The NAACP exploits the Scott Sisters for Monetary Funds

By Scotty Reid

The NAACP has many in the grassroots criminal justice advocacy community upset with its recent solicitation for money using the Scott Sisters name. The Scott Sisters are Jamie and Gladys Scott who were sentenced to double life in a Mississippi prison after being convicted of participating in a robbery that netted less than twelve dollars and where no one was hurt. Many feel that their charges were politically motivated and the actual perpetrators of the crime have stated that the sisters had nothing to do with it and they now say they were coerced to testify against the sisters in October of 1994. The two sisters have languished in the horrid conditions of the Mississippi penal system ever since. Through the hard work of a few people, most notably Nancy Lockhart who has worked tirelessly on the case for years and was able to solicit the interest of bloggers, internet radio hosts and Youtubers who took the time to expose their readers, listeners and viewers to the sisters plight, petitions were started and circulated garnering worldwide attention to the case.

While all this activity was occurring on the Internet among grassroots activists, so-called civil rights groups like the NAACP had ignored the sister’s case and solicitation for help for years. Now that the sister’s story has gained mainstream media attraction, here comes the NAACP and does little more than to have Benjamin Jealous start speaking publically about the two sisters who had virtually become household names among those who follow cases of injustice throughout the United States.

What is most appalling is the fact the NAACP is now circulating an email titled “Support Gladys and Jamie” soliciting funds using the Scott sister’s name which includes the line “Will you donate $25 so we can continue helping people like Gladys and Jamie Scott?” After checking with people close to the Scott Sisters and in regular contact with them, the NAACP has not contributed one dime towards any legal fees of the sisters and nor has it stated that it will do so and early on in the case the family and supporters asked for their which fell on deaf ears. It is very likely that the sisters will be pardoned and released soon because of the hard work of ordinary people working as grassroots advocates on their behalf.

For the NAACP to be a Johnny come lately to the case after ignoring it for so long stinks of opportunism and at this time it is not known if the NAACP even asked the family or either of the sisters for permission to use their names to solicit funds. At the very least, considering the difficult transition the sister will face when finally released, the NAACP should set aside any donations gathered using the sister’s names and put it into some kind of fund payable to the sisters upon their release.

There are far too many stories of families, mine included, who have sought the help of the NAACP on behalf of a loved who faced some sort of injustice in the courts of America only to be denied. The general feeling was that if you were not a due-paying member of the NAACP, then you could forget about any help forthcoming from them. While this does not rise to the level of the injustice the Scott sisters received at the hands of the State of Mississippi, it is nonetheless an injustice and exploitation of the highest order. The only way for the NAACP to rectify this egregious offence is to hand over any funds solicited in the Scott sister’s name over to them or a representative they have designated.