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Trammell opponents to reorganize Dayton SCLC

Officials say they will oust some chapter leaders.

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By Tom Beyerlein  and Lynn Hulsey
Staff Writers Updated 3:22 PM Thursday, September 2, 2010

Opponents of the Rev. Raleigh Trammell, who have won their long legal battle to purge Trammell and his supporters from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, say they’ll reorganize the Dayton chapter long headed by Trammell and other chapters across the country.

SCLC officials said the group will oust some chapter leaders who sided with Trammell in a bitter power struggle and restore others who were, as spokesman Bernard LaFayette put it, “unfairly disciplined” under Trammell’s leadership.

“I felt we had a good case, so I’m not really surprised at the outcome,” LaFayette said of Atlanta Judge Alford Dempsey’s ruling Wednesday, Sept. 1, to banish Trammell and his supporters from the historic civil rights organization. “I always felt that right would win.

“We’re already moving ahead with our organization, and we certainly have nothing but love for our brothers who are unfortunately involved on the other side” of the power struggle, LaFayette said. “But there was a lot at stake for the organization and we felt we had to deal with it.”

Trammell and a key supporter, the Rev. Wilburt Shanklin of Dayton, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Trammell and former SCLC Treasurer Spiver Gordon are accused of misappropriating more than $569,000 in SCLC national funds, some related to a prison ministry run by Gordon in Alabama. In his ruling, Dempsey said Shanklin testified that he knew Gordon had received SCLC money for the ministry without executive board approval, and that some of the money was forwarded to Trammell without board authorization. Dempsey ruled that Shanklin and defendant Randy Johnson had breached their fiduciary responsibility in failing to investigate the allegations of financial improprieties against Trammell and Gordon.

The FBI is investigating the allegations, and separate criminal investigations have been launched in Atlanta and Dayton. There have been no criminal charges, and Trammell and Gordon deny wrongdoing.

A new board of directors is waiting in the wings to rebuild the local chapter, said Bishop Richard Cox, who is recognized by the victorious anti-Trammell faction as Dayton’s new chapter president.

Art Rocker of Florida, special assistant to the SCLC’s national chairwoman, the Rev. Sylvia Tucker, said Trammell must remove the SCLC sign from a building owned by Trammell’s church at 2132 W. Third St.

Rocker said the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Springfield and Toledo chapters will also be reorganized.

LaFayette said it’s up to the Rev. Bernice King, the SCLC’s president-elect and daughter of founder the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., to decide when she’ll take over as president. She delayed taking office until the legal situation was sorted out.

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