcement on Sept. 5, Watson said the branch voted to demand Edwards’ resignation on the grounds that he violated bylaws prohibiting officers of the civil rights group from taking money for group-related projects.

Watson said she started circulating a petition at a chapter meeting Sept. 30 to have Edwards step down.

Says He Got Permission

Edwards, proclaiming his innocence, said he had received written permission from officials of the national NAACP office in Baltimore to accept the payment.

“I have done nothing wrong, and I’m not going to resign,” said Edwards, a businessman. “Yeah, I got paid, and I will get paid again. I’m proud of it. The national office knew about it, and they approved it in the letter. This is just Connie Watson’s witch hunt.”

Insisting that the current conflict transcends personal enmity, Watson said she is not the only member who wants Edwards out.

Last February, Watson ran unsuccessfully against Edwards for the chapter presidency. After Edwards won by 64 votes out of about 300 votes cast, 25 branch members filed a petition with the national office alleging that Edwards’ allies had tampered with the voter eligibility list.

Even though the national office dismissed the complaint after an investigation, the bitterness remained. And some say it has led to the current dispute over the Image Awards show, a glitzy event in which the national organization honors corporations, groups and individuals who promote positive images of blacks.

Local Chapter Hosts Event

Although the NAACP as a whole presents the award, the Beverly Hills-Hollywood chapter hosts the event.

While none of his opponents have suggested that Edwards compromised the Image Awards by accepting the payment, they contend that he should resign because he kept the payment a secret initially and did not offer to resign before taking the money.

“He violated his fiduciary duty,” member Willie Hampton said. “He had us thinking he was working in the best interest of the group, and he was getting paid by a production company that he picked. Oh, he’s got to go.”

If Edwards does not resign, some in the organization have threatened to quit the NAACP or move to disband its Beverly Hills-Hollywood arm.

Actress Judy Pace, a longtime chapter member who supports Edwards, maintains that he has preserved the vision the chapter had when it was formed--improving things for blacks in the entertainment industry.

“We work with actors, actresses, stunt men, people who work in Hollywood,” Pace said. “Someone wants us to stop doing that to do grass-roots work?

“That’s what the branch was formed for,” she said of the group’s work in the entertainment industry, “not because there’s a large number of black people living in Beverly Hills.”

Edwards’ opponents contend that the group spends too much time trying to hobnob with political and entertainment giants. They want to expand the group’s constituency to include not only the entertainers, but other blacks in the Los Angeles area as well.

“It’s wonderful for the branch to do the Image Awards,” said Burton, the former secretary. “But what about real life? We have got to deal more with the problems blacks face at the grass-roots level, and we can’t do that if we’re spending all of our money on other things.”

But it has been Hollywood--specifically, run-ins with the Hollywood Establishment--that has earned the group most of its notice.

Three years ago, Edwards panned the movie “The Color Purple,” claiming that it cast black men as abusive, shiftless and ignorant. In what some saw as a contradiction, he later criticized the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for not giving the film or its actors an Oscar.

Then, earlier this year, he publicly upbraided talk show host Arsenio Hall for not hiring enough blacks on his show. After Hall called Edwards an extortionist during a radio interview, Edwards filed a $10-million lawsuit against the entertainer. That action is still pending.

On the matter of the awards-show payment, Edwards has virtually dared his opponents to try to force him out.

“If they think they have a case, let them charge me before the NAACP’s national board (with a conflict of interest),” Edwards said.

“Let’s see who wins. . . . I have the letter,” he said, referring to a document he said the national office sent him in November.

But Edwards refused to show the letter to a reporter. And instead of showing it to members of his branch at the Sept. 30 meeting as he had originally said he would, Edwards read members a recent letter he sent to Benjamin L. Hooks, national NAACP executive director, discussing his acceptance of the money.

Herbert Henderson, the interim general counsel for the NAACP’s national office, has begun looking into the conflict.

“I’m not familiar with what’s going on,” Henderson said. “I’m just starting to look into it.”