{"id":179858,"date":"2021-11-30T18:22:59","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T02:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eugeneweekly.wpengine.com\/?p=184915"},"modified":"2021-11-30T18:22:59","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T02:22:59","slug":"eric-richardson-abruptly-dismissed-from-local-naacp-leadership-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/11\/30\/eric-richardson-abruptly-dismissed-from-local-naacp-leadership-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Eric Richardson Abruptly Dismissed from Local NAACP Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

After serving nearly nine years, Eric Richardson\u2019s time in a leadership role at the Eugene Springfield NAACP is over.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Richardson says the decision was disappointing but he\u2019s happy the organization isn\u2019t reliant on just one leader. The local NAACP chapter dismissed Richardson as executive director on Nov. 29. Board Vice President Adam Wendt says the decision was made so the organization can find an executive director who meets current needs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During Richardson\u2019s near-decade of leadership at the local NAACP chapter, he worked with many community organizations, helped establish the Mims family in its deserved place in local history, assisted in creating the executive director position at the organization and provided services for low-income families during the pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, it was something that I foresaw happening,\u201d Richardson says about the board dismissing him as executive director after his role as a leader, but he says the abruptness of it caught him unaware.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wendt tells <\/span>Eugene Weekly <\/span><\/i>that the board will issue a statement to the public on Dec. 1. He says one thing the board was concerned about was sustaining growth while building the organization\u2019s capacity. \u201cOne thing that we decided to do was that we should have an executive director who has those skills,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wendt says that by building capacity, he means establishing operational systems, such as human resources and payroll, that are unified. He says that Richardson served well in the position of executive director, but the board wants to hire someone with experience in capacity building.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEric\u2019s fucking amazing,\u201d Wendt says. \u201cWe hope that he stays involved in the unit even though he won\u2019t be directing it.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wendt was named the registered agent for the group in an Oct. 21 filing with the Oregon Secretary of State. A Sept. 26, 2020, amended annual report filing had Richardson as the registered agent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Eugene Springfield NAACP\u2019s website lists four executive board members: President Miles Pendleton, Vice President Wendt, Secretary Laura Vinson and Treasurer Rhiauna Vinson (the latter two are mother and daughter).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During Richardson\u2019s years of work at the Eugene Springfield NAACP chapter, he served as president and then was appointed executive director in 2019. He says his greatest work is around the Mims family in general, cementing the narrative of the African American community and the place of the Mims House in local history. He adds that having the Eugene Springfield NAACP chapter move to the Mims House and erecting a monument for the family are among his accomplishments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2020, during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement throughout the U.S., <\/span>EW<\/span><\/i> readers voted Richardson as the \u201cBest Civil Rights Leader.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Richardson says that as a person who was involved with the local chapter\u2019s creation of the executive director position, he has to be in support of a strong board\u2019s right to dismiss its leader. \u201cAt the same time, I\u2019m disappointed that it was abrupt,\u201d he adds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wendt says it was a matter of what the board and local chapter needed to focus on, especially in the midst of a pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wendt says when the executive director position was first created in 2019, no one applied for it, so Richardson had stepped in to serve on an interim basis. But the board made the hire knowing Richardson didn\u2019t have all of the skills necessary for the job, he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just that ultimately, with all of the stuff that\u2019s happened over the past couple of years and the growth of the unit, we felt that we needed to make a change and get a little bit cleaner on our operations,\u201d Wendt says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Richardson says he’s happy to serve the community and looks forward to being in Eugene as a citizen.\u00a0\u201cI hope the community can come together and get past the morass we\u2019re in. There\u2019s a lot of confusion, a lot of division, a lot of politics that are causing people grief,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Moving forward, Richardson says he hopes the community can build on what was established at the local NAACP chapter. He says he\u2019s seen some members of the chapter upset on Facebook. On Nov. 30, one Facebook post by Niyah Ross questioned the decision, saying it was made by a largely white board.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Richardson says he appreciates the community\u2019s concerns. But that the NAACP\u2019s success \u201cdoesn\u2019t rely on me being there.\u201d He adds that success is possible if members are involved with the organization\u2019s work. \u201cIt\u2019s about the work of the NAACP and the U.S. being a more holistic and collective unit.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Richardson says, \u201cI\u2019m just trying to process things and figure out how to move forward and how to be of assistance to all of the community partners that I care about and who have been working with us over the years.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After serving nearly nine years, Eric Richardson\u2019s time in a leadership role at the Eugene Springfield NAACP is over.\u00a0 Richardson says the decision was disappointing \u2026 Continue reading\u00a0\u2192<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,101,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-ew-extra","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extra.eugeneweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}