Members vote to decertify Vice President of Print candidate in heated business meeting

By Logan Johns

The National Association of Black Journalists business meeting was set to debut a new format Friday until it was overshadowed by heated arguments among veteran members, ending in a vote to decertify Eva D. Coleman’s reelection to vice president of print.  

“This is utterly disgusting,” Coleman said to the membership Friday morning, “to sit here and to have someone attack my credibility — my professionalism, something I have been doing for over 32 years in Dallas-Fort Worth. And for someone to sit here and to attempt to define what I do, this is an embarrassment for all of us. The world is watching and to see the division that is constantly and consistently stoked within this organization is embarrassing.”  

The meeting had a rocky start with member objections to how Parliamentarian Sia Nyorkor was interpreting and applying NABJ’s governing rules during the meeting. Lifetime member Rochelle Riley formally introduced the motion to remove Nyorkor after members started questioning whether the meeting was being conducted within the organization’s parliamentary procedure. Enough votes were gained to suspend Nyorkor from her duties for the rest of the business meeting. 

“Madam President, it pains me to do this, but it is allowed in our constitution,” Riley said. “With all due respect to the parliamentarian, I appreciate how hard the job is, but I move to remove the parliamentarian for the remainder of this meeting.” 

Tense arguments between members and the board consumed much of the meeting, leaving the membership able to address less than a fraction of its scheduled agenda. Frustrated with the lack of civil conversation, many members left the room and later returned to meet quorum. 

The NABJ elections committee considered the challenge against Coleman’s eligibility during a special meeting Aug. 2 and voted to uphold Coleman’s candidacy. The issue then reached the full board of directors on Tuesday. Coleman pushed back against the challenge saying she had submitted documentation supporting her eligibility as a journalist and arguing that the effort to disqualify her felt like a personal attack. 

Coleman is the culture editor at I Messenger Media LLC as well as communications and web director of Aubrey Independent School District. The challenge grew from a question of which position provides the bulk of her income.

“This is definitely uncharted territory for us,” NABJ President Errin Haines told The Monitor while discussing the decertification vote. “Not the fact that we have continuous business meetings, not the fact that we have to make difficult decisions, but for me this is certainly new territory so I just want to make sure I am doing my due diligence as president to figure out how we are moving forward.” 

Haines said that it is imperative that member meetings remain respectful when conversations become passionate.

“We have members who are passionate on both sides of any given issue. They want to make themselves heard.The membership feels that the business meeting is their chance to feel heard and to be seen particularly by this board of directors.”

Haines added that NABJ members should have the freedom to raise issues they feel are relevant and that the business meeting is their forum to do that.

“While I can certainly understand the passion that they bring to the business meeting,” she said, “I certainly think it is important for the tone and tenor of the business meeting to be respectful.”