_ Suppose that you were on the Board of Directors
| of a Community Chest Agency and that as a result of being
asked to serve on the Budget Committee of the Agency, you
discovered certain irregularities primarily that Community
Chest moneys were being diverted to purposes other than those
for which they were allocated; that inadequate financial
records of both income and out-go were being maintained;
that moneys donated for special purposes such as to & pay
back debts were being used for other purposes; that not
only the Board but also the Community Chest were given
xuxards erroneous finaical reports; and that the President
and Treasurer were signing checks against insufficient funds ,
what would you as a private citizen do?
In addition there are other problems of poor
program in the agency; powr rapport with volunteers, continuous
Rimamgkai problems of financing, and favoritism on the part
of the director, plus the uttlaztion of his position as a
political football.imx to get jobs, housing, and scholarships
- for lower class Negroes and take all the credit personally.
To complicate the problem the agency director is
legro closely associated with kk a very tightly organized
Y owerful Democratic machine. His personal charm and
ynetism made every member of the Board feel a warm friendship for
This was inOctober 1960 and the budget committee
a Negro women well-trained in organizational procedures
la Board member of the YWCA xmx chairman of one of the most
Lmportant committees of the YWCA,The Building Committee dealing
annually with a budge’ almost as large as that of this agency
on it a lawyer,Graduate of Yale Law School, associated with
ding Albany Law Firm, an expert Negro accountant with many
rs of accounting experience and an astute anylst of Balanee
heets. In addition axfmxmar two former presidents of the
one a Negro who had been part of the agency since its
ion in 1928 and the other the former president of a large
corporation--a brilliant and widely read person --who has bean
active for many years on various voluntary boards = including
hospitals, other group work agencies, amixmkher as well as
banks and other business institutions. He was also the present
treasurer of this organization. %m In addition I as head of
the policy committee was on the beard Buaset” On! pill .
executive
The/director also added three other members to this
Budget and finance committte--namely the membership chairman
a lovely Negress wamx with a great deal of personal charm who
has a great ability in fund raising but no experience in financane
and is a friend of long standing whe feels that the executive
has dumm déne a great deal of service to the Negro community;
a white librarian-a longtime board member and friend of the
agency director who feels that Negroes maxxitax because of their
lack of moral direction and cultural deprivation cannot be
expected to conform to the prevailing white Christian mores and
learn how to do such things as balance budgets andmanage money
until many more generahions have come along. The third person,
in addition to the President of the Agency, who sits on this Ramm
Committee is a xaumex rising young Negro lawyer, a former
president of the NAAUP who is legalistically minded and extremely
cautious but also emotionally attached mkk not only % the
o-
| ezecutive but also to certain vested ineterests and to certain
religious power groups within the # Negro community. Basically
because of his legal background and high moral values, he is
in a position to become a strong Negro leader as time develops.
thaxgedxnkkhxakixkhessaxmen The President of the organization,
a Negro woman devoted to the ideals of the agency but limited
in formal education and inexperienced in the mechanics of group
dymamics and in understanding the financial structure of any
business or séctal structure was caught in the middle between
loyalty to her friends and to theaimsxmfxthexkx and the ideals of
the agency as promulgated not only in the constitution but
through the long range policies of the agency.
The Board of the directors of the agency oves-axmerindxmfxyears
hiadtx antixparkaps over the period of the sixteen years that the
present executive has been in charge has keen hatxaumerausx
achieved a high point of inexperienced and uneducated directors.
| Except for a few Negro professionals who have remained on the
Board kas all the Negro professionals have resigned £m from the
Board or not run for reelection; strong white business m=mk men
and professionals have gradually ceased serving on the Baard of
ctors and new strong business and professional people
longer serve on this Board primarily because they do
e the policies of the Executive Director.
formulation af
_ The executive director has taken over the/policies of the
ard a of Directors and has not allowed committee chairmen
to assume the raps responsibilities which are theirYs .. Up to
this present chairmanship of the Budget and Finance Committee
thés committee was merely a rubber stamp which kekxkhexexerx
the executive's statements as to the fiscal condition of the
y amix as correct. The Board of Directors went along with
recommendations of the Budget Committee and the Treasurer
the Agency. and did not realize that the financial picture
} not as k good as it was painted.
