Meet former Mayor Johnnie Mosley
IN HIS OWN WORDS (Part 2)
By Lee Raynor, Editor
Posted: 11:30 PM EST Friday December 09, 2005
Following is the second part in a series of interviews with former Kinston Mayor Johnnie Mosley in which he candidly discusses the plan to elect Buddy Ritch as mayor and have him resign later in favor of someone to be named by the City Council. Mosley also talks about Kinston's racial divide
Q: Did you ever hear any talk about the plan to have Buddy Ritch win the mayor's race and resign later so the City Council could select his replacement?
A: Yes.
Q: What did you hear about that?
A: In May, when I first heard it, that information was given to me that the plan was for him to go to the black church, get their votes, and stay [in office] for a while and then resign and the Council would appoint Gordon Vermillion. Buddy actually called City Hall and asked the deputy clerk. First, he said if the mayor resigned who would appoint his replacement, The second question he asked was if the Council makes an appointment, did it have to be from the same party.
She came in my office and said, “I just got a strange phone call from Buddy.” I said, “Oh, yeah?” and she proceeded to tell me. And what I did, “Poo” Rochelle [city attorney at that time] had the office next to mine. I said, “Poo, come here.” And she told him what was said because I didn't answer her. I told her to go ahead and call him and give him the answer. I thought it was stupid of Buddy. It was stupid twice. It was stupid of Buddy to call himself and second, it stupid because he was mayor for 12 years and he should have known the answer.
Yes, it happened in May. If you recall the article in [The Free Press], Gordon said he would not run for mayor or the City Council. “My political career is on hold [Vermillion said].” The impression I got, Buddy called and [that was it]. Buddy would go in, resign and the Council would appoint Gordon. Everybody on the Council wanted to get me off the Council, except Joe Tyson. So I'm assuming that all along, they were working together.
Q: I've been told that Joe knew about this plan.
A: I think a lot of people knew about it.
Q: Do you think everybody on the Council knew it?
A: Oh, yeah. Remember, of all the years I served down there, I've gotten along well with everybody. We were working together for the City of Kinston. Then they started hating me. White people started moving away [from me]. I became a skunk. And it all started, in my opinion, when several people started saying, “Johnnie's not communicating with the staff. Johnnie didn't do this and Johnnie didn't do that.” Gordon said that. Jimmy started talking about running for mayor. He said, “Johnnie's done a good job, but I would do it different.”
At the time, I didn't know they had that animosity toward me because of what I said [at a church meeting earlier] until a work session later on. Gordon jumped all over me. It seemed like I was the worst person in the world all because of what I said in that church meeting. All the whites started turning against me. I was told by [a white person] – remember when we had the prayer breakfast? It was headed up by Pastor Brent Watts. They were selling tickets for tables, trying to get the churches to buy tables. They put pieces of paper on the table for people to make comments and write their recommendations about how to make it better.
So, when I got up to speak as the mayor, I said it would be nice the next time we have one, the churches at each table have everybody at that table except one, and go pat someone on the shoulder at another table and change places with them.
We could have more fellowship. And you know what they said? They said they didn't like what I said at that breakfast. They said it was racist. At the time, I didn't even recall what I said. Do you think that was racist? I thought it was a great idea. On the table they had paper to write down improvements. I got up and said it and they said I turned it into a race thing and I said nothing about race. It was human relations. These are the kinds of things that I became a skunk all at once and people wanted to run against me. Everything that I'd done in the past, it was gone. Gone.
Q: How long were you on the Council when Buddy was mayor?
A: Ten years.
Q: What's his leadership style?
A: That was one of the reasons I wanted to run for the Council. He had no concern about the Council, the agenda, the management. In my opinion. His thing was, he was very, very involved with economic development when Ron Baker was here and (the city) had a part in it. Going to civic organizations. Going to church. And telling the civic organizations how great they were doing, telling the churches what a great job they were doing. The council, the things we had to vote on, that's the manager's job. And, you know, the other night he kept asking the manager what he had to do next. I would have thought he and Mary Mac would have went over that agenda before he got there, and wouldn't have had to ask.
Q: Is he a person who likes to keep the workings of the city behind the scenes?
A: No, I don't think he cares one way or another about that. I really don't.
Q: Why did the powers-that-be believe that you, as a black mayor, should be replaced by a white mayor? The city is predominantly black.
A: Whites don't care about that. Whites think they need to be in charge. I'll give you an example. I don't need to give names to give an example and I'm not going to give names. When the Sampson School issue came up, and the Council was looking at trying to come up with a Human Relations Department (that's been several years ago), and I was talking with a gentleman who wanted to help me come up with something structural to pull race relations together, including the Council, and I went to this gentleman's house and we sat down and talked. This gentleman made a statement that if you had another black like Walter Jones, he's saying that if we had a black Walter Jones, then the whites would support him. I asked him, I said, “We've been in discussions for the last hour here in your house about how to bring race relationships together and you're telling me that a black is not credible unless a white says so.” So what we were trying to work on at that time, I just forgot about it. I left. But what he was saying is that if the whites don't sanction something the black are doing, it's not going to happen.
Still to come: More about the city's racial divide and why is Kinston getting a rush of good news now that a new mayor is in place? What about the city's missing $2 million? How did Gov. Easley attempt to take $2.5 million away from Kinston? And more.
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