Virginia commission may decide SCLC dispute

PETERSBURG, VIRGINIA - Virginia&#39;s Corporation Commission may settle a name dispute between the state&#39;s first white Southern Christian Leadership Conference president and a rival faction of the civil rights group founded by Martin Luther King Junior. <br> <br> Both sides withdrew their lawsuits Tuesday after the judge hearing the case said she would not grant either an injunction over the other. <br> <br> As a result, there are now two SCLC organizations active in Virginia. <br> <br> The SCLC, which has its national headquarters in Atlanta, was founded in 1957 after the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott. <br> <br> The dispute began in January when Jack Mills of Bedford County won the recommendation of the state chapter to become its next president. Mills would have been the first white chapter leader for the historically black organization. <br> <br> Mills says the recommendation was tantamount to an official election. Board members insisted the official election would not come until the chapter&#39;s state convention in the summer. They later retracted their recommendation. <br> <br> Mills and his supporters accused the board of racism and applied to reinstate the SCLC&#39;s corporate charter, which the board had recently dissolved. They now own the legal rights to all forms of the SCLC name in Virginia.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/12/201752