Although Octover 1960 is as good a time to start this
report as any, several other factors had come before the Board
3 before this time. First, the continual defitit ; second, continuous
a begging operations in the agency, to the board and to the
general public for funds; and the failure of the agency to pay
it Withholding and Soical Security taxes when due. In addition
the executive on his own and without the consent of the Board
or the Budget Committee had several times borrowed money fram
in the form of bank loans to meet emergencies of one kind of
another and then post hoe facto gained the approval of the
Board. In addition @ommunity Chest advances were solicited several
times and again not reported to the Board umkkkxafterx or the
Budget Commmitttee until after the event.
Financial reposts to the Community Chest were inconsistent
and differei in detail from time to time s© that the YORdget
committtee of the Community Chest was naturally concerned with
what was going on in this agency.
| 3-
In addition to all these complications, September there
were back bills reported of approximgtel 200.00 plus mapkkak
known capital debts of approximatel Op00 plus unpaid bagginterest
on mortagage and outstanding buil ing fund pledges dating back
almost five years of over $12,0000 which were primar: ly owed
by the Negro community. By the fixsys December! amount
of unpaid bills totalled approximately$6600.00.sex Of this
amount gm approximately@1300.00 was for bills which had
accumulated from 1957 and 1958xamd some of which had been
concealed from the Board. In adddition some of the more
recent bills included $350.. for an electric typewriter
a large sum for the purchase of, a loud speaking system
neither of which expenditures had been authorized by either
the Board of Directors or the Budget and finance committee.
Since of all these liabilities the Feacha) Taxes are the only
ones for which a Board of Directors is legally repsonsible
although they are morally respohsibile for all finances of the
agency, as long as April 1960 a resolution was passed by the
fe Board of Directors“$tating that the executive dtrector was
} obligated to follow the law and put these moneys into an
Be. escrow account. Xmkxankyxwaxxkhiaxidonexbutxkkexexegukiuvex Not
only was this direct/‘ve from the Board not carried out but
ie Director claimed that it had never been told him and he
med not to undertand the importance of am paying the
olding taxes and social security. Under the financial
es he was féllowing a policy of borrowing from Peter
pay Paul, acting very paternalistic in proteactiingk not
y the Board but the President and the Treasurer fromthe
e financial picture of theagency.
Although there is also suspicigwn that there are other
irregulabities in the handling and use of funds it was not
hought necessary to bring these into the picture.
Naturally all this was not revealed at one time. First
of all an auditors report requested by the Community Chest from an
independent auditor was not made public to the RuarixatxPireckor
Budget committee until several months after it was completed and
= its recommendations were not acted upon until that time.
aes The dtrector also claimed that his figures @id not agree with
the auditors report and he lied continually to the Budget
Committee and to the President of the agency about various
financial matters.
In addition he was completely uncooperative in allowing
the office secrebhamy to be trained to make entries in a new
system devised by the auditor and also was reluctant to allow
the President or the Chairman of the Finance committee to
amixkxknax examine the books and records until pressure by the B ukpe4-
committee that I and the accountant onthe committee instri€ct the
secretary in making the entries in the journal and the ledger
was allowed.
oluKaer
on yho day the meeting the Chairman of the Finance
Committee, the “accoun and I met with the secretary who brought
the new accountbooks , dnexpayratixremn and the checkbooks to us.
The account books were not any where near up to date, records of
sources of income yere so incomplete Here, meaningless especially
| 4
| from the point of view of Commmity Chest accounting; there was
no current balance in the checkbook and no separate pagroll records.
