Durham activist to challenge Allison for Committee chair

FROM CORRESPONDENT VRIGINIA BRIDGES

Community activist Melvin Whitley plans to run for chair of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, saying he wants to restore respect to the 75-year-old organization.

“The correction has to be made at some point, and why not now?” said Whitley, 61.

Whitley would have to win enough votes at a Dec. 10 meeting to unseat Lavonia Allison, the Committee’s chairwoman since 1997.

Allison said she didn’t have time to comment Wednesday.

Whitley wants the Committee to focus on dilapidated housing, illiteracy and drugs in the community.

Many of Durham’s black elected leaders including Mayor Bill Bell and County Commissioners Joe Bowser and Michael Page declined to comment.

City Councilman Howard Clement said he supports Whitley. Clement said the Durham Committee was the first organization he joined when he came to Durham in 1961. But recently, he has become disenchanted, he said.

The committee’s influence and membership base has waned, Clement said. “You go to Durham Committee meetings now, just a handful of people show up,” he said.

We'll have more on this story in Saturday's Durham News.