Afro-American Museum Board Fires Director : Removal: Termination of Terrie S. Rouse is the fourth change in five years.

The California Afro-American Museum, the largest black museum in the nation, fired its executive director Thursday, the fourth change in five years in the Los Angeles institution’s top job.

The museum’s board faced sharp questioning after voting unanimously to remove Terrie S. Rouse, 40, from the $72,000-a-year post. At the meeting, several Rouse supporters pressed the board to explain its action, but members steadfastly refused to discuss details.

Rouse, whose dismissal was effective immediately, said after the meeting that she and the board had “policy and personality conflicts.”

But museum staff members who asked not to be identified said morale had plummeted under Rouse’s leadership and that the majority of the staff had supported her removal.

Rouse’s firing comes during the busy African-American History Month schedule at the museum in Exposition Park, and as the institution is being bludgeoned with budget cuts. The museum’s budget was slashed 30% to about $950,000 during the last fiscal year and faces an additional 15% cut, Rouse said.

The museum is funded by the state and its board of directors is appointed by the governor.

Despite its budget woes, the museum has consistently mounted an impressive schedule of shows and activities as it established itself over the last several years as an increasingly important Los Angeles cultural institution.

Regardless of whether spectators at Thursday’s meeting supported the board or Rouse, they insisted that their primary concern was the future of the museum.

James Burks of the city’s Cultural Affairs Department told board members that Rouse’s firing left him concerned “about public reaction to an agency that has been in turmoil since its inception.”

“This was not a snap judgment,” board President Charlene L. Meeks said.

When Meeks said the board did not intend to embarrass the state or the community by the firing, Burks accused the board of “thoroughly embarrassing this community by thinking we don’t have to be told (details) of this process.”

Meeks assured Rouse’s supporters that the board has “no hidden agenda” and that a public board meeting was “not the forum to go into details” of the firing.

Rick Moss, the museum’s curator of history, was named interim director--the second time he has filled in while the board searched for a new director.

Rouse, who had sat silently, asked to comment after Meeks said the board had treated her with the utmost respect.

Her voice choking with emotion, Rouse described how two security guards came to her office a week ago, saying that two members of the board would arrive soon because someone was being fired.

Board members Deborah Hesse and Bella Meese arrived about 10 a.m. and told her “I was to be terminated at the end of February,” said Rouse, who came to the museum from the Studio Museum in Harlem 18 months ago.

“It is not respectful to send security guards to a museum professional’s office,” Rouse said, unsuccessfully fighting back tears.

Saying the board was at a disadvantage, Hesse said she had decided that she would not disclose why Rouse was fired.

Jenell Coley, a museum volunteer, came to the board’s defense, saying she was appalled by the way Rouse spoke to board members at earlier meetings where her supporters were not present.

“She was demeaning,” Coley said. “She showed no respect whatsoever. She was not acting in a professional manner. This is not hearsay. I was here to see it myself.”