Markel Hutchins, Atlanta Civil Rights Activist, Accused of Welding Doors Shut at SCLC Office in Dispute Over Board Seat

The drama continues at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, or SCLC's offices. Rev. Markel Hutchins, who insists he is a member of the group's board, welded shut the SCLC's back door and padlocked the parking lot gate Monday night, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Markel, you are wrong for messing with the organization's property and equally wrong for fighting for a seat a judge said was not yours because the vote that put you there was void. Stop groveling.

"Hutchins has no right to be on SCLC property. His conduct of vandalizing and damaging SCLC property proves that Hutchins will do anything to try to control the SCLC,” chairwoman Sylvia Tucker, of Virginia, said. "I am troubled by this conduct. It is the act of [a] reckless individual. Markel Hutchins has stated that he would take over SCLC. He has stated that he would be president, and like a dictator or bully in a foreign land, who takes power by violence, Hutchins entered the headquarters after knocking in the back door, had the doors to the headquarters welded shut and chained."

Hutchins ran for SCLC president last year but lost to Bernice King, the youngest child of SCLC co-founder the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Hutchins said he was among 20 people added to the board earlier this year by a faction led by ousted chairman Raleigh Trammell. A judge has since ruled that those decisions were void. There is a motion pending in Fulton Superior Court demanding that Hutchins, Trammell and several other former board members be prohibited from saying they are still on the board.

“Hutchins has never been a member of the board of directors or a national officer of the SCLC," Tucker said. "Hutchins has never been elected as CEO or interim president. This conduct is criminal and deplorable. It is like a hate crime; it makes my stomach churn,” Tucker said. Source: AJC

I spoke with Markel Hutchins when he sought to replace Rep. John Lewis in a Congressional primary in Georgia a few years ago, and I found him to be a forthright person with a great deal of conviction and dedication to fighting for civil rights for people in Atlanta. He was also very instrumental in fighting for justice to be brought in the botched police raid that led to the death of Kathryn Johnston, 92. The actions of this Markel Hutchins in relations to SCLC just don't mesh with the image he portrayed during my interview with him.