Head of L.A. NAACP Faces Scrutiny in Wake of Sterling Flap

Media scrutiny of the Los Angeles NAACP chapter’s ties to Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has focused attention on the branch president’s past, which includes disbarments from practicing law in California and Michigan, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Under Leon Jenkins’s leadership, the Los Angeles NAACP gave Mr. Sterling a lifetime-achievement award in 2009, the same year the property magnate paid $2.73-million to settle government claims that apartment buildings he owned discriminated against blacks and Latinos. The branch was to give Mr. Sterling a second award this month but withdrew it amid the firestorm over his racist remarks caught on audiotape, which led to the owner being banned for life by the NBA.

Mr. Jenkins, a former Detroit judge, was indicted in 1988 on federal charges that he received gifts from people who committed perjury in his court. He was acquitted, but the Michigan Supreme Court disbarred him in 1994, ruling that he abused his office. He began practicing in California in 1991 but was disbarred there 10 years later over misconduct allegations and has twice been rejected for reinstatement.

Mr. Jenkins did not return calls for comment Thursday. Earlier this week, he told reporters that the NAACP did not previously cut ties with Mr. Sterling, who has made donations to the group and other nonprofits serving minority communities, because it had not wanted to act based on rumors of his bigotry. “We deal with the actual character of the person as we see it and as it is displayed,” he said.