Colandus 'Kelly' Francis, longtime Camden activist, dies at 87

Phaedra Trethan
Cherry Hill Courier-Post
Colandus "Kelly" Francis was a staunch advocate for workers' rights, civil rights, affordable housing and environmental justice. A past president of the Camden County NAACP, Francis, shown in a 2015 photo, died this weekend.

As Kelly Francis answered a reporter's questions, he noted some of his many affiliations.

"Is there anything in Camden you haven't been involved with, directly or indirectly?" the reporter asked, only half-joking.

Francis responded with his familiar laugh, then paused before admitting, "No." Then he went right back to the business at hand: making sure the reporter had the full history and context of the issue she was pursuing.

That wasn't the first time, and would not be the last time, Colandus "Kelly" Francis would offer someone a lesson in Camden's history.

Francis, who was born in North Carolina and spent part of his childhood in Virginia, lived most of his life in Camden. He died Saturday at 87.

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According to a biography the New Jersey Work Environment Council website, Colandus Francis was born in Enfield, North Carolina and lived for a time in Newport News, Virginia, before his family moved to Camden in 1949. A product of Camden City schools, he attended Hatch Junior High and Camden High School before studying at Salem Community College, Penn State and Rutgers University.

During a 34-year career at the U.S. Postal Service as an electronics and computer technician, Francis was an officer with the American Postal Workers Union. After retiring from the postal service, though, Francis, a longtime resident of Camden's Parkside neighborhood, became active as a volunteer and board member in several state, county and citywide advocacy groups, including the Camden City Taxpayers' Association, Parkside Business and Community in Partnership, Fair Share Housing Center, the NJ Work Environment Council, the Camden City Early Childhood Advisory Council, the Superior Court Sensitivity and Cultural Awareness committee and the NJ Department of Environmental Protection's Environmental Justice Advisory Council.

He was also president of the Camden County NAACP. 

"All you saw from him was the work that needs to be done," said Kevin Barfield, another past president of the Camden County NAACP. 

"You can only admire someone like him, someone so dedicated to the cause. How blessed I’ve been to be around someone with so much knowledge."

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Barfield considered Francis a mentor, and described him as "what integrity is."

The NAACP's Act-So (Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics) program was particularly important to Francis, and Barfield recalled that Francis helped Camden's students compete for scholarships and trips against their peers across the state and the nation.

"He believed in giving them exposure to the arts, to travel, to opportunities. He wanted them to be able to go to college," Barfield said. "He paid for a lot of things out of his own pocket."

He was a "wealth of knowledge," Barfield said, a man who kept meticulous paper records and who wasn't shy about sharing copies, handing reporters old clips relating to stories they'd asked about or handing them to city leaders to help inform their decision making.

"He pulled out all these papers about leaders who'd been removed from the NAACP," Barfield recalled. "He reminded me: There's nobody bigger than the NAACP, and he led me in a fatherly type of way to make sure things were done the right way. He was steadfast, and I know he was a stickler for keeping the integrity in our branch."

Though the two differed in their approach ("He thought meeting with some of the elected officials was a waste of time, but I thought we should keep the line of communication open"), Barfield said, "I was always mindful not to let him down. They don't make leaders like that anymore."

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Parkside Business and Community in Partnership posted on its Facebook page Saturday that Francis was "a great advocate for the City of Camden.

"We mourn and celebrate his extraordinary life and relentless devotion to Camden’s youth, equity and justice," the community development nonprofit posted. "Thank you for your excellent service. Your legacy will continue!"

The weekend was filled with loss for PBCIP; a founding board member, Delbert Nelson, whom it called "a great mentor and strong advocate for the Parkside community," also died.

Francis regularly was in the audience at meetings of Camden's city council, where he typically offered his opinions and advice. He was one of the most vocal opponents, and later critics, of the Camden County Police Department. 

Camden County Commissioner Jonathan Young called Francis "a civic icon" and "someone we all came to know and respect."

“Kelly was on the right side of some of the biggest issues of the day like affordable housing and economic development in his beloved Parkside neighborhood. Furthermore, it was hard to attend a public meeting anywhere in the city without seeing Mr. Francis in attendance fighting for a cause he believed in."

Even as he vehemently disagreed with elected officials, Young added, "he was always cordial and respectful in the public forum and I will always remember his civility and commitment to his community."

"(Francis) was a staunch advocate for our city and community," said Camden Mayor Vic Carstarphen, who remembers Francis coming to Camden High basketball games when he was on the Panthers. 

"He was very well versed in so much, in what’s right and what’s wrong and what should be done for our community. He would talk to me and tell me what he thought, and he was always on point. He could get into (any discussion); it seemed like he knew about everything."

Francis was vocal in both his support for and opposition of different decisions by city leaders: He worked to save a South Camden home where Martin Luther King Jr. stayed while he was a seminary student and reacted angrily when the Camden County Police Department's Federal Street headquarters was named for former Chief J. Scott Thomson. 

"He was challenging at times, and stayed on me from the day I first ran for Council," Carstarphen remembered. "But he wanted to make sure things were done. He would say to me, 'You better do right by us, do right by our city.' He’s going to be missed."

This story may be updated.

Jim Walsh contributed to this story.

Phaedra Trethan has been a reporter and editor in South Jersey since 2007 and has covered Camden and surrounding areas since 2015, concentrating on issues relating to quality of life and social justice for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. She's called South Jersey home since 1971. Contact her with feedback, news tips or questions at ptrethan@gannettnj.com, on Twitter @By_Phaedra, or by phone at 856.486-2417.

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