The national office of the NAACP has suspended the organization’s local Birmingham President Hezekiah Jackson IV.
The NAACP issued a statement Wednesday evening saying it is investigating whether Jackson advised residents not to have their soil tested for potentially damaging toxins and if he received payment for those activities.
Jackson, who has been president of the NAACP, Metro Birmingham Branch for about 20 years, says he has done nothing wrong and will be exonerated by the investigation.
Testimony, emails and invoices presented in a recent corruption trial connected Jackson to a scheme to discourage residents in North Birmingham and surrounding communities to be potentially included in an EPA cleanup site.
A coal company executive and a lawyer were convicted in that trial. In connection with the case, former state legislator Oliver Robinson pleaded guilty to bribery, fraud and tax evasion. Robinson, is scheduled to be sentenced later this month.