In addition no attempt had been made to make any Withholding
Tax and Social Security payments.am# When confronted with this mess
we immediatefly called the President of the agency and the 4
executive to meet with us. At that time there were recriminations
on his part against me and against the financial chairman and
extreme vituperation trying to put the blame upon us. fe had gone
there with every good intention to be helpful in clearing yp y
this firmcial mess and help the secretary get the books in order
so that the Bu@get anf Finance committee kmuxiksex could do its
job of balancing the Budget and preparing balance sheets and
estimating 1961 bufigets.
Probably then and there I should have resigned. Instead
I called the Treasurer and the librarian and we met together
| and devised a resolution calling for the Board to hire a
£ secretary walxx who would keep the books and take care
° he financial records of the agency. Our resolution also
stated that he was to represent the agency in é@ommmity Chest
negotiations. This resolution was passed byathe Budget and
hance Committee but when brought to the Board was considered
be a measure designed to take away the power of the Executive
‘ctor and was construed as putting too much policy control
he hands of a yet to be named financial secreatry. Unfortunetely
© was considerable animosity and hostility aroused by the Board
: directed by the frg@nds of the executive at the chairman of
jane Budget committee who aroused stated that kmx the director had
been misusing agency and @ommunity éhest funds. and misma: ng the
| agency. im Although khexxex her words weme=mak did not spec fically
. 4 ate or even imply criminal misuse on thepart of the director, his
tisans inferred that she was accusing him of commmitting a
minal offense.
Immediately emotion took over and ever though we moderates xxx
attempted to point out that we were only acting for the good of the
| agency and that if the director were freed from the cumbersome
details of bookkkeeping and Senin to babalnce the budget that
he would have more time todevote to running the agency, the motion
was tabled mprkmaxkk until the next board meeting.
After adding cur Negro lawyer to the Budget Committee and
havéng him work out the details of the duties of the financial
secretary, at the nest board meeting a motion was passed to hite
a financial secréitary and subsequently we were abhe to get an
accountant kmx who worked for the auditor to stmaighten out the
books. and an attempt was made by the Finance Committee to
earry out fs duties with np@gard to nanagbieay the f.
the agency. >
However the executive refused to give up any of his Piaaciel
controls; moneys borrowed from the bank for the purpose of paying
for a fence were thrown into the operating expenses and the agency
was forced to take this money o of the operating income for the
year 1961, In January without consulting the chairman of the
Budget Committee, our friend went down to the Community Chest and
borrowed $500.00 as advance. This was subsequently reported to
to the budget committee.
At the time of meeting with the Chest to borrow the $500.00
| in a current abal@eée sheet he showed the @hest that gxttxx $6600.00
| rather that the 1200 indécated in a Septemeber statement was
| owed imxkke in back bills by the agency @nd the Chest was incensed,.
| by the fact that bills were concealed from them.
| From this point pressures were put on the agency by the
| Chest to let the Chest know how the agency p@pposed to meet this
| eritical situation. In any other agency I as a member of the
community serving on a Community Chest agency would immediately
have felt an obligation to go to the Community Chest when I
| discovered the fingmeial mess in this situation. However,
| knowing the Negruzgsx sensitivity anixkheirx of this group of Negroes
and knowingthat they would m feel that I was betraying their
leader even though I knew that what hewR was doing was wrong
I felt that the best thing was to proceed slowly and tom try
grddually to let the members of the budget committee and the
Board see themselves that the agency was not benefitting by the
. x #% shenanigans gmmgx going on. In addition since the
% committee requested that no one discussmx outside of the
mce meetings what was occurring in the agency I felt bound
ais.
: I also rendized that sooner or later the Community Chest
d have to take some steps in this situation and I hoped that
he Bexceutive himself and his advisers would suggest that,
he look for another job before he was called on the carpet.
