NAACP casts eye to new leadership

Jace Radke

Thursday, Dec. 3, 1998 | 11:19 a.m.

Placing a call to the Las Vegas office of the NAACP will get the caller a recorded message from the suspended branch president, the Rev. James Rogers.

On the message, Rogers asks the caller if he or she is a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and invites the caller to, "come home to the NAACP," something that Rogers himself has been unable to do since he and the branch's executive board were suspended in August.

The message serves as an ironic reminder of the problems that the Las Vegas branch has faced since Rogers was elected in 1994.

Local NAACP members and Edward Lewis, president of the NAACP Tri-State Conference, which oversees all the branches in Idaho, Utah and Nevada, will try to put those problems behind the branch by nominating candidates for the vacant presidency on Friday.

"Nominations will be taken from the floor and all nominees must have signed consent from three NAACP members in good standing," Lewis said. "Because of the time it took to get to this point, we have bypassed a nominating committee for floor nominations."

Elections at the other NAACP branches took place in November, and Lewis is hoping that a new president will be in place in Las Vegas by late December or early January.

The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the West Las Vegas Library, 951 W. Lake Mead Blvd. Originally it was to be held at the NAACP headquarters, but because a large turn-out is expected it was moved, Lewis said.

There are about 2,500 NAACP members in the Las Vegas area, but only about 50 of them have been active members over the past year, a former branch board member said.

Three candidates have already announced their plans to run for the office and said they will attend Friday night's nomination meeting.

They include Louis Overstreet, a writer and member of the Clark County School District's Bond Oversight Committee; the Rev. Jesse Scott, local NAACP chapter president from the late 1980s to 1993; and Gene Collins, a state assemblyman from 1982 to 1986.

The suspension does not bar Rogers from running again, if he gets the signatures of three members in good standing, but he has said in the past that he does not intend to seek another term.

Rogers' August suspension stems from failing to file the year-end financial report for 1996, as requested by the the national office earlier this year.

Rogers said he sent the report, but National Field Secretary Mack Clack said it is not on file at the national office and that suspensions were being given to those chapters that failed to send the report.

NAACP branches are not considered nonprofit organizations and must submit 50 percent of all funds raised and financial reports to NAACP headquarters.

The report was only the latest in a long line of setbacks for the branch under Rogers' leadership.

NAACP members accused the Rev. Chester Richardson, Rogers' assistant from 1994 to June 1997, of sexually harassing minors. There were also claims from members that the branch had run unapproved fund-raisers.

In December 1997, the branch was evicted from its offices at 600 W. Owens Ave. after Operation Life, a nonprofit community help group and the NAACP's landlord at the time, said that the branch owed more than $5,000 for unpaid sewer fees.

Since Rogers' suspension, Lewis has taken control of the Las Vegas branch until a new president can be elected.