SACRAMENTO, Calif — Turmoil within Black Lives Matter Sacramento leadership spilled out onto social media Wednesday as dozens of members ousted the chapter’s founder Tanya Faison.
In a letter posted to the chapter’s Twitter account, 29 “current, former and inactive members,” including the chapter’s co-founder Sonia Lewis, denounced Faison, calling her leadership into question. Both the letter and the chapter's twitter account have since been deleted.
Lewis told ABC10 that the group signed the letter after the chapter continued to have a high rate of turnover because Faison “created and maintained a pattern of wide ranging harm and manipulation” while at the helm.
“Tanya has refused to accept any responsibility for her actions or behavior,” the letter reads. “Instead, she has chosen to criticize and vilify people expressing concerns or dissent and to lay blame upon individuals who left the chapter over her irresponsible and authoritarian leadership.”
Faison denied the allegations in a phone interview with ABC10 shortly after the letter’s release, saying that she does not plan on stepping down from her position, despite the group demanding it. “I don’t know if they want to take over the chapter or get rid of it,” Faison said of the group’s plans.
In a statement sent to ABC10, the group shared a list of demands for Faison. The statement reads, "In order for BLM Sacramento to continue, we are requesting that Tanya Faison immediately acquiesce" to the following:
- Publicly resign from her current position of leadership from BLM Sacramento and by extension her employment with Gender Health Center.
- Relinquish access to any and all digital and physical resources to include access to all internal BLM Sacramento data, all codes along with the answers to security questions, administration of social media accounts in any way linked to BLM Sacramento.
- Cease any further communications with family members of those murdered or terrorized by law enforcement and as necessary, their legal representation.
- Cease all contact with all media sources and relinquish list of all media contacts.
- Commit to weekly intensive counseling for a minimum of one year.
- Turn over all reports on financials related to monies in and out of BLM Sacramento accounts for Tanya's personal use and sustainability since donations were generated and specifically to support Tanya since resigning from Apple employment.
Faison has been the public face of the chapter, making national appearances on television and doing interviews following the 2018 killing of Stephon Clark, an unarmed Black man killed by Sacramento Police Officers in his grandmother’s backyard.
Faison added that the publicly posting the letter “is not restorative. It’s not how we’re supposed to run. It’s not how we say that we run.”
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According to Faison, the chapter has been going through some structural changes over the past few months, which has caused a rift internally. Faison said they’ve been working to form an official board with a couple of mothers whose children have been "killed or terrorized by law enforcement."
So far, Faison said the board has included three mothers: Bridgett McIntyre, whose son Mikel McIntyre was shot and killed by Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies following a confrontation; Christine Vang, whose 19-year-old son Darell Richards was holding a pellet gun when he was shot and killed by Sacramento Police officers; and Adonis Shelby, whose 17-year-old son Tayon Shelby was killed in 2016 after sheriff’s officials say he accidentally shot himself in the head.
Lewis said that Black Lives Matter Sacramento already has a board, one that can't be trumped by one that Faison is putting together. Lewis added that Darell Richards' mother, Christine Vang, said she would rescind her signature to join Faison's board.
While it's unclear whether or not Lewis' group can remove Faison from her position, Lewis said that the group will continue to "do the same work even if it means not doing it under the umbrella of Black Lives Matter."
Authors of the letter added that Faison’s “patterns of abuse” date back to 2016. That year, eight people affiliated with the chapter sent a letter to the national Black Lives Matter network asking for there to be a “clear separation of BLM Sacramento from Incite Insight.” (Incite Insight is the organization Faison founded, which later became the Sacramento BLM chapter.)
Lewis explained that while she does not agree with everything in the letter from 2016, she said it's "unfortunate" that it took this long to oust Faison from the chapter.
In addition to the myriad accusations by the group, Lewis said many questioned Faison's spending of the chapter's money — specifically the money donated monthly by people in the community. According to Lewis, the chapter also receives money from a $100,000 grant over two years from the California Endowment, which keeps it afloat until it becomes a nonprofit organization.
"Tanya is living off of this money that we're raising for the movement," Lewis said.
Faison denied those claims, saying that she has provided the chapter receipts of everything she has spent.
The group said it plans to hold a community meeting in the coming weeks for people to “express their grievances and heal.”