BMORENEWS.com

By Doni Glover, www.bmorenews.com

“It’s becoming increasingly irrelevant because of the poor leadership it's had over the past 6 ½ years, including the current leadership.” - Chris Blake, member, NAACP

(BALTIMORE – April 22, 2011) – Last week, news talk radio show host Daren Muhammad was the first one to break the story regarding an Article X, Section 3 complaint dated January 24, 2011 against 5 officers of the Baltimore City Branch of the NAACP, including the current president and the past president.

This week, another black journalist, Hassan Giordano, produced a piece detailing the complaint for Examiner.com. That article was re-posted on www.bmorenews.com.

However, there has been a deafening silence across radio and television airwaves.

So too has there been silence from the branch on at least two major issues that have occurred this year: The Wordesheim Case where a black youth walking in a Jewish neighborhood ended up with a broken wrist; and in the case of Officer William Torbit and civilian Sean Gamble, the two Baltimore men who were tragically killed in the beginning of this year.

Both cases touched the hearts and souls of Baltimore, a majority black city.

To date, however, the new NAACP President, Tessa Hill-Aston, has been amazingly quiet.  When I posed questions about 6 weeks ago to Mrs. Hill-Aston as to a response to these cases, she said that she was diligently working behind the scenes. She told me that she worked differently (presumably, compared to Marvin “Doc” Cheatham). Cheatham told me to be patient and to give her to mid-March. He said let her get acquainted with how things operate.

Well, it’s a little past mid-April and still no word from Tessa Hill-Aston.

The only thing new is the complaint against Hill-Aston, Cheatham, and others – including Joseph Aston (Tessa’s husband) regarding issues like a lack of financial reports … for six (6) years.

I mean, c’mon, people!

The Tragedy
Most people familiar with the Baltimore NAACP know that during the last election season (whereby Hill-Aston became president), a young leader named Cortley C. D. Witherspoon was in the race for presidency, too.

It was stated that Witherspoon could not run for president because he had no membership. Witherspoon said he gave his dues money to Cheatham. Cheatham adamantly denied the claim and that Witherspoon could produce no recepit. Consequently, Witherspoon was not allowed to run – truly crushing the aspirations of one of Baltimore’s rising stars.

Now, as a result of this complaint – the situation begs the question: Did anybody get a receipt?

Tags: article X complaint, Baltimore, black news, c.d., cortley witherspoon, daren muhammad, ellis leon staten, examiner.com, gcomm media, hassan giordano, investigation, joe aston, marvin doc cheatham, missing computers, missing equipment, NAACP, poor record keeping, tessa hill aston, theft, wfbr