The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, the only racially-segregated-by-rule organization in Durham, and maybe North Carolina, pulled more hi-jinks last week:
Only 18 of the estimated 100 people who attended were allowed to vote as the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People re-elected Lavonia Allison as chairwoman for the next two years.
“The black community got robbed without a gun,” said the Rev. Melvin Whitley, community activist and outreach minister at Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church, after the meeting.
State Sen. Floyd McKissick said he understood the origins of a rule that required attendance at previous meetings before being eligible to vote so that the meeting could not be stacked on election night, but had some misgivings:
“I think perhaps the pendulum has swung too far,” he said.
No, Floyd, I think the pendulum had swung too far more than 10 years ago, when someone was ejected from a Durham Committee meeting for not being black enough. Incredibly, the ejection was made by the then head of the Durham Human Relations Commission who was serving as sergeant-at-arms.
Human relations, Durham style.