In the course of events, however, kxxfmxiksx situations arise
are not within the control of the individual and we dmxmmk are
yaxmanikpukake not able because of time factors to varry events
i their logical conclusion. In this instance the Community
Chest became veryirate and sent in some of their Budget
committee representatives to the agency to talk things over
with the Budget Chairman and with tmx several other memebrs
of the Budget and Finance Committee. Reports to the full 4%.
committee were that it was a very pl@asgat meetingand that they azeapk
did not have anything very much to say aud het rine lin *
However subsequent events showed that the Budget Committee
of the Chest were very much on their toes. To begin with ex
officio they called in the Treasurer of the Agency and maidx made
several recommendatsons which were brought back to the agency in
the form of the threat that if the agency did not immediately mend its
ways and take complete finmncial control from theex€sutive and put
it in the hands of the Treasurer, that they would appoint a Csar
for the agency. Point two it was recommended that the program directo)
| be fired , his salary to be used to pay the back bikls g and some
other recommendations regarding the policy of the agency. He
The recommendation regarding the program director was an
unfortunate one as was the use of the term Csar. Unfortunately
ixuaukax by suggesting~ that we ask far the resignation of the
program director a harmless en young,man who wasnot
implicated in th4s mess, inst f the director, I was forced to
@o to his defense andstate that the @ommunity ca could not
8
WW oADEA Te comduct
started from scratch and reorganized so—that—i+—witi—be-tifficult
te-hnew Where te—begi
n. Aare Cffcewel Varenlytes lingy Liner”
One of the Budget committee members irked to the point of
extreme anger anit particularly by the continual fYmmixraising
unathorized fund raising and the inability of the members of the
Budget committee to realistically face the financial straits
of the agency finally discussed this with another Board member
and they decided to call a special meeting at a his church and
invi 4 or 5 other mefbdeyso-fithe zammikke Board to meet with them
to talk over Nhekherxikxnoutk a just what the next move would be
and whether it would be possible to present the situation to the
Board of Directors.
I went to the meeting expecting to see four or five people, of
whom sev@aal were to be people not previously involved in the
situation. I arrived a few minuted earlier and was astonished to
find two non-board members, the former president who has been
covering up for Mr. Kennellyxam# waiting in their car dor the
door to be mopened. The meeting began a few minuted late
with about kw 12 people there seated around in a circle like
@ Quaker meeting. I was quite astonished at who theywere
mxbut since this situation has been full of surprises £x and
ce by this time I was rolling with the waves and tryingto
(ide whether to resign or sit it all out I accepted the
uationespecially skmmx when the President of the organization
axkkex whom we did not expect showed up with the membership
chairman. Since we had advised the president to keep out of the
situation so that she would not be accused of taking sides, tm
I thought it curious that she was there but since she is not
the most experienced tactician and since there were other
e@ople there who were close friends of the ex@eutive, I
passed.
Yae Douglas the President said khak “f wasn't planning to come
] ~ here today although I was told that therewas going to be
a meeting but somethin has come up which exx made me change
my mind. Mr. Kennell has told me that he has decided to resign.
He was called down to the Community Chest and I don"t know what they t
told xk him but whateever it was, he decided to resign from the
council."
I was astounded. Mr. LaMar said that the reason for the
meeting was to see whaere we were going and also annoured thet
Mr. McCabe the President of the Community Chest was
coming at three o'clock.
It was like a wake with all the friends of the deseased
sitting around and nobody saying anything except that John
Jemnings started to cross examine. He said that he was aware
that something was going on but he did not know what it was
and that lots of things were being said but he had heard nothing
definite and he too wanted to know where we were going. Since
I felt that if Mr. Hennell resigned there might be some
question of where we were going, I tried to answeydohn to state
that the agency had been going in az a direction which some of
us had felt was wrong for a long time--that social service concepts
had changed since the organization was started and so forth.
There was se discussion on this point but quite ineffectual
and Mr. MeCabe had come in on it. Possibly some of ghe discussion
had comme before ape announced Mr, Kennell's resignation.
