The fallout from the NAACP Los Angeles chapter's plans of giving Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling a second lifetime achievement award took place on Thursday night.
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USA TODAY Sports reported that the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP has resigned over backlash concerning the lifetime achievement award the chapter had intended to give Sterling at its 100th anniversary gala.
Los Angeles chapter President Leon Jenkins sent a letter of resignation to NAACP interim President and CEO Lorraine Miller, who promptly accepted Jenkins' resignation.
"Please be advised that the legacy, history and reputation of the NAACP is more important to me than the presidency," Jenkins wrote. "In order to separate the Los Angeles NAACP and the NAACP from the negative exposure I have caused the NAACP, I respectfully resign my position as president of the Los Angeles NAACP."
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Jenkins was the subject of extensive scrutiny after the revelation that his chapter was going to honor Sterling, who received a lifetime ban from the NBA earlier this week for racist comments he said in a private conversation a year ago.
The Los Angeles NAACP gave Sterling his first lifetime achievement award in 2009 - some three years after a 2006 report said Sterling had to settle a lawsuit out of court for housing discrimination against minorities.
According to another USA TODAY Sports report, the first achievement award came just before Sterling agreed to pay a $2.765 million settlement.
Sterling had donated more money to the L.A. chapter of the NAACP, Jenkins told reporters, leading to the planned second award.
"It's an insignificant amount of money, and we're going to return it," said Jenkins, who added the NAACP and Sterling have had a relationship for "maybe 15-20 years."
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