The History of the North Brevard County Florida Branch NAACP The North Brevard County Branch was chartered in 1979. Some of the original founding members of the branch included William E.(Bill) Gary, Corine Saunders, Francis J. James, Rev. W. C. Stafford, Ruthye M. Scurry, Lyndon Morris, Adriene Dennis, Rev. Deville Grooms, Evelyn Bell, Fred Banks, Rodell Murray, Nancy Elmore and others. Rev. Grooms was elected the first president of the North Brevard Branch, William E. (Bill) Gary was the first vice-president, Lyndon Morris was treasurer and Adriene Dennis was secretary. After six months Rev. Grooms resigned due to pastoral duties and William (Bill) Gary became president. Mr. Gary served as president for the next ten years until 1990 at which time he stepped down to pursue other interests. The branches’ first Freedom Fund banquet was held in 1980 with U.S. Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm as keynote speaker. Over the next ten years Mr. Gary was able to secure such notable speakers as NAACP President/CEO Dr. Benjamin Hooks, Georgia State Senator Julian Bond, U.S. Congressman William Gray, NAACP Regional Director Earl Shinholster, Florida State Conference President T.H. Poole, Sr., and Florida Senate Pro-Tempore President Dr. Arnett E. Girardeau.
Over the next ten years the branch was active in the areas of education – working with the Brevard Schools Director of Personnel to improve hiring of black teachers, advertising for black teachers through Black Colligate magazine and others; advocating for single-member voting in the city of Titusville, voter registration, advocating the hiring of black citizens for the city of Titusville, the branch was successful in lobbying the city to establish Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday as a paid holiday for city employees. It was during this tenure of Mr. Gary’s that the branch was successful in getting the city to name the city’s Social Service Center in honor of Harry T. Moore and the branch lead the fundraising effort to erect a bronze bust of Harry T. Moore at the entrance to the social service center. In 1988 the branch was asked by state president T.H. Poole to research the property records to locate the owners of the Harry T. Moore home site to be purchased and developed into what is now known as the Harry T. & Harriette V. Moore Memorial Park and Museum` The branch was awarded the Class D Thalheimer award at the 1986 national convention for its programmatic activities. The branch won numerous awards from the state and regional office for its activities.
Between 1990 and 1998 there were several presidents including Rev. W.C. Stafford, Rev. James McClam, Fannye F. Johnson and Cheryl Lawson-Young. The branch became inactive in 1998 and remained so until 2000 when state president Adora Obi Nweze contacted William Gary and requested he work to get the branch reactivated. The branch was reactivated in 2001 with Mr. Gary serving his second tenure as president.
It was during this period the branch began initiatives to address educational concerns by partnering with the local community college to recruit more minority students, staff and faculty. The branch partnered with Brevard public schools to establish its “Read to Succeed” summer reading program to improve the reading ability of elementary students. It also partnered with Brevard schools to develop a program to “home-grow” black male teachers by providing college funding assistance in exchange for the male teachers returning to the district to teach in elementary schools. The branch also was active in sponsoring rallies to support the Florida School Class Size Reduction Campaign and sponsored rallies to “Get out the Vote” and voter registration drives. The branch was awarded the Class D Thalheimer Award at the 2003 national convention held in Miami.
In 2008 Mr. Gary stepped away from the presidency again to pursue other interests and Rev. Glen Dames became president. Rev. Dames during his presidency helped bring the MLK, Jr. parade to the city with the branch’s involvement. Rev. Dames resigned in March of 2011 and Mr. Gary was again called to service as president. The branch’s first order of business was to get complaint with the state and national offices after which it began to work on economic development and education issues. The branch has collaborated with other groups to fight against high minority population school closures. It has also addressed the lack of black principals in the high schools, the hiring of more black teachers and the disproportionate rate of suspensions of black students versus white students. To help address the out of school suspensions affecting black student the branch education chairperson established the (Community Alternatives, Resources & Education) C.A.R.E. program designed to be an intervention tool to keep students in school. In 2013 the branch filed a complaint with the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office of Civil Rights regarding the above issues. The Office of Civil Rights has opened an investigation into the complaint and is currently reviewing school district practices. In 2015 the branch was successful in getting the Youth Council re-activated and was now an active participant in local and state conference activities. In 2016 the branch elected Randle Clay as branch president. President Clay served for two years but decided he would not be a candidate for the next election. During Clay’s term the branch made some strides in increasing membership and held a very successful Freedom Fund dinner along with participating in Brevard Public Schools Community Leaders meetings. There were also investigations into allegations of police misconduct however disruptions from certain members of the branch made it increasingly difficult to carry out branch operations. In an effort to remove some of the chaos occurring in the branch, President Clay and an appropriate number of branch members filed an Article X complaint against a member who was at the cause of the disruptions. It took some time but finally in late 2019 the national office acted and suspended the member’s membership for the subsequent three years. In 2018 the branch elected Mr. Jeff Davis as president. In 2020 the branch held a Candidate’s Forum and successful Freedom Fund banquet and a successful fundraising Raffle. Although Mr. Davis’ tenure started with optimistic goals the burden of administering the branch became challenging and over time membership and support for the branch dropped off until the branch was no longer compliant with the Florida State Conference or the National Office. The branch became inactive during the summer of 2022 and finally Mr. Davis submitted his letter of resignation in November of 2022.
In January of 2023 a group of individuals began working with the FSC (Fl State Conference of NAACP) Branch Reactivation Committee, chaired by Ms. Marsha Ellison, President, Fl. Lauderdale/Broward County Branch NAACP to get the North Brevard Branch returned to an active compliance status. Having met the national and state conference requirements to become active again an election supervised by the national office was held on May 17, 2023. New officers elected were William E. Gary, President; Gloria Bartley, 1st. Vice President; Preston Hopkins, 2nd. Vice President, Tara Gibson, Secretary; Betty Ann Moore, Treasurer; Delores Abraham, Assistant Treasurer; Kim Carter, At-Large Executive Committee Member; Evelyn (Lois) Gray, At-Large Executive Committee Member. Installation of officers was held on June 5, 2023 and regular membership meetings began on August 7, 2023.
