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SCLC may have to reinvent itself, experts say

Embattled SCLC Dayton chapter chairman Rev. Raliegh Trammell declined comment on mutliple investigations now under way. The SCLC executive board met Thursday, Feb. 25, at 11 Woodward Ave.

Staff photo by Ron Alvey Embattled SCLC Dayton chapter chairman Rev. Raliegh Trammell declined comment on mutliple investigations now under way. The SCLC executive board met Thursday, Feb. 25, at 11 Woodward Ave.

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By Tom Beyerlein, Staff Writer Updated 4:01 PM Saturday, March 13, 2010

Young blacks — people who never knew segregated schools and movie theaters and swimming pools — call them the “old heads.”

Old heads are the old guard of the civil rights movement, said Paul Griffin, director of African-American studies at Wright State University, and younger people often view them as irrelevant. They haven’t changed with the times, he said, and that’s one reason organizations like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference are teetering on the brink of extinction.

“Institutions that are born out of revolution sometimes become the target of revolution themselves,” Griffin said. “People begin to see them as irrelevant. That presents a crisis for these institutions, especially when they’re so unwilling to entertain new ideas.”

A common theme emerged when the Dayton Daily News interviewed various black academics, business leaders and community organizers: Racism remains a problem in America, but groups like the SCLC need to reinvent themselves to reach people who have grown up at a time when many battles against institutionalized segregation have been won.

They acknowledged the national SCLC and its Dayton chapter have also been rocked by allegations of financial impropriety by the Rev. Raleigh Trammell, the national and local chairman, and subsequent criminal investigations. But they cautioned against a rush to judgment of Trammell.

“We don’t want to be quick to pass judgment,” said Eleanor Stocks, president of the Greater Dayton African-American Chamber of Commerce. “We have to have due process and review. Sure, Rev. Trammell is wounded. Sure, the community is wounded. Sure, the national (SCLC) is wounded. But we have to let that process go through.”

The SCLC, co-founded by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1957, was one of the key civil rights groups of the 1950s and ‘60s. But since King’s assassination in 1968, it has been on a long arc of decline, beset by loss of membership, financial problems and leadership squabbles. Its problems reached a crescendo in recent months with allegations by national board members that Trammell and SCLC Treasurer Spiver Gordon diverted at least $569,000 into bank accounts they control. Both have denied wrongdoing, and no charges have been filed.

Both men have criminal records. Trammell, 73, was convicted in 1978 of grand theft and larceny by trick for stealing public money from the Montgomery County Welfare Department, where he was deputy director. He served more than a year in prison. Gordon, 70, of Eutaw, Ala., was convicted in 1999 of federal vote fraud charges and sentenced to six months in prison.

The long-term survival of the local SCLC will depend on how the investigations of Trammell pan out and how its board of directors responds, said Channon Lemon, director of the Minority Economic Development Council.

“We clearly need advocacy for disenfranchised people,” Lemon said. But “the onus is on all advocacy groups to demonstrate their relevance. Any time you have an organization that’s been around for awhile, there’s a constant challenge of maintaining relevance.”

Griffin said that relevance has been undermined because civil rights leaders failed to embrace new themes and tactics after America grew less segregated. The old posture, he said, has “outgrown its usefulness. We don’t have that overt discrimination that was once so common.”

In past generations, Griffin said, “the preacher, the undertaker and the attorneys were the black leaders.” Today’s more educated, affluent young adults “don’t necessarily see the need for one individual putting himself up as the leader of the black community.”

Robert Walker, director of the Wesley Community Center, 3730 Delphos Ave., said SCLC has a legacy that can carry forward.

“One of the profound gifts of the SCLC was its ability to speak truth to systemic power in ways that would bring more humaneness (to society),” he said.

Walker said the SCLC should expand its scope to address not only discrimination against blacks, but problems with access to affordable housing, abuse of power and the “growing gap between the haves and have-nots.”

“There’s still a need for racial advocacy,” he said, “but we need to broaden our advocacy to issues that prevent people from experiencing their full potential.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2264 or tbeyerlein@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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