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| Barbara McKinzie (AKA photo www.aka1908.org) |
Posted: Wednesday, 29 July 2009 9:27AM
Sorority president sued over $900,000 statue
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CHICAGO (AP/WBBM) -- Eight members of the Chicago-based black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha have filed a lawsuit against the group's national president, looking to have her removed.
Sorority members accuse Barbara McKinzie of spending $900,000 on a wax statue of herself, spending about $400,000 on personal expenses and setting up a $4,000-a-month pension for four years. Also named in the lawsuit filed last month in Washington, D.C., Superior Court are Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. and former board members.
McKinzie has said she didn't do anything wrong and that the accusations are based on lies. She says the sorority board approved the $900,000 to pay for 2010 convention expenses. McKinzie says her wax statue will be on display along with statues of other important sorority figures.
The suit says McKinzie used the group's credit card to buy designer clothing, lingerie, jewelry and other personal items.
For her part, McKinzie says, "The malicious allegations are based on mischaracterizations and fabrications not befitting" the sorority's " ideals of sisterhood, ethics and service."
And the statue, she says, didn't cost anything close to $900,000.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports the wax figure is being prepped at the National Great Blacks in Wax Museum in Baltimore for the museum's exhibit of predominantly black fraternity and sorority representatives.
The AKA Web site says McKinzie lives in Olympia Fields, Ill. and holds an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management and graduated cum laude from East Central University.
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Contents of this site are Copyright 2009 by the Associated Press. WBBM contributed to this report.
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