Campus NAACP: serving alone

The Portland State chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People appears to be the only active branch of the organization in Portland.

According to Portland State chapter President Erica Lee-Johnson, the main NAACP branch in Portland, founded in 1914, is no longer functioning after it was found in non-compliance with the national organization.

“To stay in compliance with the national organization we have to send in a report every year detailing what we do, include our financial information showing the works that we do and the numbers of members in our group,” Lee-Johnson said.

According to Lee-Johnson, when a unit is found to not be in compliance with the national organization, they get their tax-exemption privileges taken away and the group is shut down.

“When the national branch came out, the Portland unit was found to be not in compliance and they dismantled it,” Lee-Johnson said. “It was unfortunate but as a branch, they have to follow certain protocol.”

Charlene McGee, the former president of the Portland NAACP chapter, was hesitant to comment on what happened and repeatedly denied knowing anything about it. McGee said she has not being in contact with the organization for a period of time.

“I don’t even know who you got my phone number from at all,” McGee said.

When asked for more information on how to get in touch with the officers from the Portland branch, McGee said she deleted all her contact information.

Lee-Johnson said in the past, McGee went above and beyond to provide support to the Portland State NAACP through the Portland branch.

“She makes sure she was an active part of our campus, her last visit at Portland State was [Dec. 1, 2008] during the World AIDS event hosted by the Association of African Students,” Lee-Johnson said. “She was really active but I just think that because of the infrastructure of the Portland branch at the time, she wasn’t growing in her position.”

Lee-Johnson said McGee was not to blame for the dismantling of the Portland NAACP but rather that the entire structure of the local organization was poor. 

However, Oscar Eason, the state conference president of the NAACP—which oversees all 19 NAACP units in the Oregon-Washington-Alaska region—said that the Portland unit is still functioning and only had a change of management after an election.  

“The Portland branch is well on its way and is functioning,” Eason said. “Last year they were not in compliance because they didn’t file a year-end report. That happened but they are now reinstated and now have new officers.”

However, the Web site of the Portland NAACP chapter appears broken and will not load past a greeting page, and the chapter office at 3527 N.E. 15th Ave. appears to be shut down.

“[Eason is] going to say that because you are outside of NAACP and there’s a certain image that they want to uphold,” Lee-Johnson said. “I don’t know why he said that, but since he is the state-conference president, you should go with him, but from my understanding the Portland branch is no longer functioning.”

Cashauna Hill, another former vice president, said that the Portland branch was not in compliance due to missing financial report that supposed to be reported to the state area conference.

“Somewhere between the state conference and the national organization the papers were lost and the Portland branch has sent the proper paper work in,” Hill said.

Bishop H.L. Hodge, the new president of the Portland NAACP chapter, refused to comment on what happened with the previous administration and said that he doesn’t know anything about it.

However, Hodge was a part of the previous administration under McGee, where he is listed on the NAACP Web site as chapter vice president.

Hodge said that he want to focus on the new administration and listed numerous things he wants to accomplish, including creating a viable work environment, bringing the community together and increasing membership.  

“I have no time for trivia … no time for garbage,” Hodge said. “I’m looking to doing something positive.”