An organization started by Black Lives Matter activist and New York Daily News columnist Shaun King faced major setbacks this week after volunteers expressed concern over the group’s lack of transparency and its finances.
After days of questioning from the project’s volunteers, King finally provided an update on Justice Together’s status in a Facebook post on Friday. He said the organization, which kicked off in August with a goal of creating policies in all 50 status to address police brutality, will undergo a “course correction.”
Instead of operating chapters in every state, Justice Together would scale back to operating just one chapter in Georgia, announced King, who became a prominent national activist following last year’s fatal shooting of Michael Brown.
In another major blow to Justice Together, Deray McKesson, a fellow Black Lives Matter activist, announced that he would be leaving his position on the group’s board of directors.
Last Monday, I had a good conversation w/ @ShaunKing as I stepped down from the board of Justice Together, to focus my energy & time.
— deray mckesson (@deray) November 8, 2015
I, too, learned about the end of Justice Together via email. & I'm working to understand more about the decisions and the q's being raised.
— deray mckesson (@deray) November 8, 2015
In explaining Justice Together’s failure to launch, King claimed that one roadblock the project faced was that it had proved difficult to verify volunteers’ identities.
“Many people were not who they claimed to be,” King wrote. “Many people refused to provide any identity verification. Many people refused to take necessary steps and, quality control, of trying to start chapters in 50 states and 300 college campuses, became damn near impossible – particularly as we struggled to even tell if some people were real or sincere.”
One field director rebutted that claim, however, pointing out that Justice Together’s website required volunteers to verify their identities from three web formats.
Volunteers have voiced a litany of other complaints against King’s work on Justice Together. He had failed to meet self-imposed deadlines and also ignored volunteers who asked for updates on the project and for transparency into its finances. King also suddenly closed down the real-time messaging system used by Justice Together volunteers.
I can no longer defend someone who lacks personal integrity and refuses to be accountable to the ppl in his coalitions. #ShaunKingLetMeDown
— Crystal (@cjmperspectives) November 7, 2015
(6) We received no direction, no assessments, and no call to action for our respective states from the Executive Director, @ShaunKing.
— Crystal (@cjmperspectives) November 7, 2015
(8) This past week, we asked for an accounting of the funds raised for #JusticeTogether and how the funds were being spent.
— Crystal (@cjmperspectives) November 7, 2015
(9) King became defensive by our demand, telling us that we were listening to trolls if we believed he would mismanage / misuse funds.
— Crystal (@cjmperspectives) November 7, 2015
(12) The very next day (11/6/15), instead of honoring his fiduciary duty, King shut down all communication among the State Directors.
— Crystal (@cjmperspectives) November 7, 2015
And when confronted with those questions, King used intimidation tactics to avoid answering them, some volunteers have claimed.
Yes! Exactly! He tried to intimidate us into believing if we asked any questions we would be booted immediately. https://t.co/fDNCfJvKFJ
— Sarah (@girlact75) November 8, 2015
Another activist took issue with King’s refusal to answer questions about funding and also accused him of “silencing Black women” by blocking them on social media for questioning him.
Enjoying #ShaunKingLetMeDown and all the comments @ShaunKing is deleting from his Facebook. pic.twitter.com/hTpbPR3RU2
— Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero) November 8, 2015
King addressed accusations that he may have mishandled Justice Together donations in a Facebook post on Sunday.
“Folk stating that I am profiteering off of this movement are not just misinformed, they are lying,” King wrote, asserting that the group has only raised $9,000 online from 88 donors.
“We’ve raised $575 this month – which hardly covers our MailChimp account,” he wrote, adding that Justice Together will file its taxes next year.
Other social justice activists said that King’s absentee handling of Justice Together is similar to his work with other groups.
Rachel McShane, a professor and activist who now works with the Coalition Against Police Violence, tweeted that King had refused to discuss donations flowing into another group he founded called JTA.
@DarrellGadson basically what I know is that both times, SK raised money and was very tight lipped about where funds went. Group leaders (1)
— Rachel McShane (@McshaneRachel) November 9, 2015
@DarrellGadson got blocked and called trolls if they dared ask questions about the money. (2)
— Rachel McShane (@McshaneRachel) November 9, 2015
@DarrellGadson like I said, nobody was allowed to ask about the money we had all been contributing. He also never helped plan anything.
— Rachel McShane (@McshaneRachel) November 9, 2015
[h/t Breitbart News, Twitchy]