The Ecclesia Athletic Association (EAA) was an organization founded by Eldridge Broussard in 1975, with the stated mission of helping children escape the dangers of inner-city Los Angeles through strict discipline and athletic training and which later had members charged with manslaughter and child abuse. In 1987, the group moved from its headquarters in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles to Sandy, Oregon. The group sometimes attracted accusations that it was a cult, often from neighbors or the family of members inside the group. Broussard publicly denied the label, including in 1984 and in a 1988 appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
The October 1988 death of Eldridge's daughter, Dayna Broussard, prompted the removal of the remaining 53 children in the organization's care and an investigation into the group. The investigation found that the children were subject to extreme fitness training and physical punishments, including floggings. Four EAA staff members were convicted of manslaughter, while Broussard and seven others were charged with child slavery by the federal government. Broussard died before the trial, while the other seven pleaded guilty to lesser charges.
Founding
The Ecclesia Athletic Association (EAA) was founded in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1975 as a sister organization to the Watts Christian Center, a church. Broussard had been a basketball star at Pacific University, was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers, and was ordained a minister. He founded the Ecclesia Athletic Association with the goal to "lift children out of the dead-end ghetto life through athletic training and strict discipline". With the help of donations, which for some members amounted to their entire salaries, the church was able to buy an Avalon Boulevard bakery to serve as a commune.
In 1977 Broussard shifted his focus from the Watts Christian Center, which had lost most of its membership, to the Ecclesia Athletic Association, founded by himself and the few remaining members of the Christian Center. Ecclesia sponsored a successful 32-team basketball league, the largest in Los Angeles at the time, and Broussard's sister ran a school focusing on nutrition; children in the care of the Ecclesia Athletic Association stopped receiving formal schooling in 1984. By this time, accusations that the group was a cult were being made publicly. Broussard, who was called "The Coach" or "El" by members, denied Ecclesia was a cult, saying: "People who call us a cult group have never been [to the Avalon Boulevard building]. They have never examined us. They assume people are kept here because they see our discipline, because our kids walk in a straight line." The children were described as "hav[ing] a very clear picture in their minds that they don't want to be the same as other blacks in the Watts community". David Jackson, who was 14 when he and his mother Constance Jackson joined the EAA, credits Broussard with rescuing him from gangs, ""[Broussard] actually was the person that got me out of gangs in LA and...taught me that I have options..."
Move to Oregon
The bulk of the group's members moved to Sandy, Oregon, in 1987, though they did maintain their Avalon Boulevard headquarters. The Sandy property offered a lot more space––on which they planned to organically farm and to build a youth camp with pools and gymnasiums in order to train for the Olympics. Broussard told the neighbors they had a "plan for the welfare of a lost generation". The group quickly dropped their plans for a full youth camp after significant objection from neighbors. The group struggled to farm despite having expensive equipment, though Broussard would later claim the group had grown of produce.
By late 1988 Ecclesia housed 53 children ranging in age from six weeks to sixteen years, and the group had a second house in Clackamas, Oregon. The parents of these children were all members of the group; they had been forced to sign a vow of poverty upon joining the group which put themselves, their children, and their assets under Broussard's control. The group never formally registered in Oregon and did not have any sort of license or permission to school its children.