Summary:
The NAACP's new president, 35-year-old Benjamin Todd Jealous, brings a surprising wealth of activism, community organizing, journalism, and nonprofit sector experience. He stands in sharp contrast against his predecessor Bruce Gordon, a Verizon executive and advertising magnate with relatively little history in the civil rights movement.
Educational Background and Early Career:
Jealous earned his B.A.
in political science from Columbia University in 1996 and an M.S. in comparative social research from Oxford University, as a Rhodes Scholar, in 1998. While a student, he interned at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, worked for the AFL-CIO's HBCU Initiative (working against the closure of historically black colleges and universities), and served as managing editor of the Mississippi-based Jackson Advocate, one of the nation's oldest black-owned newspapers. He was also active as a community organizer in the Harlem Restoration Project, a tenants' advocacy group.
President of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA):
Jealous served for three years (1999-2002) as president of the NNPA, an organization made up of over 200 independent historically black and black-owned newspapers. His already-diverse career background and unique mix of skills made him a very successful leader; during his tenure, conference attendance tripled and revenue quadrupled.
Director of Amnesty International's U.S. Human Rights Program:
From 2002 until 2005, Jealous headed up Amnesty International's program on U.S. human rights. He's remembered primarily for his work addressing anti-Arab ethnic profiling in the wake of 9/11--especially the 2004 report Threat and Humiliation: Racial Profiling, Domestic Security, and Human Rights in the United States--but was also concerned about other human rights issues, ranging from capital punishment to prison sprawl. As director he co-produced the Amnesty International documentary Discarded Lives, which focused on juveniles who had been sentenced to life without parole.
President of the Rosenberg Foundation:
In 2005, Jealous became president of the Rosenberg Foundation, a nonprofit organization focusing on immigrants' rights, civil rights, and criminal justice reform in California. He held this position until he was selected to become the new NAACP president in May 2008.
Why I'm Hopeful:
Jealous is the youngest president and CEO in NAACP history, and holds a more diverse human rights background than any previous NAACP president--having worked in a substantive way not only on behalf of black civil rights, but also on behalf of Arab-American and Latino civil rights. He brings to this resumé an Oxford education, substantial community organizing experience, management of a major philanthropy organization, and media experience. He is quite possibly the strongest conceivable candidate for the position of NAACP president.
There is good reason to be concerned about the NAACP's future: It is the most influential and well-financed black civil rights organization in the country. If it falls apart, everybody suffers--especially black communities. As I wrote last March after Bruce Gordon's resignation (see "The Future of the NAACP"):
The NAACP's new president, 35-year-old Benjamin Todd Jealous, brings a surprising wealth of activism, community organizing, journalism, and nonprofit sector experience. He stands in sharp contrast against his predecessor Bruce Gordon, a Verizon executive and advertising magnate with relatively little history in the civil rights movement.
Educational Background and Early Career:
Jealous earned his B.A.
in political science from Columbia University in 1996 and an M.S. in comparative social research from Oxford University, as a Rhodes Scholar, in 1998. While a student, he interned at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, worked for the AFL-CIO's HBCU Initiative (working against the closure of historically black colleges and universities), and served as managing editor of the Mississippi-based Jackson Advocate, one of the nation's oldest black-owned newspapers. He was also active as a community organizer in the Harlem Restoration Project, a tenants' advocacy group.
President of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA):
Jealous served for three years (1999-2002) as president of the NNPA, an organization made up of over 200 independent historically black and black-owned newspapers. His already-diverse career background and unique mix of skills made him a very successful leader; during his tenure, conference attendance tripled and revenue quadrupled.
Director of Amnesty International's U.S. Human Rights Program:
From 2002 until 2005, Jealous headed up Amnesty International's program on U.S. human rights. He's remembered primarily for his work addressing anti-Arab ethnic profiling in the wake of 9/11--especially the 2004 report Threat and Humiliation: Racial Profiling, Domestic Security, and Human Rights in the United States--but was also concerned about other human rights issues, ranging from capital punishment to prison sprawl. As director he co-produced the Amnesty International documentary Discarded Lives, which focused on juveniles who had been sentenced to life without parole.
President of the Rosenberg Foundation:
In 2005, Jealous became president of the Rosenberg Foundation, a nonprofit organization focusing on immigrants' rights, civil rights, and criminal justice reform in California. He held this position until he was selected to become the new NAACP president in May 2008.
Why I'm Hopeful:
Jealous is the youngest president and CEO in NAACP history, and holds a more diverse human rights background than any previous NAACP president--having worked in a substantive way not only on behalf of black civil rights, but also on behalf of Arab-American and Latino civil rights. He brings to this resumé an Oxford education, substantial community organizing experience, management of a major philanthropy organization, and media experience. He is quite possibly the strongest conceivable candidate for the position of NAACP president.
There is good reason to be concerned about the NAACP's future: It is the most influential and well-financed black civil rights organization in the country. If it falls apart, everybody suffers--especially black communities. As I wrote last March after Bruce Gordon's resignation (see "The Future of the NAACP"):
Moderation in the face of injustice is complicity in injustice. "I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion," Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his letter from Birmingham Jail, "that the Negro's great stumbling block in this slide toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate ... who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice" ...If his background is any indication, Jealous will bring back a forceful, issue-focused NAACP that isn't afraid of ruffling feathers. In a country that desperately needs to have its feathers ruffled, it's hard to see this as anything but the triumph of the vision of a potent, activism-focused NAACP.
Gordon was not, I believe, a "rational elitist." He was, obviously, not one of the white moderates condemned in Dr. King's letter, either. But he believed in a friendly NAACP that provides social services more than it engages in political advocacy, an NAACP that embraces politicians whose policies grind the faces of the poor, and an NAACP that no longer scares anybody very much--an NAACP that the rational elitists and white moderates of the world would be much happier to see than the NAACP that active rank-and-file members represent.
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