A board member on the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (see June 6 issue, page 42) has splashed the Nixon administration into a swirl of controversy over a federal grant to a Durham, North Carolina, foundation for black economic development.
The flap arose when Durham citizens discovered that their local Foundation for Community Development, to which the Office of Economic Opportunity recently gave $900,000, had hired as its training director Howard Fuller, an IFCO board member accused of stirring up campus riots and bombings in North Carolina this spring.
For a while it looked as if the Nixon administration might withdraw the grant, despite its wide popularity among North Carolina blacks. But OEO has now decided to go ahead with the project after “double checking” the situation.
“Fuller will have no voice in the spending of federal funds,” explained an OEO official. “His work with the foundation is not in the area of black capitalism. But if you don’t think we’re going to keep a close watch on how this money is used you’re dead wrong!”
The project is expected to establish a black-owned supermarket, a jam and preserves factory, and a coffin-making firm.
