NAACP to hold fundraising blowout at Scientology's most holy site
The Clearwater Upper Pinellas County branch of the NAACP is hoping that you’ll sign up to be a Bronze Sponsor ($500), Silver Sponsor ($1,000), Gold Sponsor ($2,500), or Platinum Sponsor ($5,000) as they hold their anniversary gala later this month.
Here’s the email they sent out which a reader forwarded to us:
Hello NAACP Members and Supporters,
We are proud to invite you to our 51st Annual Freedom Fund Banquet. I am thrilled to extend a personal invitation to this prestigious event - an evening that promises to be truly special!
Event Details:
• Date: August 30, 2025
• Time-Doors Open: 6:00 PM
• Highlights:
Keynote Speaker: Rev. Markus Derek White
Special Guest: Tamika Lyles, US Senate Candidate
This isn't just another event - it's a celebration of community, progress, and the ongoing journey towards freedom and equality. We've got an incredible lineup that will inspire, challenge, and motivate you.
Rev. White and Tamika Lyles are powerhouse speakers who will share insights that'll make you think, feel, and want to take action. Trust me, you will not want to miss this!
Want to be part of this amazing evening? Grab your tickets today or you can reach out if you have any questions. Looking forward to seeing you there!
This year's celebration will be held at The Ft. Harrison Hotel.
Whoa, say what?
The local NAACP is holding its big annual fundraising blowout at the Church of Scientology’s most holy site?
Quick details you will want to know:
• Venue: Ft. Harrison Hotel
• Address: 210 S. Ft Harrison Avenue, Clearwater FL
• Parking: Complimentary valet serviceThe parking has been taken care of, so you can just show up and enjoy the evening. No need to circle around looking for a spot or worrying about walking far.
Tickets may be purchased through Eventbrite.
We are looking forward to seeing you there!
Warmly,
Karen Mullins, Chairperson
Kilivia Davis, Secretary
Jonathan Wade, Sr. President
Surprised that the NAACP would feel comfortable holding its big event at the holy of holies of the whitest organization this side of Utah, we followed a link to the Eventbright listing where you can purchase tickets.
At that page, the word “Scientology” appeared nowhere, and we found the venue listed as “The Fort Harrison Religious Retreat.”
Now doesn’t that sound inviting.
In fact, since it was surreptitiously purchased by Scientology in 1975 under the direction of its founder L. Ron Hubbard, the Fort Harrison Hotel has stood as a monument to Hubbard and his quack amateur psychiatry movement.
Hubbard himself was a classic midcentury red-baiting reactionary who was a big supporter of the South African and Rhodesian minority white governments.
On the last day of 1960, Hubbard gave a lecture in South Africa, although you will look in vain for it on Scientology’s current menu of Hubbard speeches.
Some sample quotes from the lecture:
“I’m not against the black man. As a matter of fact, I’m probably more friendly towards the black man than any person in this audience.”
“Right now you tell me, well, the government of South Africa does not permit the black man a vote. He doesn’t even know what a vote is!”
“Blacks kill off the Blacks. And all you’ve got to do is pull a stable government off the top of them and they promptly start killing each other off.”
“The present administration does not permit an Indian or a white tradesman in a Bantu area. Does that sound like oppression?”
“You can’t understand anything about the Bantu by understanding anything about the American black man. The American black man in the first place has been mixed with Indian and white blood over a period of a couple of centuries or less, but has actually been in close proximity to the white man and white land civilization for a century or two, you see.”
“As far from being a police state — they’re not even half as tough as the American cops.”
(Hubbard was giving this lecture the same year of the Sharpeville massacre, when South African police had opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators, killing and wounding 250.)
“The great Margaret Bourke-White…had a ball shooting pictures down there, but she couldn’t get enough bad pictures, so she sort of gave it up. They won’t photograph anything that is happening in South Africa, and they won’t really talk about anything that’s happening.”
[An iconic Margaret Bourke-White photo, from her 1950 Life essay, “South Africa and its Problem.”]
“I’d say they’ve got about 50 years to go before they get the South African Bantu up to the same status and level of civilization of the American Black.”
“The Bantu doesn’t register the same on an E-meter as a White, and I have had to start a whole program of research in addition to everything else I’ve been doing, trying to find out how to read a Bantu on an E-meter. Because he doesn’t operate like an American Negro or like a European.”
“I’m not actually trying to sell you the South African government. I could easily do so because I consider these men very able from what I have seen. They’re nice guys. I know them personally.”
“The press has ceased to be factual, has ceased to be a reporting medium and has become a propaganda media throughout the world.”
Historian Chris Owen has written for us how odd it was that Hubbard, who had so much animosity for the governments of the US and UK and other countries, embraced so enthusiastically the government of South Africa and its individual ministers. Hubbard is practically fawning over them here, particularly defense minister Jim Fouché, who would go on to become the South African republic’s second president.
Owen found formerly confidential letters that Hubbard sent in 1966 to Prime Minister Henrik Verwoerd, trying to impress on him how much he and Scientology were down with the apartheid program. “I have over and over proven our loyalty to the Rightist cause,” he wrote.
But sure, at a time when some Black residents of Clearwater are supporting the Save The Garden project to oppose Scientology’s takeover of S. Garden Avenue in favor of a plan that will honor the area’s Black heritage, the NAACP is preparing its party at Scientology’s monument to Hubbard’s subterfuge and racial genius.
Bonus items from our tipsters
Sail the Caribbean so you too can make massive clay demos with little people and labels!
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Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history
Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea
Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time
Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology
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Tony, you don't understand. The NAACP is pulling off a second 'black Klansman' movie. I hear that Mel Brooks has written it and that the Florida NAACP is providing the actors. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Either that or the person who picked this venue has been given the safe pointing of the century.
While all you say is true, Tony, it is worth noting that Scientologists know nothing about all that.
You should probably ask Apostate Alex. The line Scientologists use is "We're all thetans under the skin, race and sex are just arbitrary societal constructs that mean nothing to the eternal spiritual blah blah blah."
When I was at the Int Base I was often reminded of the bible verse "and the little child shall lead them". Almost all the high executives were young and female. No sexism here, unless you count the sort-of sinister kind that makes old men surround themselves with underage girls.
On the other hand, Scientology does tend to the lily-white side. Even in South Africa, at the Johannesburg Ideal Org, supposedly after the fall of apartheid, almost all the executives were descended from the Boer.
Now that I've managed to offend absolutely everyone, the idea is that all the racism and sexism inherent to Scientology is very well hidden. Scientologists generally don't know about it.