Black Chamber keynote speaker's remarks 'advocating for violence' stirs up West Palm City Hall

A City of West Palm Beach official has called on the Black Chamber of Commerce of Palm Beach County to repudiate comments the official said an attorney made "advocating for violence" against Mayor Keith James, an extraordinary allegation with links to the long-running dispute over who will manage a rebuilt 1920s supper club in the city's Black Northwest community.

Frank Hayden, director of West Palm Beach's Office of Small/Minority Women Business Programs, wrote Monday to the chamber's president, Joseph Sanches, expressing shock over comments Hayden said an attorney, F. Malcolm Cunningham Jr., made about James as the keynote speaker during a chamber awards ceremony Saturday night.

Hayden, who serves as membership committee chairman with the chamber, said Cunningham's comments — which a city spokeswoman said included an exhortation for entrepreneurs to "prepare for battle" and "lower the guns" — were "advocating violence toward the mayor of West Palm Beach."

"Not one word, that I am aware of, has been spoken by the Black Chamber of Commerce of PBC condemning those words," Hayden wrote to Sanches. "I think not saying anything is implying that the Chamber is condoning his actions."

Hayden added: "I feel that it is imperative that we 'the Chamber' must respond in no uncertain terms to condemn the remarks of the Keynote Speaker. And the Chamber's remarks should be posted on the website of the Black Chamber of Commerce of PBC and sent to all our members. Furthermore, we must send a letter of apology to Mayor Keith James emphasizing that we do not share the sentiments of the speaker. I hope you and the other board members agree that we cannot allow the perception that the chamber is going along with the remarks made and condoning this behavior."

Hayden, who works for James as an employee of the city, did not respond to a request for comment. Sanches, chief operating officer for the Palm Beach County School District, did not return a call to the chamber seeking comment.

The backstory: Attorney represents Vita Lounge LLC, which mayor did not support to manage Sunset Lounge

Cunningham has represented Vita Lounge LLC, a group of local Black business leaders that won its 2022 bid to manage the Sunset Lounge, a 1920s-era supper club that has been rebuilt to serve as linchpin to the revitalization of the city's largely Black Northwest community. The Sunset, despite at least $16 million in city repairs, remains vacant as the city and Vita have battled for nearly two years over whether the group should be allowed to manage the club.

James did not support Vita's bid to manage the Sunset, and after he raised questions about whether the group violated city rules against lobbying during a bidding process, the city disqualified Vita. But Vita, with Cunningham as its lawyer, sued, and a judge determined that the city had been "arbitrary and capricious" in disqualifying Vita.

Still, management contract negotiations the judge ordered the city and Vita to undertake have not produced a contract, as the two sides continue to battle it out in court over legal fees and other issues. Court documents show that James and Hayden have been mentioned in some of the legal filings.

Many Black residents and local community leaders backed Vita's bid. James and other elected officials in the city said some of those supporters indicated that not allowing Vita to manage the club, which once hosted such entertainment luminaries as James Brown, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington before it ran into hard times and was closed, would be racially insensitive. James, who is Black, bristled at that suggestion, arguing that another bidder had more experience and stronger finances.

The dispute remains a source of intense friction that has created fissures between a Black mayor and some Black residents just as it has now brought division to the Black Chamber.

City withdraws financial support for chamber's awards dinner

West Palm Beach initially pledged financial support for the chamber's awards dinner. One participant said the support was a total of $17,000.

But that support never came.

"The city of West Palm Beach, at the direction of the mayor, withdrew its sponsorship after learning that Mr. Cunningham was the keynote speaker," city spokeswoman Diane Papadakos said. "While the chamber has the right to choose its keynote speaker, the mayor, as the CEO of the city of West Palm Beach (which has been the chamber’s largest financial supporter during his administration), has the right to cause the city to sponsor or not sponsor a particular chamber event."

