Board Member Sues to Remove Mary Olson from Elaine Legacy Center

Martin Blocker filed a lawsuit in Phillips County Circuit Court asking the court to remove long-time Elaine Legacy Center board member Mary Olson, the Arkansas Times reported on Feb. 13, 2026. Blocker, who joined the ELC board in 2024 according to federal nonprofit records cited by the Times, says the organization never adopted bylaws and that Olson has “unilaterally exercised exclusive control over the affairs, finances, and operations of the nonprofit.”

The suit, described by the Arkansas Times as aiming “to essentially remove Mary Olson,” arrives while the ELC continues work on two visible local projects: a planned museum at the former Lee Grocery Store and community agriculture at the Hummingbird Farm and Community Garden. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported separately that the Elaine Legacy Center sued a Little Rock contractor over alleged faulty work on the 105-year-old Lee Grocery Store, the building earmarked as the ELC’s future museum. The ADG headline reads, “Elaine Massacre museum group sues Little Rock contractor over faulty work on historic building.”

The Elaine Legacy Center was founded to memorialize the 1919 Elaine Massacre and to carry out community development projects in Elaine, Phillips County. Federal records cited by the Arkansas Times show the nonprofit “has only reported raising about $800,000 since the group’s inception,” a fundraising total the Times presented as context for Blocker’s governance allegations. Those records also indicate that “over the last 6 years, the Elaine Legacy Center has had numerous changes in leadership, but Mary Olson and former Phillips County Justice of the Peace Lenora Marshall have remained on the board,” the Times reported.

Project ties add stakes to the governance dispute. The Times noted the ELC announced “last year” it would start an organic farm by renting land from retirement investor Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA); a photo credit in the Times shows a sign for Hummingbird Farm and Community Garden and states “the land behind the sign will soon be farmed by the center” (photo credit: Phillip Powell / Arkansas Times). The ADG story includes a 2022 file photo of the Lee Grocery Store credited to Sean Clancy (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette).

Neither the Arkansas Times nor the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette included statements from Mary Olson, Lenora Marshall, the contractor named in the ADG piece, or other ELC board members in the extracts provided. Court records and the ELC’s IRS filings (Form 990s) are the primary documents cited by the Times for leadership and fundraising figures; those filings and the Phillips County Circuit Court docket will be critical for residents and stakeholders who want to track how the dispute affects the museum restoration, the organic farm arrangement with TIAA, and the ELC’s stewardship of funds and projects.