The National Association of Black Journalists is asserting that Unity, the coalition of journalists of color associations, has grown beyond its original mission and shortchanged NABJ in the process.

NABJ is proposing that Unity be reined in and warned:

"While UNITY's leadership considers our recommendations, we are examining all options for a 2012 convention." That year is when Unity — the coalition of the black, Hispanic, Asian American and Native American journalists associations — is scheduled to meet in Las Vegas.

"The most efficacious business strategy for NABJ may not include an alliance," NABJ President Kathy Y. Times and NABJ Treasurer Gregory Lee said Tuesday in their open message.

They proposed that the individual associations be given a greater share of the proceeds from the convention that the four Unity groups hold jointly every four years.

"Sorry Unity, there are only four members of the alliance. Unity is NOT an alliance member. Its only partners are the four groups," NABJ Secretary Roland Martin, a CNN contributor, said to colleagues on the NABJ's e-mail list. "Folks, Unity should not and is not bigger than the four groups. And Unity should not be seen as an eventual replacement for the four groups."

The Unity organization replied with its own message on Wednesday, saying, "It is not productive to disavow what UNITY has become. That denies the natural growth and development of organizations, as well as people. Since the inception of UNITY, the way we do business as an industry has changed dramatically and so has the need for a viable organization that is a voice for all journalists of color and all communities of color. . . . It is also essential that the spirit of collaboration and cooperation be embraced at all times with an eye to the overall mission of the UNITY alliance.

"A central aspect of that mission is that issues should never be based solely on what organization is the largest at a given moment, because moments change."

The Asian American Journalists Association, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Native American Journalists Association provided this joint statement for Journal-isms early Thursday:

"UNITY was established in 1994 as a 'permanent, not-for-profit, strategic alliance of journalists of color acting as a force for positive change.' Our journalism associations think that UNITY’s continued sustainability is of utmost importance. Toward that end, our executive directors, alliance presidents and alliance treasurers have had multiple discussions about how to move forward together.

"And we are confident that participation in the 2012 UNITY convention in Las Vegas will be essential for anyone who values UNITY’s core principles of representing diverse communities in the news and in newsrooms. UNITY’s vision continues to deliver a complete, fair and representative picture of the communities and world in which we live."

The topic became the main item of discussion on the NABJ e-mail list. As of this week, three presidential candidates have been certified for the summer election, and all three — current board members Deirdre Childress, Lee and Charles Robinson — vigorously supported the NABJ position.

"We asked the Unity President and the Unity Executive Director to address questions during an Executive Session of the Board of Directors Meeting in Washington, DC," Robinson wrote. "As a reporter I asked very critical questions. I’m not at liberty to go into each question and answer. I can tell you if a politician I covered came and answered in the way they did, I’d only have run two questions and two answers and you would have got a sense of their vagueness and their attempt to deflect pointed questions," Robinson, a reporter for Maryland Public Television, wrote. However, Robinson said he was optimistic that "a deal can be worked out."

According to NABJ figures, NABJ represented 53.32 percent of the Unity convention attendance in 2008, with AAJA at 20.4 percent, NAHJ at 22.66 percent and NAJA at 3.61 percent.

Under the current formula for splitting the proceeds, Unity received $989,955, NABJ $881,130, AAJA $412,340, NAHJ $434,838 and NAJA $156,643.

Unity receives the first 20 percent of net revenue, the next 40 percent is split evenly among the four alliance partners and the final 40 percent is split proportionately among the four alliance partners based on their percentage of registration. Unity receives all on-site and non-designated registrations, another source of contention.

The Unity statement replied, "Under the initial proposal submitted to UNITY by the NABJ board, the financial impact would be a 62.26 percent loss for UNITY and a 30.74 percent loss for NAJA. The other alliance members would experience financial increases of 31.30 percent for AAJA, 50.75 percent for NABJ and 34.24 percent for NAHJ."

However, NABJ board members said in their discussion that NABJ had submitted a second proposal that was ignored in the Unity response.

"I feel compelled to say that what has been put out by UNITY has not all been true, but we have done a poor job in keeping NABJ members posted along the way," Childress said on the e-mail list, responding to complaints by some rank-and-file members that they had been kept in the dark about the dispute.

A flashpoint in the NABJ board's dissatisfaction with Unity came in October, in a rare contested election that saw Joanna Hernandez, a Washington Post multiplatform editor who represents NAHJ, elected Unity president by the Unity board.

Hernandez defeated Barbara Ciara of NABJ, the then-Unity president who was seeking a full term. Ciara told Journal-isms then that she felt a "gentleman's agreement" was violated: that she would win the seat unopposed.

A second flashpoint was the undoing of Ciara's appointment of Leisa Richardson of the Indianapolis Star, a past NABJ convention chair, as Unity convention chair for 2012. No NABJ representative has served as president during a convention year, NABJ board members said.

Asked about this on Feb. 11, Unity Executive Director Onica Makwakwa told Journal-isms via e-mail, "A convention chair is usually selected by the entire board. The UNITY board has not officially made a decision to have a convention chair nor has the board voted on any particular person. However, the board will discuss several convention related issues including the possible appointment of a chair at their upcoming meeting. . . . there was no consensus for continuing the position at the time when the board reviewed the convention. However, Joanna has committed to including this item on the agenda for our next meeting."

At a joint meeting of the boards of directors of the four associations at the Unity convention in 2008, founders Will Sutton of NABJ, Lloyd LaCuesta of AAJA, Mark Trahant of NAJA and Juan Gonzalez of NAHJ recalled that the four groups had met to agree on the concept of Unity over a crab dinner in Baltimore 20 years earlier. NABJ and NAHJ had approved the concept in 1986.

The groups worked mightily to overcome cultural and historical differences, as noted in this column during that 2008 convention. Wayne Dawkins, an NABJ historian, told board members that Unity was founded as the nation prepared to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in the New World. Native Americans felt there was nothing about 1492 to commemorate, some Latinos felt pride because of Columbus' ties to Spain and African Americans related Columbus' achievement to slavery and the Middle Passage. For Asian Americans, the debate "was like watching a tennis match," he said, as the others lobbed the question back and forth.

Still, the conveners saw their commonality. "I remember talking to a native Hawaiian and thinking that could easily be a NAJA member," said NAJA's Trahant, who is also board chairman of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education. Sidmel Estes, a former Atlanta broadcast producer and onetime president of NABJ, said she still had the founding document and remembered those founders being all male and all having a similar brown complexion, despite racial differences.

Attendance at the 2008 convention rose to 7,550 attendees and 7,303 registrants by the closing day, Makwakwa told Journal-isms then, making it the nation's largest convention of journalists of color.