Black elected officials in St. Louis County and city are unanimous, if not quite united, in calling for the resignation of John Gaskin III, president of the St. Louis County NAACP, after he endorsed Better Together’s city/county merger plan last week – without disclosing that he was being paid by Unite STL to push for the merger by a statewide vote.
“Mr. Gaskin should have revealed his conflict of interest to everyone prior to any vote by the board and have allowed public input,” Dellwood Mayor Reggie Jones raised the first outcry in a statement on Friday, April 19, after the St. Louis Post-Dispatch confronted Gaskin with his undisclosed conflict of interest.
“The process was not transparent and not fair. It has stained the reputation of an organization whose historic role was the protection of the rights of the African-American community.”
Jones’ statement came with the announcement of a press conference that afternoon with a larger group of officials, which was then delayed as people got on (or off) the same page.
On Monday, April 22, the Fannie Lou Hamer Democratic Coalition finally hosted that press conference at Cool Valley City Hall, focusing more on the endorsement than Gaskin’s undisclosed payment.
“We are extremely disappointed but not surprised,” said County Councilwoman Hazel Erby, who is also leader of the Fannie Lou Hamer Democratic Coalition.
“The Better Together proposal violates the cardinal principle of democracy. It is morally wrong and demonstrates a careless disregard and disrespect for the African-American community of St. Louis. Better Together intentionally eliminates African-American representation. The only conclusion that you can draw is to reduce the growing African-American political influence in St. Louis County and St. Louis city.”
Several of the leaders at the press conference said that they are members of the County NAACP and did not hear about a vote to endorse the plan. To give the endorsement, the chapter should have asked from input from all its members, they said.
“I was appalled that the St. Louis County NAACP, an organization that is supposed to fight for greater minority representation, would be hijacked as a vehicle to take power away from the minority community,” said James McGee, mayor of Vinita Park.
“That the organization pushing this bad plan would hire the head of the St. Louis County NAACP and expect him to then deliver that group up to them demands accountability.”
Gaskin confirmed that he had accepted the paid position – without disclosing it when speaking in the voice of the County NAACP – but claimed that the County NAACP board’s endorsement of the proposal was not connected to his accepting paid work to pass the proposal.
Jones said Gaskin was influential in getting the board of the County NAACP “to support the Better Together consolidation plan pushed by billionaire Rex Sinquefield.”
Jones claimed that Gaskin “has sold out the very people he is supposed to be representing and the very people who have supported him with his rise in the NAACP organization.”
Jones is an African-American mayor representing a predominantly African American-community that directly neighbors Ferguson.
“We have worked for decades to bring African-American leadership and voice to this region and have succeeded,” Jones stated. “It appears Mr. Gaskin has sold a civil rights organization to the Better Together movement and has betrayed everything the NAACP represents.”
Jones stated that Gaskin “chose to ignore the membership’s voice of the St. Louis County NAACP and failed to discuss his own actions with any community leaders, for the sole purpose of ingratiating himself with his new employer and financial benefactors. His actions go against all that its members have worked for years to achieve and are a reflection on the type of campaign being waged by Unite STL in attempting to buy the St. Louis County NAACP.”
State Rep. Wiley Price, a rookie in the legislature from the city, joined the FLH group and made remarks which seconded a statement he had released on Friday.
“This endorsement is a glaring example of an individual who has utilized the resources at their disposal to enrich themselves rather than take care of the neglected constituents within our community,” Price stated.
“It is impossible for us to take the NAACP’s endorsement of this deal as genuine when it has been discovered that the president of the organization is leaving his post to become a paid lobbyist for Better Together. It is clear that this is Mr. Gaskin’s personal endorsement, conveniently printed on NAACP letterhead.”
Price did not, however, dismiss the value of debating a city/county merger.
“We don’t want to minimize the importance of the systemic changes that were mentioned in the endorsement letter. We can agree that our criminal justice system is in need of drastic modifications, the kind that are currently happening in the state legislature on a bi-partisan basis,” Price stated.
“We simply would like to ensure that the debate around Better Together, or any city/county merger, is had in good faith by those who are dedicated to the best path forward for their constituents and St. Louis as a whole.”
Four more black state representatives from the county who did not attend the FLH presser – State Rep. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, state Rep. Cora Faith Walker, state Rep. Raychel Proudie and state Rep. Kevin Windham Jr. – followed with their own group statement under an ominous epigraph by Malcolm X: “To me, the thing that is worse than death is betrayal.”
They did not leave it up to the imagination as to whom they were applying this bitter wisdom.
“John Gaskin is a traitor to his constituency and his actions are an abomination to the NAACP,” they stated.
“Previous St. Louis County NAACP presidents have fought very hard to maintain African-American representation in the region. Past presidents have understood how historic and systemic racism has impacted black communities in St. Louis, and how important black representation is in combating that racism. Gaskin has obviously either forgotten or simply disregarded those lessons from our past and has deviated from the goal of preserving African-American political influence.”
They made it clear that they do not reject the idea of transforming the region’s governance – just this proposal.
“We can all objectively recognize that the current state of St. Louis city and St. Louis County is unsustainable. The original sin of the City-County Divorce in 1876 has scarred our region. It has divided us economically, politically and morally. It has forced our municipalities to race each other to the bottom to compete for the scraps of economic development. It allowed wealthier and whiter communities to thrive, while poorer and blacker communities suffered,” they stated.
“We can all see there is a need to change this reality, but the scheme being proposed by Better Together is not the plan that St. Louis needs.”
