Several NC NAACP leaders resign over dispute with out-of-state administrator

A huge rift widened between the state and national offices of the NAACP on Thursday night after six members of the state executive committee resigned to protest an executive director’s contract that they have no control over.

The resignations happened at the end of a contentious four-and-a-half hour meeting of the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. Concerns over the suspensions of two state leaders last month — Secretary Sylvia Barnes and Treasurer Gerald Givens Jr. — and issues they had raised about spending on the executive director, Da’Quan Love, dominated the virtual session.

“What I’ve seen here tonight undermines and circumvents the executive committee,” said Barrett Brown, a district director from Alamance County. “I don’t have any confidence that we can move forward under this kind of dictatorship.”

The nonprofit organization’s executive committee meetings are not public but The News & Observer listened to audio from the meeting.

The resignations followed a vote of the executive committee to recommend termination of Love’s contract that narrowly passed. Roughly 35 of the committee’s 47 members attended. Tony DeRico, a district director and president of the Wendell-Wake County NAACP branch, sought the termination after questioning payments to Love through a company he owns. He also resigned.

The contentious meeting is the latest chapter in several years of conflict at the state NAACP, with North Carolina members at odds with one another and with the national organization. State leaders have accused the national NAACP of punishing previous leaders for not remaining in lockstep with its priorities. National leaders have accused the state organization of sloppy, at best, financial management.

The executive committee of the state organization did not hire Love. He was hired by Gloria Sweet-Love, an out-of-state administrator the national NAACP appointed to oversee the state office in 2019 after concerns about spending by a previous president, Rev. Anthony Spearman.

Among the concerns raised Thursday about Love’s spending were roughly $1,000 in late fees that Love charged after contending he wasn’t paid his monthly $5,000 fee on time. Love started working for the state NAACP in August.

Love acknowledged at the meeting that he was charging late fees without knowing what his contract said regarding when he would be paid.

Heart of this conflict

Before his suspension, Givens, the treasurer, had been digging into the spending when Spearman and his predecessor, Rev. William Barber II, were in charge. Givens had questioned payments going as far back as 2013 that lacked proper authorization, he told committee members last year.

Sweet-Love, the president of the Tennessee NAACP state conference, told committee members that they couldn’t fire Love because they didn’t hire him. She said she hired him to serve in a temporary role that she had anticipated would end within a year.

She also said his expenses were legitimate, and Givens, the treasurer, should have given Love a charge account.

She said that Givens was suspended for failing to produce an annual budget. He and Barnes, also suspended last month, were not following the rules for their positions, she said.

“This is not Burger King, and you can’t have it the way you want it,” she told the executive committee.

Emails obtained by The N&O show Givens and Barnes balked at paying Love without the executive committee’s approval. They both said that the state conference’s bylaws require it. Givens had been the president of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP branch since 2019 until his suspension.

Several executive committee members agreed with Barnes and Givens, telling Sweet-Love that state conference President Deborah Dicks Maxwell rarely brought spending items to them for approval. They disputed Sweet-Love’s claim that Givens had not produced a budget, as some of them said they recalled voting on it.

Corine Mack, an executive committee vice president and president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County NAACP branch, was among the six members who resigned at the meeting.

Maxwell, the former president of the New Hanover County NAACP branch, won election in 2021 in an online election run by the national office that also drew criticism. Several committee members said they had supported her then, but have become disappointed in her leadership since.

Call for reconciliation

In response to the resignations, Maxwell said she held no ill will toward those leaving, all of whom said they would continue in their roles as local NAACP branch leaders.

“I pray for each and everyone of you,” she said. “I pray for the North Carolina NAACP and I pray that the discord that was perpetrated tonight will not ripple throughout.”

Sweet-Love said she would take the executive committee’s recommendation on Love’s contract to the national board. She said national leaders are planning to attend the executive committee’s next meeting in April to discuss ending the “administratorship” imposed by the national NAACP.

She said Barnes and Givens would have an opportunity to appeal their suspensions in a panel hearing.