Actually I was rather stunned and the electric atmosphere in the
room was unbearable. Somehow I felt that I should have been
informed beforehand of what was happening, that I should have know
that additional people had been invited and that The business of the
meeting had been changed.
In addition I did not maakx realize at the moment the full
impleations of what had happened and the crisis which might
develop as a result of the Community Chest coming in and
forcing our hand. Later I thought how foolish! Here we had
been sitting on a tinderbox and were just about gmkkx reaching the
point with evwidence and continuing action on the part of the
| executive that would create situation after situation where he
would ruin himself as he had done in the SCAD incident at which
time his Negro friends had condemned him. In addition
it was gradually becoming possible for us to gain adherents
-and solidify Board opinion against him. But now the Community
Chest by their hasty action had dropped a bomb and in bitterness
nd vengeance Kennell's friends were out to get me and Annabel
ath, the Chairman of the Budget Committee and if they could
ctor Lord.
ow they are out to get me. I asked who are the “they? " Zher
sy are his friends --those people whom he has helped to get
obs and housing-inadequate though it may be. He has sat in court
ith them when their children have gotten into trouble and gone
9 the principals and the fidence people when they have been
aid to go themselves. e has been their leader and the
‘son that they have been able to go to a man who has been
it up as a leader because he is a"friend" of the Mayor and
has cleverly built himself up as their only leader so that
ow they have no one to“Se"to ,We have destroyed their father
‘and in many cases the only father they have Imown --the good natured
likeable protective father and forthe women he has been their
| child--the boy who makes mistakes and comes back for their protection
} and solicitation; to the women too he represents a person who
| has has an education who is a professional man who has not
| left his people but who helps them to better themselves.
Unfortunately thisxmrmkerk what is not seen is that this
political hero is hurting the Negroes. When the press asks how
are things in Albany with the Negroes or when he gives talks he says
kua"There are no problems in Albany!" Albany is no different from
any other Northern urban city. There are problems. The fact that
eight or ten professional Negro families live in decent suburban
housing does not blind us to the fact that discrimination in
housing condemns ten-15000 Negroes to live in delapidated fire
traps Mnkshxars in which frequent fires and deaths occur; it
does not blind us to the unwed mothers amungxiagxasextmx in
the Junior or Senior High School; it does not blind ts to
the fact that the dropout of the academically talented youngsters
in the high school is very great and that Negro youth who do go
on to college rarely attend college in this area butz go to inferior
colleges in the south; it does hot conceal the double perfyeémance
standards fmxxk expected for whived and Negroes in the school system
and in the business colleges. It is a fact that there is unemployment
in Albany and the unemployment is as elsewhere inxkhexkemx highest
ka a
10
among the teenagers and the unskilled. As for discrimination
of course here is discrimination. As for pakkeunrest among
the Negroes in Albany,there are many signs of unrest to the
not necessarily acute observer. Increase of muggings, riots
in the Junior High School, jostling of whites walking along the street
silence as a white walks into the Center instead of the former
courteous smile, a difficulty of communication between white
and Negro, and more undirected activity. fherextexsisa
Ny trouble in Albany is a strange thing to say. It would be
an amazing world if no trouble would arise if Albany when New York
is full of a black Nationalist movement many of whose memners
are violently anti-white; when there are sit-downs in the south
and wherenthere is undeclared war in areas of the south with armed
men on both sides; when Negro Nationalism is rising throughout the
world.
But the church is strong in Albany they say. That the church is
&trong in Albany is no protection. People can attend church and make
their children attema church but the leadership in the church is weak
and the Negro ministers are not trained to hand&e the tremendous
enottionaland psychiatric problems wi h which they are confronted.
