WE, the undersigned support the U.S. Civil Rights Complaint Against the National NAACP, filed by Rev. Curtis E. Gatewood dated December 28, 2023 in his attempt to pursue justice inside and out of the African American and oppressed community within the United States.

WE, further support this call upon the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate all NAACP suspensions which have occurred since 2017 - the tenure’s beginnings of current National NAACP President & CEO Derrick Johnson, and subsequently require the restoration of all NAACP memberships suspended without due process, which do not fully comply with the NAACP Constitution & Bylaws for Units under all Sections of Article X (i.e., Sections 1 thru 6) and those suspensions which subsequently violate the intent of The 5th and 14th Amendments of The U.S. Constitution.   

WE, the undersigned, further believe all U.S. citizens and even those human beings who are undocumented, are entitled to civil and human rights protections which include but are not limited to - the presumption of innocence, due process, and  equal protection under the laws when accused of “inimical,” criminal, or infamous conduct that leads to punishment and losses to rights and privileges bestow upon others.

OVERVIEW 

     In summary, Gatewood’s civil rights complaint calls upon the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene, investigate, and enforce corrective action toward the irreparably harmful, discriminatory, and unconstitutional punishment administered by the current National arm of the National Association for the Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) leadership, since the year 2017, as described herein.  

     The said punishment egregiously violates both, the internal NAACP Constitution & Bylaws for Units as described under Article X, and the external sections of the U.S. Constitution, established to require the presumption of innocence, due process, and equal protections prior to administering long-term suspensions and other severe punishment, when infamous and/or criminal allegations are made against NAACP members, NAACP workers, NAACP elected officers, NAACP candidates, and other NAACP associates whose rights are ultimately to be protected by the “supreme law of the land” - the U.S. Constitution.

     This complaint comes to not only pursue internal justice for a long list of specific violations against Rev. Curtis E. Gatewood, but to further restore and protect the larger integrity of the NAACP’s true mission of justice and  civil rights protections.  

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COMPLAINT SUMMARY

    Rev. Curtis Everette Gatewood was single-handedly suspended by National NAACP President & CEO Derrick Johnson, on 9/26/19, based upon the politically-timed weaponization of workplace allegations against Gatewood, who was a formidable candidate and poised to win the 2019 NC NAACP presidency at the time.  

     Gatewood’s constitutional right to be presumed innocent, was violated, especially considering there was no evidence to support the politically-timed allegations being made against him by a co-worker that Gatewood had previously sought to have terminated, and supporters of the incumbent, the late NC NAACP President T. Anthony Spearman.  

     A dozen Spearman supporters made the 2017 workplace allegations public during September of 2019, nine days prior to the 2019 NC NAACP Election of Officers which was scheduled for 10/5/19.  

     Gatewood was poised to upset and defeat the 2019 incumbent with energized support and an applauded platform to fight racism throughout the state of North Carolina.  However, the 2019 NC NAACP election was stopped by the National NAACP; Gatewood was suspended and removed from the election ballot without due process, and the NC NAACP 2019 election was NEVER held to this day.  

    Meanwhile Gatewood has remained suspended without due process and without the National NAACP meeting its constitutional (internal and external) obligation to hear complaints, investigate those complaints fairly when submitted per NAACP Article X rules for filing internal complaints.  Subsequently, as part of the internal investigation, the National NAACP must must convene a hearing panel “within 60 days or as soon as possible” upon timely request.

     Furthermore, the allegations against Gatewood were voluntarily Dismissed With Prejudice in court on 11/13/23 by the complainant.  What is clear is, Gatewood’s name was “cleared” by the aforementioned dismissal, and it is “clear,” the political rivals who engaged in the character assassination that led to his suspension, had ulterior motives, had ties to the National NAACP office, had monetary malfeasance to hide, and would personally gain from Gatewood’s defeat or ouster.

     Gatewood did not receive an NAACP Hearing regarding his suspension until nearly 2 years later on 8/11/21.  Even with the nearly 2-year delay, as of this day, the Hearing panel never said whether the reasons for Gatewood’s suspension were valid or whether the suspension should be overturned.  Just as other life-impactful matters in this case,  the outcome was just left hanging by the National NAACP after years of  internal civil rights betrayal, and once years of damage toward Gatewood’s livelihood, reputation, momentum, achievements, his unyielding civil rights work-history, and family was done.

