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Dear Members of the Editorial Board of the New York Times:
I saw the article on the restoration of the marquee of the Apollo Theatre on page B3 of the Arts Section Times with pleasure and began to read a story of what has been accomplished to restore and return the Apollo Theatre as a showcase for the exciting culture of the Harlem and African American community. I was disappointed to see, however, that by the end of the first column Robin Pogrebin had included defamatory and erroneous information about my involvement with the Apollo Theatre that I must bring to your attention and request correction. This positive story on what has been achieved in the obtaining of funding for the beginning of the long awaited restoration and revitalization of the Theater property fails to mention my positive contributions, including the obtaining of millions of dollars in Federal funding and instead makes negative aspersions about my tenure as Chairman of the Board of the Foundation and characterizes the success which has been recently achieved as having come about as a result of my departure from the Chairmanship.
Even though I am accustomed as an elected official to public criticism, I am offended by the inclusion of these erroneous implications in Ms. Pogrebin's story because they are untrue and perpetuate the false allegations that during my tenure as Chairman of the Board of the Apollo Theater Foundation I committed a crime by violating my fiduciary duty to the Foundation. These allegations, initially charging a failure to collect fees owed to the Foundation from the production of the “Showtime at the Apollo” television program due to a “sweetheart deal” entered into with Percy Sutton, producer of the program and my longtime friend and ally, were spurious and particularly pernicious in that it accused me of stealing from a community organization about which I care deeply.
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, when he assumed office, undertook an extensive investigation to ascertain the facts and determine whether there had been a violation of the law requiring the members of the Boards of nonprofit corporations in New York State to exercise the care of fiduciaries in the governance of these organizations. His investigation found that there had been no violation of the law and that in fact I as Chair and the other members of the Board had acted as fiduciaries.. Attorney General Spitzer determined, after an extensive audit that I initiated to prove that there had been no impropriety in the relationship between the producers of the television program and the Board of the Foundation that indeed the Foundation had been adequately compensated based upon the terms of the contract initially negotiated. The Attorney General did further determine that the Apollo Theater should receive some additional moneys from the producers of the “Showtime” television program due to accounting errors, but the sums involved were not reflective of the amounts alleged to have been misappropriated by me and my colleagues on the Foundation Board.
Simultaneously with Attorney General Spitzer's investigation and my full cooperation with it in order to uncover the facts that would exonerate me of the irresponsible allegations, I continued to serve as the Chair of the Board and to seek the resources that will be required for the rehabilitation of the Apollo Theater. After extensive examination of the options, I determined that it was in the interests of the Foundation and of the Apollo Theater to enter into a strategic partnership with the Time Warner Corporation. Dick Parsons, President of Time Warner, had served at my request as Chairman of the Board of the Harlem Empowerment Zone and had come to realize the importance of a revitalized Apollo Theater to the cultural life and economic viability of the Harlem community.
Dick Parsons also enjoys a long-standing relationship with Percy Sutton, who was also unfairly maligned by the allegations of impropriety. Percy Sutton is responsible for making it possible for us to have the Apollo Theater today as a viable institution and community treasure to be preserved, restored and rehabilitated in the same manner as Carnegie Hall. If it had not been for Percy Sutton’s interest in and passion for the Apollo Theater it likely would have died as an institution because it was no longer viable as a commercial enterprise by the beginning of the 1980’s. The stars who had gotten their start on the stage of the Apollo were no longer returning because the Apollo Theater is too small to provide the revenue necessary to pay them. Percy Sutton sank his own funds into the Apollo and lovingly restored it in the hope that it would be an attractive venue for television and audio and video productions.
It was after several years of trying to make the Apollo Theater succeed commercially that the reality of the economics of the Apollo as a commercial enterprise caused Percy’s efforts to fail and in order to keep the Apollo Theater alive he persuaded me and other Harlem leaders to petition the State of New York to create the Apollo Theater Foundation to operate the Apollo as a nonprofit cultural institution. I became the initial Chair of the Board of the Apollo Theater Foundation and asked a group of respected community leaders to join me in securing the future viability of the Apollo Theater. It was during my time as Chair of the Foundation’s Board in the mid-1990’s that I began to talk with Dick Parsons about his assistance in achieving our goals for the Apollo.
When Dick was named President of Time Warner we began to talk about Time Warner’s interest in becoming involved in the restoration of the Apollo Theater and I invited Time Warner to partner with us. Time Warner agreed to augment the expertise on the Board of Directors of the Apollo Theater Foundation and decided to make a contribution to the fund you established to facilitate the agreement that would terminate the investigation. It is now alleged that Dick Parsons and Time Warner were introduced to the Apollo Theater in response to the Attorney General's investigation and that the role they played was to rescue the theater from my leadership when in fact Dick Parsons and Time Warner had been previously in discussion with me as Chair of the Apollo Theater Foundation about a partnership with the Apollo well before the allegations and your investigation.
Having made the decision to form the partnership between the Apollo Theater Foundation and the Time Warner Corporation and negotiated its terms, I decided that it was a propitious time to resign from the Chairmanship and turn the leadership of the Foundation over to my friend, the well respected actor/activist Ossie Davis. I remained on the Board after resigning as Chair in order to participate in the welcoming and integrating of new members of the Board. When Dick Parsons informed me of his consideration of and potential interest in serving as Chairman of the Board of the Foundation I encouraged him to do this, even if it meant that we would have to forego his continuing as Chair of the Harlem Empowerment zone, a role in which he had performed superbly. I decided, when Dick agreed to serve as Chair, that I would leave the Board while continuing to be supportive of the Foundation from my position in the Congress.
Given the fact that I and my colleagues on the Board of the Apollo Theater Foundation were found by Attorney General Spitzer's investigation to have complied with the law and conducted ourselves appropriately with regard to our fiduciary duties towards the Foundation and were thus exonerated by his office of any wrongdoing, it is regrettable and painful to me to be continually subject to the adverse and erroneously now accompanies press reports such as Ms. Pogrebin's on the Apollo.
I suggest that your story on the restoration of the Apollo today and future reports on the theatre might be of greater service to the truth and to the achievement of justice in this matter if you would first consult with the Attorney General about his investigation and learn that the members of the Board of the Apollo Theater Foundation were found innocent of the charges against us and exonerated , and report on the genesis of the creation of the partnership between the Apollo Theater Foundation and Time Warner which has been the catalyst for the exciting developments which are currently being announced and reported on. Such research would provide facts and context that apparently was not known or understood by Ms. Pogrebin in her positive story today on the restoration of the facade of the Apollo Theater.
And what a positive story it is! In addition to the progress achieved to date, a national campaign to raise funds for the revitalization of the Apollo Theater is underway. This campaign will be directed primarily at the private sector, but the funds raised will be augmented by the funds available from local, State, and the Federal government. Recently I have been able to access millions of dollars in Federal funding to support the restoration of the Apollo Theater. Similarly, funding from State and City governments has been received. All of our elected officials in the Harlem community are making the revitalization of the Apollo a priority because we recognize its potential as a contributor to economic development in addition to the cultural renaissance that appears to be underway in our community.
I look forward to my continued involvement in the revitalization of our Harlem community treasure, the historic Apollo Theatre.
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