The Negroes need leadership but leadership directed to the
‘-determination; toward democratic ideals where they
The Negroes laugh at the whites for being such 2morkst fools,
Many of them are Anto-semétic and the Jews should beward. iaus
t the Jews should be aware because Hitler and
differeht from the Negro nationalist who appeal
he unskilled and the unemployed. The Jews have
Some concerns about the direction and orientation of the
Center. Since the direction will be to increase the recreation
aspects and develop the Center program just what is the best
method of continuing the urban League program?
Since we are stillleft with a verydefinite problem of
a poor ignorant board and ineffective officers plus vested
interests in terms of committee chairmen and so forth, where do we
go from here.
In addition samexa& there has been an increase in mistrust
and some enmities have ddveloped as the lines have been drawn.
In addition because some of the financial dks difficulties if
brought to light would be a reflection in some eyes on muxe
another individual, we had best ignore them.
More to the point is how to develop strong committeess from
a weak tnmmotivated board? how to get rid of the distrust and
secrecy complwxes that hinder any effective work; how to get rid of
the baxx persistent begging type of fund raising kkak and
borrowing from Peter to pay Paul psychology that the Lord will
provide/
of lower class uproar about thie fixrtm resignation of Kennell.
How much is crystallized and what direction it can take I do
not know but xkxisxek resentment is being aroused against
_. the budget and finance committee which may or may not be br ught
“. up at the Annual meeting April 13.
=, There are also some feelings that there is a great deal
Previous to that there have been numerous small indications
among the teen agers of anti-white hostilities which have
been displayed in rude behavior.; stopping talk when a white
enters or passes by; numerous small groups standing around
and such attacks as are put into the paper.
There is a question of how much information whould be given
out to the Board at this point. One of the great difficulties
is the tremendous urge to secrecy that is in this group.
In addition John Jennings is Mrs. Yarborough's son and she has
been protected in some ways throughout this fracas. In attdition
we suspect that she has also been protecting the status quo for
a long time and is very reluctant to talk about what has gone on
in the past.
advice and wrote up chronologically the most important
occurrences in the past six months and left the details
to fill in. However at the moment although I did manage
to be reelected to the Board of Directors, I have lost
some power because the Negroes are so emotionally aroused
at the imménent loss of their leader that they are "out to
get me" and the chairman of the Budget committee. Even
though the resignation of the director was announced to the
newspapers, it has not yet been ane by the Board of
Directors and was tabled at the last Board meeting to be
brought up in May. The resignation letter is dated April
announcing the resignation to be effective im December1,1961"!
We were taken aback by the motion to table the resignation but
it may not have been wise to act on it since the resignation
may maka not have been accepted by a majority of the Board
As a matter of fact there are still merous Negroes worting to
Qe
try to keep Kennell as egecutive director.
I unconsciously m@iidxm had done a highly successful
maneuver by nominating for the Annuzl Race Relations Award
given at the Annual Dinner one of our Board members who
is principal of a local Junior High School near the Center.
Baeeaau Because of his great populabity, the fact that he may
also have cancer, and wis the spechal citation brought out a
tremendous atéendance--including the Superintendent of Schools,
| the Assistant Superintendent of SChools , several principals,
Because of these and
assistant principles and maybe thirty teachers! inmxaddikioan
kha other
axnunkerxax high prestige people attending , the antitipated
floor fight over my election and the entire slate went through as
pbesented by the mebership committee.
We have a “loud mouth" on me our side who has been
talking all over towm and to Community Chest officdis. I am
suspected of giving her information and this has boomeranged
against me as I am not being kept informed of syerykhin
all that is going on. I have tried to restrain her because
she 1s very ignorant of race relations problems and like many
Whites basicaaly quite hostile to Negroes. Of course,
LLL LL Oe
3,
if she judges all Negroes on the basis of tyme this group
who fall into the Amos and Andy stereotypes, it is understandable,
Many of these Negroes are quite stupid ana eméational--
They think that the Community Chest Budget panels cannot
read a balance sheet and after fooling the whites for
250 years they intend to Heep on fooling then.
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