NAACP sets the record straight

The article “Conflicting MLK Jr. events cause controversy” (BDN, Dec. 15-16) gave James Varner, a former officer of the Greater Bangor Area NAACP, a chance to express his views of the “controversy,” but his statements about the planning of our annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast are patently false. As secretary of the Bangor NAACP, I am the keeper of the minutes and records for the branch. By providing the following information, which calls into question specific statements made by Varner, I hope to set the record straight.

Varner claims in the article that the problems he and the local NAACP branch have had in recent years mainly involve “differences in personalities and management styles.” That is not true. The problems between Varner – who undeniably has a strong personality and thrives on running the show – and the branch are far more serious than he would have the BDN readers believe. These problems include, but are by no means limited to, failure to abide by the national NAACP bylaws, failure to cooperate with branch leadership and refusing formal requests for information and branch records, most notably our repeated requests for return of the branches’ membership, donor and other financial records.

Indeed, Varner, who states, “Everybody should be able to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday,” has used the very same membership and corporate donor lists that he has refused to turn over to the branch to organize a competing MLK Breakfast, at the same time and place as the traditional Greater Bangor Area NAACP’s Annual MLK Breakfast at the University of Maine, and to solicit funds for his personal MLK event, thus sabotaging the NAACP’s traditional breakfast, our main fundraiser of the year, and jeopardizing our economic stability.

I have been secretary of the Bangor NAACP branch since August 2007, when Mr. Varner was relieved of the position. I have attended every Bangor NAACP meeting since August, and I know that he never once warned President Joe Perry, at a branch meeting, that his group had reserved the space at Stodder Hall, the long-standing location of the breakfast, but in fact, he made all of his plans behind our backs.

Never once did he tell us at meetings that we “need to find another space if [we] want to have an NAACP breakfast.” Neither the minutes reflect, nor does any member recall, any such statement. The minutes do state that on Nov. 25, Varner seconded the motion to cancel our Kwanzaa this year because of to the threat against our branch, and then on Dec. 9, the date when it had been originally scheduled, he turned around and held his own Kwanzaa at the same location.

Most troubling, however, is the fact that Varner knew that we had been organizing our own breakfast for months in collaboration with the university, as noted in the minutes, as Varner has attended every meeting for the past year.

However, he nonetheless informed our past corporate sponsors and our national chairperson, Julian Bond, that his new organization, the Maine Human Rights Coalition Inc., was the sole organization holding the breakfast this year, and he claimed that a portion of the proceeds would be given to the NAACP, leading our loyal donors to contribute to his breakfast. Misleading the Bangor NAACP’s past donors and leadership is reprehensible.

Dr. Josephine A. Bright is secretary

of the Greater Bangor Area NAACP.