Battle Over Leadership of NAACP Providence Branch Heats Up
Friday, May 26, 2017
Opposition to the current leadership of the Providence NAACP Branch under President James Vincent is increasing, while the NAACP New England Council continues to maintain that the protesters have not followed proper protocol for filing grievances.
On Thursday, opposition organizer Noel Frias appeared on GoLocal LIVE and spoke to why the group is taking action - which began publicly with a protest earlier in May at the NAACP Freedom Fund Breakfast.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST"The way it began, there were members that thought the way leadership was guiding the branch was in violation of by-laws, and that some of the members were deliberately ignoring the by-laws," said Frias. "Myself...Pilar McCloud, Juan Carter, [the] Treasurer, and the First VP."
"We had been provided with the finances,...and there had been some inconsistencies," said Frias. "The first VP demanded an audit, Mr. Vincent denied the audit.. Back in December, we have evidence that an election was rigged with inconsistencies and protocol was not followed."
Dueling Opinions
Earlier this week, Frias said that the group had invited Vincent to speak with concerned community members on Wednesday.
However, Juan Cofield with the NAACP New England Area Council sent the following message during the day on Wednesday to members denouncing the event.
Providence Community Members,
The NAACP, New England Area Conference (NEAC), is the governing and coordinating entity for NAACP Units in the states of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont.
NEAC is aware that some issues have been raised publicly regarding the operations of the Providence Branch. These issues would be an internal matter of the NAACP. The NAACP has an established and well known procedure to address operating issues of a Branch. These procedures have not been followed and, at no time, has NEAC received a formal complaint about the Providence Branch regarding the matters that the protesters now complain about. The nature of the public protest is unjustifiably harmful to the leadership of the Branch, the Branch itself, the NAACP and the thousands of NAACP supporters.
Please be informed that a meeting that you may have received notice of, called for this evening, is not being called by the NAACP. Further, the NAACP will not participate, in any manner, if such a meeting takes place.
Best regards,
Juan Cofield
Frias sent the following to GoLocal, in terms of who is opposed to Vincent's leadership.
"So the entire Youth and College Division for our local branch (there are about 40 active youth). On top of this, we have 4 active executive members (out of let's say 10 active executive board members) and about 10 branch members (out of 20 active members)," said Frias. "By active I mean individuals who attend and repeatedly participate in the branch and the meetings. We also have everyone who signed our petition (these are 81 members of the community)."
Details of Allegations
Following that communication, Frias send out the following communication, delineating in greater detail the allegations bought forth by the opposition.
* Violation: Jim Vincent declared Tom Whitman as Third Vice-President
* Violation: The 2016 NAACP Providence Branch Elections Were Not Done Properly or According to Protocol.
- All members must be informed about elections 10 day prior to elections. Numerous members were not informed, at all.
- For you to vote in the election and run for a position, you have to be recognized by the national office of the NAACP as a member of the branch for a certain period of time. There were members who handed in their forms to the NAACP Providence Branch, but the leadership delayed sending in their forms to the national office after the due date. Therefore, only 13 members voted in the last election, out of a branch of nearly 500 people. On top of this, one of the candidates, who Jim was well aware was running, wasn't able to run because his membership was held on to past the due date by the branch.
* Violation: Jim Vincent has been Operating as President of the branch when he wasn't a member of the Branch. He knowingly would delay paying his membership and would only pay for it during election years.
* Violation: An independent Audit was requested to be conducted, twice. And denied twice.
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