NC NAACP president earns second term with majority of vote
State NAACP President Deborah Dicks Maxwell won a second term Saturday, overcoming a rift in the organization that caused a dozen of the state conference’s executive committee members to resign in protest.
Maxwell defeated Keith Rivers, the president of the Pasquotank County NAACP branch, by winning 100 of the 136 votes cast. Rivers was among the executive committee members who resigned in March over the hiring of an executive director and the suspensions of two state leaders.
Others among the 12 also ran for office, including Rev. Corine Mack who leads the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County branch. Mack sought to defeat incumbent First Vice President Courtney Patterson, but only captured 35 percent of the vote.
Rivers and Mack said in brief interviews Sunday that they both support the election results, held at the State NAACP’s annual convention in Wilmington.
“Deborah Maxwell is the president, and we will support her as the president of the North Carolina State Conference,” Rivers said.
Maxwell said she won a second term despite the earlier rancor by focusing on what’s important — issues such as voting rights, health care and education.
“Just working collaboratively with people,” she said. “The cause is the same regardless of who’s at the helm.”
NC NAACP financial concerns
The past several years have been tumultuous, with concerns over financial accountability and election transparency. The two state officials who were suspended by the national office — former treasurer Gerald Givens Jr. and former secretary Sylvia Barnes — had been working to clean up the financial problems.
Barnes said she sought to attend the convention as an observer and ran into interference from state NAACP leaders, who eventually let her remain at the building but not attend the meetings. She questioned whether some delegates were eligible to vote, and said no list of candidates was made available until Saturday, which was not standard practice.
“This year nobody got anything because they were calling me asking who were the candidates? Are we still having an election?” she said.
The 12 executive committee members who resigned had remained NAACP members. Three were re-elected to executive committee seats. All told, 32 positions were up for election.
Maxwell of Wilmington is the first woman to lead the state conference. She is a retired public health social worker and U.S. Army veteran.
NC NAACP Votes by Dan Kane on Scribd
Staff writer Lars Dolder contributed to this report.
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