Crusade for Voters president and VP step down

Most mystery dinner theater productions come with a shoe-leather-tough steak, but last night’s planned political assassination of Antione Green, president of the Richmond Crusade for Voters skipped the dinner course and went straight to indigestion, resulting in heavy collateral damage for both Green and Crusade vice president, James “J.J.” Minor.

March 17, 2010; 5:27 PM • by Chris Dovi

“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

It was a dizzying evening of political jockeying for the 200 people in attendance that swung between discussion of arcane points of the Crusade’s procedural bylaws and a free-for-all of shouts, jeers and insults. Nearly three hours later, both Green and Minor had resigned their respective posts with the Crusade, each citing fatal conflicts of interest for their roles in other political organizations or issues.

The meeting and its body count underscore a growing shift in black political circles, in part created by the vacuum left by Gov. L. Douglas Wilder’s effective withdrawal from the scene and the resurgence of Wilder’s longtime political rival, State Sen. Henry Marsh. Marsh, a mentor to many current city leaders, including Mayor Dwight C. Jones, is seen by many younger Crusade members as resistant to a progressive movement in the local black community that shadows a similar national movement.

“It’s the Marsh Democrats against… well, against everybody else,” said Carrie Cox, chairwoman of the Crusade’s membership committee, expressing anger and frustration before Green’s resignation announcement. She called Minor’s claims of conflict “the pot calling the kettle black” and a clear political maneuver.

Green has been under fire since his March 1 slip before a General Assembly education committee appearance testifying on behalf of proposed charter school law changes. Green also serves as chief executive officer of the proposed Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts charter in Richmond, and members of the committee he addressed were members both of the Assembly’s black caucus and the Crusade.

Prior to his testimony Green repeatedly was asked if he was there representing both the Crusade and the charter school. He now says he was mistaken when he replied “yes.”

The night of Green’s appearance, the Crusade’s executive committee met at O’Toole’s Irish Pub on Forest Hill Avenue to consider his mistake. Minor assailed Green for the comments, saying his own phone had been ringing off the hook with complaints and calls for Green either to explain himself or to step down.

Green later emailed a letter of apology to the organization’s membership, explaining the slip as being unintentional but inexcusable.

But the controversy continued to simmer, the spark fanned by a variety of interests within the Crusade who’ve been unhappy with Green’s role with the charter school. Last night, forces rallied against Green, led at times by Marsh, revealing deep rifts in the Crusade, which was founded in 1956 to register voters, combat school inequality and Massive Resistance to desegregation.

Minor, whose mother is Del. Delores McQuinn, a close political ally of Marsh and Mayor Dwight Jones, also shared in the assault. He said Green’s testimony at the General Assembly gave the false impression that the Crusade endorsed charter schools, when in fact “this body voted no to what? Charter schools.”

In a move that Green’s supporters claim as proof of conspiracy, Minor convened a meeting of the group’s executive committee just before last night’s meeting. Only a handful of the executive committee were invited – all opponents of Green — with Minor saying he “called all I knew about.” None of the members who attended the March 1 meeting at O’Tooles were notified.

Minor’s meeting voted to report out a recommendation that Green step down or that a vote be taken on his removal.

Attempts by Green’s supporters to suppress the coupe were futile. “This is ugly,” summarized City Councilman Marty Jewell, a former Crusade president credited with recruiting Green to the organization nearly a decade ago. Jewell said he suspects Marsh and Jones are behind the push to remove Green. “In my 32 years here [in the Crusade] this is the second time I know of [when a president was removed by force].”

The last time, Jewell says, the organization presented a “long bill of particulars” against the then-president, Charles Chambliss, while in this Green’s case “this young man made one mistake.”

In the end, it was another former Crusade president, Terone Green (no relation to Antione Green) who brokered the solution that called for both Green and Minor to step down. It was a solution that he said best protected the interests of all parties, but that also may well serve to leave open the question and debate over charter schools, an issue that some black political leaders see as a solution while others view as a return to segregationist policies of Massive Resistance and White Flight from Richmond Public Schools.

“To me, this will elevate the argument – the debate,” Terone Green said.
Marsh disagreed. “It’s going to keep the peace,” he said of the resignations, but he called charter schools “a different issue” and Antione Green’s misrepresentation of that issue “a serious mistake.”

(Image courtesy of Antione M. Green)