The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) has formally announced its policy framework to address the financial exploitation of elderly African Americans with dementia -- a measure that originated with the Pine Bluff, Arkansas Branch and grew directly out of a local effort to protect Dr. Jacquelyn W. McCray, a 2024 Arkansas Women's Hall of Fame inductee.

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Pine Bluff, Arkansas NAACP Branch Exposed Systemic Failures in Banking, Policing, and Arkansas State Adult Protective Services

The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) has formally announced its policy framework to address the financial exploitation of elderly African Americans with dementia -- a measure that originated with the Pine Bluff, Arkansas Branch and grew directly out of a local effort to protect Dr. Jacquelyn W. McCray, a 2024 Arkansas Women's Hall of Fame inductee.

Designated Economic Development Resolution No. 12 in the NAACP's 2026 resolutions and concurred as amended, the policy framework identifies three institutional failures that leave elderly Black Americans with cognitive impairment unprotected from financial predators:

1. Banks that process questionable transactions and then obstruct family inquiries

2. Local law enforcement agencies that lack the training, resources, and institutional will to investigate financial crimes against elderly victims,

3. State Adult Protective Services agencies operating under policies that exclude family caregivers and Powers of Attorney from exploitation investigations.

The resolution demands that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) identify financial institutions that have wrongfully treated elderly Black people with dementia, and that the U.S. Department of Justice investigate perpetrators of schemes targeting this population and hold them accountable.

"I stood before this branch at their Freedom Fund dinner, and I told them what I tell every unit. Members are the lifeblood of the Association," said Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP. "The work of this organization is done locally and carried out nationally. Pine Bluff did exactly that. They documented a pattern their state ignored, and because of those efforts, the NAACP will work to address these issues."

How the Campaign Began

The resolution traces to the case of Dr. McCray, a Pine Bluff educator and community leader inducted into the Arkansas Women's Hall of Fame in 2024. Two physicians diagnosed her with dementia and severe memory impairment in November 2020 and May 2021. In June 2021 (39 days after the second diagnosis was confirmed) a family member allegedly isolated her from her Power of Attorney and transferred the family trust account at Simmons Bank in Pine Bluff.

Her son, Michael McCray, a licensed attorney who held her Medical and Financial Power of Attorney and served as her primary caregiver, learned of the transfer only after vendors threatened criminal charges over checks written on the closed account.

What followed became the factual spine of the national resolution.

The bank. A certified letter requesting banking instructions and citing potential elder abuse went unanswered for 1,116 days (more than three years). Simmons Bank responded only after a July 2024 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau complaint compelled it.

The police. The Pine Bluff Police Department opened fraud case No. 24-28839 in September 2024. No meaningful investigative action followed, despite medical records, trust attorney correspondence, and evidence of unauthorized dealings involving federally administered conservation programs.

The state. Arkansas Department of Human Services Adult Protective Services investigated and returned a finding of "unsubstantiated." The determination rested on a diagnosis date of 2022 (after the transfer) when the medical records document diagnoses in 2020 and 2021, both before it. DHS also declined to interview the Power of Attorney, the trust attorney, and the forestry management company retained to manage the family's timber property.

At a November 5, 2025 meeting, Arkansas State Representative Ken Ferguson asked DHS officials to produce the written policy authorizing exclusion of caregivers from financial exploitation investigations. None was produced. Legal analysis of the cited statute, AR Code section 12-12-1711, found that the law requires (rather than forbids) investigators to evaluate persons responsible for a vulnerable adult's care and to examine the caregiver relationship.

"This started with one family in Pine Bluff asking a simple question: why won't anyone investigate?" said Ivan Whitfield, President of the NAACP Pine Bluff Branch. "It is now the position of the oldest civil rights organization in America. That is what happens when a local branch refuses to accept that the system failed by accident."

From a Local Case to a National Position

Having exhausted local and state remedies: an APS complaint, a police report, a CFPB complaint, meetings with legislators and DHS leadership, a letter to Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and news reports about Simmons Bank; the Pine Bluff Branch concluded the pattern was not confined to Arkansas and drafted a resolution for the National Board.

The branch argued that what happened in Jefferson County reflects a national architecture of non-enforcement. Banks nationwide process transactions involving cognitively impaired customers without adequate safeguards. Local police departments rarely pursue complex financial crimes against elderly victims. And state protective services agencies routinely exclude the family members best positioned to document the exploitation; a practice that falls hardest on Black families, who provide family-based elder care at higher rates out of both cultural tradition and economic necessity.

"A Power of Attorney is a legal instrument Black families execute precisely so someone can act when a parent no longer can," Michael McCray said. "Arkansas told me that document disqualified me from being heard. The NAACP looked at that and recognized it for what it is; a policy that reads as neutral and lands on us disproportionately. I want to permanently reverse this by passing --Jackie's Law-- so this never happens to anyone else."

The Scale of the Problem

The adopted resolution cites the following findings:

• African Americans develop Alzheimer's disease at twice the rate of white Americans.
• By 2030, an estimated 1.5 million Black Americans over 65 will have dementia.
• Financial exploitation of elderly Americans costs at least $2.9 billion annually.
• Victims with cognitive impairment lose twice as much as those without impairment.
• Only 1 in 44 cases of elder financial exploitation is ever reported.

What Adoption Means

Adoption establishes financial exploitation of elderly African Americans with dementia as an official NAACP policy position, available to every branch in the country as a basis for local advocacy, and as the organization's stated grounds for pressing federal agencies to act.

For the Pine Bluff Branch, the immediate objectives remain in Arkansas: reconsideration of the APS determination in Dr. McCray's case, a written policy review of Adult Protective Services investigative procedures involving cognitively impaired adults, and clarification; through a pending request for an Arkansas Attorney General Opinion, of whether state law permits, requires, or forbids caregiver participation in financial exploitation investigations.

"My mother spent a lifetime serving this state, and the state put her in its Women's Hall of Fame for it," Michael McCray said. "Tragically, when she needed protection the most-- every institution looked away. The resolution does not undo any of that. What it does is make sure the next family is not told they were the first to notice."

The NAACP of Arkansas intends to make the resolution operational rather than ceremonial. "Resolutions do not enforce themselves, said Barry Jefferson, President of the NAACP Arkansas State Conference. "We have work to do in Little Rock, in Washington, and in every branch that has a family sitting in a church pew wondering why nobody will help them."

Federal options remain-- complaints can be filed with the FBI Little Rock Field Office and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General, or the State Attorney General.

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About the NAACP

The NAACP advocates, agitates, and litigates for the civil rights due to Black America. Our legacy is built on the foundation of grassroots activism by the biggest civil rights pioneers of the 20th century and is sustained by 21st century activists. From classrooms and courtrooms to city halls and Congress, our network of members across the country works to secure the social and political power that will end race-based discrimination. That work is rooted in racial equity, civic engagement, and supportive policies and institutions for all marginalized people. We are committed to a world without racism where Black people enjoy equitable opportunities in thriving communities. The NAACP Pine Bluff Branch serves Jefferson County, Arkansas.

Authors Website: http://www.WhistleBlowerSummit.com

Authors Bio:

Michael McCray is a public interest advocate who combats racism and corruption in the government and other institutions which deprive individuals of their basic civil rights, human rights and constitutional liberties. McCray is co-chair of the International Association of Whistleblowers (IAW), and a National Board Member for Federally Employed Women Legal Education Fund (FEW/LEF). McCray is the Author of ACORN 8: RACE, POWER & POLITICS--Memoirs of an ACORN Whistleblower; and he also hosts "The Fifth Estate" on Pacifica Radio, the only show made by whistleblowers--about whistleblowers.