[Mpls] Did Mpls NAACP branch "loan" $85, 000 for investment in grocery stores...

[Socialist2001 at cs.com]

...without a written agreement to repay?

At the March 25, 2005 Minneapolis NAACP Branch Executive Committee meeting, 
EC member Larry Tucker declared that there is a tape recording of a meeting of 
the nominations committee in October 2004 in which a former officer of the 
branch stated that $85,000 was loaned to another branch officer and his 
associates for investment in grocery stores. The same branch officer had reported to a 
branch membership meeting in June 2003 that about $86,000 in misplaced funds 
had been invested, but didn't say where the money was invested, and branch 
officers have never provided any documentation about that investment to the branch 
membership. 
   
On the Sunday, March 27, 2005 airing of "Black Focus" (at 5 to 6 PM, Cable 
channel 17), which was taped on Thursday evening, Ron Edwards reported that 
Larry Tucker had recently played a tape recording of the October 2004 nominations 
committee meeting mentioned above at the registered office of the Minneapolis 
NAACP branch.

After watching Black Focus on March 27, 2005, I contacted Hayward McKerson, 
the chairman of the nominations committee of October 2004, who stated 
emphatically that Tucker couldn't have played the tape to anyone because he (McKerson) 
had the tape. McKerson assured me that there was a tape recording of the 
meeting in question, but that he had the tape in his possession, and he was pretty 
sure that there was no other audio tape recording of the meeting. I asked for, 
and was promised a copy of the tape, to be turned over to me on Tuesday or 
Wednesday (March 29 or 30, 2004).

However, in a telephone conversation on Wednesday morning, Mr. McKerson 
stated that he was turning over the tape to George Allen, and that George would 
turn the tape over to me. If McKerson wanted me to have the tape as soon as 
possible, why not simply give it to me. Why a go-between? I contacted George Allen 
twice that morning (on my cell phone) and again at about 9:00PM. I wanted to 
pick up the tape after Mr. Allen returned home later that evening. I haven't 
heard from George Allen since that time. There is no record of a call to my home 
phone on my caller ID from Allen or McKerson since Wednesday, March 30, 2005. 
And I haven't taken a call on from Mr. Allen or McKerson on my cell phone 
(which would be recorded on my billing statement).

A copy of the tape recording which Larry Tucker spoke of at the March 25, 
2005 Minneapolis Branch Executive Committee meeting was evidently not in the 
possession of Harward McKerson at the time that Larry Tucker reportedly played a 
copy of the tape to persons at the Minneapolis NAACP branch office. If the 
audio tape exists, at least one copy of it has been in Larry Tucker's possession.

-Doug Mann, King Field
www.educationright.com