An NAACP chapter head who played a major role in pushing Loudoun County schools to embrace racial rhetoric claims she didn’t ask that the school system give black students more favorable treatment than poor children and English language learners, contrary to what public records suggest.
Michelle Thomas, president of NAACP Loudoun, claims a typo-ridden document on official NAACP letterhead that was submitted to Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) was written by an imposter who sought to make the NAACP look bad.
“LCPS must address equitable access for African American students first,” said the document, first obtained by a parent activist under a Freedom of Information Act request and reviewed by The Daily Wire. “THIS LCPS ACTION PLAN IS TO COMBAT SYSTEMIC RACISM not to address other races, gender, [English language learners], socioecomic [sic] status or student with disabilities.”
The document said “equity for most” would be achieved once the district addressed complaints that black students have been denied equal opportunities in schools.
Black households in Loudoun have a median income of $112,000 and are vastly outnumbered by both Hispanics and Asians.
In an interview with The Daily Wire, Thomas said she was an “advocate for all children,” and said the document had not been authorized by her. “Anybody can put together the NAACP letterhead. If it’s not signed by the president, it’s not an official statement. … That is not beneath the people who want to bring the NAACP down to make such a document,” she said.
Thomas came to Virginia after Florida authorities wanted her on a felony warrant, and later spent lavishly while repeatedly skipping out on tax bills and declaring bankruptcy, records show.
Thomas denied to The Daily Wire she faced legal troubles in Florida, even though a felony warrant matches her name, employer, and date of birth. She then abruptly hung up the phone. Thomas never showed for the court dates on the felony charge of passing a bad check.
In 2020, as head of the local NAACP chapter, she issued 19 demands called “Terms of Conciliation” to settle a racism complaint it brought. At least 12 of the demands involved steering money, influence, or both to one of Thomas’s two groups, the NAACP and Loudoun Freedom Center.
One said LCPS must “develop a STEM based elementary after-school and summer program with a focus on African American studies. Develop this program in partnership with Black/African American studies experts from local academic institutions and organizations, such as Loudoun Freedom Center.” It’s unclear how her group had expertise in math.
The NAACP comments that she denied writing continued with that theme. The comments demanded racial quotas for the county’s magnet school regardless of the applicants’ abilities and called for an elimination of the “admissions” process.
An equity consultant hired by LCPS, the Equity Collaborative, questioned NAACP’s longstanding focus on the magnet school, saying in a report that the “controversies surrounding the Academies of Loudoun is among a small number of people. This issue was not identified as a major theme (i.e., top concern) in the Equity Assessment.” The NAACP appears to have developed an interest after the child of its education chair was rejected from the school.
A biography says “Pastor Michelle C. Thomas is widely known and revered as a 21st century leader. Her proven track record as a revolutionary thinker, business innovator, prolific communicator and prophetic voice has established her as a leader of leaders. . . . After graduating Magna Cum Laude from the prestigious Duke University School of Engineering, she shattered the corporate glass ceiling and started her own IT Consulting Firm, moving from IBM employee to IBM partner. Retiring at the age of 27, Pastor Michelle has partnered with fortune [sic] 500 companies, the Federal government, politicians, churches, and heads of state for more than 20 years.”
But a book about schools called Race to the Bottom, authored by this reporter, reported:
She created computer businesses that received money from government contractors (which are required to subcontract some of their work to minority-owned businesses), then subcontracted out work to others. … Though it was an IT-related business, MCA’s (now-archived) website was comically primitive. …
Pastor Thomas lived opulently, but the blessings did not extend to others with whom she interacted. Despite earning money from several federal government clients, even from the Internal Revenue Service itself, MCA did not pay its taxes. In 2006, it had a $66,000 federal tax lien levied against it. By 2007, she lived in a million-dollar house and owned a Jaguar, a Land Rover, and a 1948 Plymouth, but had unpaid taxes in four jurisdictions. She declared bankruptcy that year to avoid paying creditors, including her landscaper, home theater installation company, and satellite TV provider. She kept the house and the cars. In 2015, she filed for bankruptcy again, listing numerous unpaid debts related to a beach resort property.
“Michelle Thomas is a race-hustling antagonist that has brought an unnecessary stain to Loudoun County and the citizens of Loudoun County with all of her ‘white supremacy’ and ‘rampant racism’ nonsense,” Scott Mineo, who first obtained the document Thomas claims wasn’t written by her, told The Daily Wire. “Thomas has played the ultimate scam on Loudoun County, but it was sloppy.”
The NAACP has also been responsible for numerous fiascos in the area of K-12. In Fairfax County, Virginia, an NAACP official shrieked, “Let them die!” of conservatives. In the same county this year, the NAACP leaked the name of a job applicant for the position of superintendent, despite the supposed confidentiality of the applicants’ names, and the fact that those who were told the names were bound by non-disclosure agreements.
In Loudoun, Thomas helped force the equity initiatives by casting an exercise about the Underground Railroad as racism necessitating major reforms, even though diversity consultants have long pushed such an exercise as anti-racism.
Source: Dailywire
