Rose Martin, former executive director of the Bessie Smith Cultural Center.ABOUT THE BESSIE SMITH CULTURAL CENTERThe Bessie Smith Cultural Center — comprising an African-American museum and an event hall — was founded in 1983 as the Chattanooga African American Museum. More than 10 years later, the center moved to its current location on Martin Luther King Boulevard at a performance hall where banquets, community events and performances were held. The late Vilma Fields led the museum for 20 years before she retired in 2007 and was replaced by the current Executive Director Rose Martin. The center’s mission is to “become the premier interdisciplinary cultural center that promotes cultural, educational, and artistic excellence and fosters research and education of African and African American heritage.”BESSIE SMITH BOARD OF DIRECTORSJeffery Wilson, board chairmanMary Beth Sutton, vice chairmanVanessa Jackson, secretaryMichael Jones, treasurer (recently resigned)Carmen Ware, parliamentarianJoey BirdRoger Brown, Ph.D. Ed.Rich HeinsmanDionne JenningsStacy LightfootKimberly Mumford-WillisAlvin PartridgeS. Daniel Thomas IIINick WilkinsonIrvin Overton, immediate past chairmanSource: Bessie Smith website
In light of a scathing audit released last week, the Bessie Smith Cultural Center’s governing board will ask Executive Director Rose Martin to resign in the coming days, sources with knowledge of the situation said.
Martin, who has been the head of the center popularly known as “the Bessie” for seven years, was in charge of this year’s Bessie Smith Strut when tens of thousands of dollars in uncounted cash from the event was stolen from an office desk overnight.