Papadakos said that decision to withdraw financial support "was confirmed by Mr. Cunningham’s remarks during his address, when, after making several harshly critical remarks about the mayor, he stated, 'Entrepreneurs prepare for battle; lower the guns.' This is reckless and dangerous rhetoric in these politically charged times. The question for Mr. Cunningham is with whom the entrepreneurs are to do battle, and at whom are they to lower the guns?"

Cunningham said he was not advocating for violence against the mayor, "who I consider to be a friend."

"I made reference to the 'black mayor' one time in my speech, at the end, relating to his boycott of the Black Chamber of Commerce’s Ascension awards dinner and the reasons for his boycott, as reflected in his emails to and from his staff," Cunningham wrote in an email to The Palm Beach Post.

"Apparently, my comment has motivated the mayor to have a city employee in his office, Frank Hayden, make allegations against me which are untrue and made with malicious motive and wrongful intention. Indeed, Mr. Hayden was successful in persuading the Black Chamber from selecting me to deliver keynote address last year, predicting my selection to deliver a keynote address would cause rift between the city and the chamber. Whatever rift that has developed has been caused by Mr. Hayden. At no time did I seek to incite violence against the mayor, who I consider to be a friend."

Why the attorney said he chose the words during the dinner

Cunningham said his remarks had three themes: the history of the chamber, the history of Black businesses in West Palm Beach and a message on how business can cure the ills of Black unemployment and create wealth.

"I concluded with a call to action to the 'entrepreneurs' to prepare to do the work for a successful business, regardless of the scars you might suffer," Cunningham wrote. "I took the opportunity to call out Mayor James’s 'boycott' of the chamber dinner not to create dissonance but to point out he is ignoring a segment of the population of the city and to motivate him to refocus on the needs of the community and the remedies that will make the community better."

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Papadakos said the mayor's administration knows well the needs of the Black community and has worked to address them.

"Under Mayor Keith A. James’ administration, the city has provided more direct (over $400,000 in grants to Black- owned businesses in just this fiscal year alone) and indirect (training and education) to Black-owned businesses than any other public or private entity in Palm Beach County," Papadakos said.

E-mails show mayor fumed over selection of keynote speaker

Even in the face of that spending, rifts remain.

A series of emails between James and senior members of his staff obtained by The Post highlight their initial support of the chamber dinner and then the swift decision to rescind that support once it became clear Cunningham would be the keynote speaker.

On Dec. 18, a city employee emailed James to let him know two tables had been purchased for the awards dinner and asking if he would be attending.

James responded with a question: "Who is the keynote speaker this year?"

When the employee told James that Cunningham would be the keynote speaker, the mayor asked: "As in the lawyer who is suing the city over the Sunset Lounge?"

"Yes, sir," came the response.

"Rescind the purchase of the tables," James wrote to the employee. "The city will not support any event at which he is the keynote speaker."

City Administrator Faye Johnson, who had been included in the email string, asked: "If I had not looked this up, when was staff going to inform you? Or, where (sic) they going to inform you?"

Hayden, as the mayor directed, rescinded the purchase of the tables.

"This action is based on the selection of the keynote speaker," Hayden wrote to Keely Giddeon-Taylor, an employee of The Post and the chamber's president-elect. "I warned the group last year that this would cause a rift between the Black Chamber of Commerce and the City of West Palm Beach, but apparently that was not important enough because the group selected him again this year. Based on this, please return the funds for these two tables at your earliest convenience."

Hayden's foreknowledge of how Cunningham's selection would be received at City Hall did not save him from the mayor's vexation.

"So Mr. Hayden KNEW it would be a problem BEFORE the tables were purchased??" James wrote to Johnson.

The city administrator wrote back: "This is totally unacceptable. Are we brain dead or just don't give a d---? Wow."

Wayne Washington is a journalist covering West Palm Beach, Riviera Beach and race relations at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: West Palm Beach Sunset lawyer called for violence on mayor Keith James