Commentary — 04 February 2010

Meaning…DISCOVERY and SUBPOENAS!  The fat lady hasn’t sung yet!  And get your mind out of the gutter.  Nobody said Barbara A. McKinzie could sing, so no…Mo’Kelly wasn’t talking about HER.  That’s classless for any of you to think that.  Lord knows that woman can’t sing.  Show some respect for the Grand Basileus of Alpha Kappa Alpha.  She’s been through a lot.  One moment she’s celebrating and the next…

Now, if Mo’Kelly said “Aunt Bunny” hasn’t sung…well then Mo’Kelly might have been trying to send an oblique message.  But he didn’t say that, so show some respect!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vBZjhWH6PI]

(Friends of the Weeping Ivy…nobody said that your documents couldn’t be “discovered” by Shackelford’s lawyers…or maybe they already have.  Hmmm.)

Click HERE

February 4, 2010

A judge dismissed a lawsuit to oust the leadership of the nation’s oldest black Greek-letter sorority, including its president, former Chicago Housing Authority financial executive Barbara A. McKinzie.

But the Chicago-based organization is headed for trial in a wrongful-termination lawsuit filed by a former staffer who said she was fired for questioning spending and alerting state authorities.

A former Alpha Kappa Alpha staffer says she was fired for telling officials about alleged improper spending of millions of dollars, including President Barbara A. McKinzie (left) funding a wax figure (right) of herself for a Baltimore museum.
(AP)

Eight members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. sued in June to remove McKinzie, claiming she misappropriated millions of dollars in AKA money, using some of it to pay for a wax statue of herself in a Baltimore museum. They also claimed she arranged for a $4,000 monthly stipend to be paid to her after she leaves the traditionally unpaid office. Her four-year term ends this year.

In her ruling Monday in Washington, D.C., Superior Court Judge Natalia M. Combs Greene criticized the plaintiffs for making “hyperbolic allegations riddled with buzzwords.”

“Throughout her tenure, Barbara McKinzie has led Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. with the utmost integrity and professionalism, and this ruling reaffirms that very fact,” said Dale Cooter, attorney for McKinzie.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Edward W. Gray Jr. said his clients are reviewing their options.

Meanwhile, the case is still on for a Chicago woman who said she lost her job as meetings director at AKA’s Stony Island Avenue headquarters in June for refusing to sign off on McKinzie’s expenditures, then complaining to the state’s attorney general’s office.

Cook County Judge Ronald Bartkowicz recently denied the sorority’s request that the wrongful-termination suit be dismissed.

AKA, which has 60,000 paid members, has until Feb. 22 to answer allegations that it fired Kenitra Shackelford-Johnson within a week of her e-mailing a complaint to the attorney general’s office last June. In August, the sorority denied any wrongdoing, saying Shackelford-Johnson resigned.

“We have every intention of going forward with this case and don’t see any reason why it won’t go to trial,” said Ruth Major, the lawyer representing Shackelford-Johnson.

McKinzie — former chief financial officer of the Cook County Forest Preserve District — hasn’t shied away from the spotlight, appearing at the National Urban League 2009 conference in Chicago and addressing a packed Regal Theater to tout a partnership with Coca-Cola Co. during a Sprite Step Off competition last month.

[Stay tuned…the new mrmokelly.com website is coming to you in 2010.  Set your browsers now.]

The Mo’Kelly Report is an entertainment journal with a political slant; published weekly at The Huffington Post and www.eurweb.com.  It is meant to inform, infuse and incite meaningful discourse…as well as entertain. The Mo’Kelly Report is syndicated by Blogburst. For more Mo’Kelly, https://mrmokelly.com.  Mo’Kelly can be reached at [email protected] and he welcomes all commentary.

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Mo'Kelly

Morris W. O'Kelly (Mo'Kelly) is a columnist, radio and television commentator. Visit https://mrmokelly.com for the latest from Mr. Mo'Kelly. Find him on social media - @mrmokelly

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