If only the National NAACP would follow its own rules, and not allow an individual (i.e., National NAACP President & CEO) to arbitrarily issue indefinite suspensions to NAACP Members without due process.  

According to the 2019 NAACP Constitution & Bylaws, under Article X, Section 4, such suspensions from the National NAACP President & CEO, should come “pending a hearing upon the request of the respondent.”  Furthermore, Section 6 of the same Article states “…The hearing panel shall convene within sixty (60) calendar days, of the receipt of the complaint or as soon as possible thereafter, and conduct a hearing according to the hearing procedure.”  

The Constitution’s urgent requirement of a followup of due process, if the National President & CEO feels he can justify his hierarchical power to suspend civil rights workers from the ground without the needed checks and balances, is clearly not being followed in this case and many others across the country - from North Carolina to Philadelphia; from Illinois to Sacramento California.

     It is worth further noting that Gatewood was also suspended from the office of Alamance-Burlington NAACP President during February 2019 without due process, based upon a claimed “interpretation” by the National NAACP which asserted that Gatewood, who had transferred from a neighboring County, had not lived in the area long enough to serve as the local president although Gatewood’s process in becoming the local leader had been followed according to the NAACP Constitution’s rules as written at the time.

In the case of the Alamance County suspension from office (not membership) the Hearing panel met 5 months later after a flood of letters of unanimous support for Gatewood from the local NAACP Executive Committee Members.  Nonetheless, to this day, the National NAACP has offered no response or findings of the hearing held on July 29, 2019.

     At the time of his suspension from his position as Alamance NAACP President during February 2019, Gatewood was in the process of enthusiastically waging a “good fight” against one of the most outwardly racist Sheriff’s in the country and had established the momentum for victory.  An outpouring of local support came when Gatewood was arrested for speaking one minute over the time allotted for public comments during an Alamance County Commissioners’ Meeting during early February 2019, where Gatewood spoke against the actions of Sheriff Terry Johnson and the commissioners’ support for the sheriff’s acts of racism.  Gatewood’s suspension from the local presidency in Alamance County also came while he was in the middle of his campaign-kickoff to recruit 300 new members of the NAACP as the new president, within the next 3 months.  

     This complaint therefore seeks to ultimately protect NAACP members and the African American community in general, whose lives are detrimentally impacted by the said troublesome patterns and the unjust precedents created by the current National NAACP leadership when the “nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization” misguidedly betrays its own claimed purpose and violates the rights of its own civil rights workers.   

     The violations and undeserved punishment described herein, create a dangerous domino effect that undermine and systematically impede the work and efforts of those destined to bring justice and pertinent civil rights protections to other disenfranchised U.S. citizens and oppressed members of society. 

GOALS

     Enforce U.S. Constitutional guidelines indiscriminately as they pertain to the 5th and 14th Amendments pursuant to fair and impartial due process and equal protection under the laws, regardless of who violates the said Amendments.

     Restore the “NAACP fully paid life membership” of  Rev. Curtis E. Gatewood and others who were suspended from the NAACP without due process and without a timely NAACP Hearing where the panel immediately shares recommendations to the suspended party, National NAACP Board of Directors, and the National NAACP President & CEO to either reverse the immediate suspension served by the NAACP President & CEO or provide specific facts and direct evidence to substantiate the allegations or justification for punishment. 

     Require the National NAACP to pay an agreeable amount of financial retribution toward Gatewood and any other NAACP representatives found to be severely punished and suspended indefinitely based upon unproven allegations and/or in violation of clearly established NAACP and U.S. Constitutional protections, and where punishment indisputably caused a loss in income, unjust denial of positional leadership, or in other ways inflicted undue harm to one’s livelihood, reputation, work history, and character.

     Require the National NAACP to work under an independently established plan of action which outlines specific corrections to be made that will proactively negate future violations toward its less powerful civil rights workers, officers, candidates, and members at the rank and file levels across the nation.