| NAACP
Selects Youngest New Leader in Organization History
By
ERRIN HAINES and BEN NUCKOLS
The Associated Press
BALTIMORE
(AP) — The NAACP chose 35-year-old activist and former
news executive Ben Jealous as its president Saturday, making
him the youngest leader in the 99-year history of the nation's
largest civil rights organization.
The 64-member
board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People met for eight hours before selecting Jealous in the
early morning. He was formally introduced Saturday afternoon
and will take over as president in September.
"I'm
excited," Jealous told The Associated Press. "I
think that it's a real affirmation that this organization
is willing to invest in the future, to invest in the ideas
and the leadership of the generation that is currently raising
black children in this country."
Though
he is not a politician, minister or civil rights icon, Jealous
provides the organization with a young but connected chief
familiar with black leadership and social justice issues.
He takes
the helm as the NAACP's 17th president just months before
the organization's centennial anniversary and as the group
looks to boost its coffers.
"There
are a small number of groups to whom all black people in this
country owe a debt of gratitude, and the NAACP is one of them,"
Jealous said. "There is work that is undone. ... The
need continues and our children continue to be at great risk
in this country."
Jealous
succeeds Bruce Gordon, who resigned abruptly in March 2007.
Gordon left after 19 months, citing clashes with board members
over management style and the NAACP's mission as his reasons
for leaving. Dennis Courtland Hayes had been serving as interim
president and chief executive officer.
Jealous
was born in Pacific Grove, Calif., and educated at Columbia
University and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
He began
his professional life in 1991 with the NAACP, where he worked
as a community organizer with the Legal Defense Fund working
on issues of health care access in Harlem. His family boasts
five generations of NAACP membership.
During
the mid 1990s, Jealous was managing editor of the Jackson
Advocate, Mississippi's oldest black newspaper.
From 1999
to 2002, Jealous led the country's largest group of black
community newspapers as executive director of the National
Newspaper Publishers Association.
Jealous
left the Publishers Association for Amnesty International
to direct its U.S. Human Rights Program, for which he successfully
lobbied for federal legislation against prison rape, public
disapproval of racial profiling after Sept. 11, and exposure
of widespread sentencing of children to life in prison without
the possibility of parole.
Since
2005, Jealous has served as president of the Rosenberg Foundation,
a private institution that supports civil and human rights
advocacy. His experiences caught the attention of the NAACP's
search committee, and Jealous said mentors encouraged him
to take the job.
"Like
all black people in this country, I am deeply grateful for
what the NAACP has accomplished in the 20th century, and I
want to make sure it's as strong and as powerful in the 21st
century," he said. "If I thought that I could help
rebuild, if I thought that I could help bring in more funds
and give direction to the national staff and increase morale,
I needed to take it very seriously, and that's what I've done."
The NAACP
was founded in 1909 by an interracial coalition that battled
segregation and lynching and helped win some of the nation's
biggest civil rights victories. But in the wake of racial
advances, the organization has struggled financially.
Despite
his own successes, Jealous said that blacks in America still
have a hard row to hoe, and that the gains of recent decades
have created a false sense of progress.
"Those
of us who are 45 and younger were told, 'The struggle has
been won. Go out and flourish. Don't worry about the movement,'"
he said.
Among
his plans for the group are strengthening its online presence
to connect with activists, mobilize public opinion and build
a database for tracking racial discrimination and hate crimes;
ensuring high voter turnout among blacks in the November election;
pushing an aggressive civil rights agenda, regardless of the
makeup of the Congress or White House; and retooling the national
office to make it more effective at helping local branches
affect change in their communities.
He said
he does not see expect to have the challenges with NAACP leadership
of which his predecessor complained.
"I
was raised in the civil rights movement," Jealous said.
"I don't see anything special here that would be a challenge
that I haven't confronted and dealt effectively with before.
These are my people."
What Jealous
lacks in oratorical appeal, he makes up for as an administrator
— skills he honed during his tenure with the Publishers
Association, said the Rev. Joseph Lowery. And his foundation
experience could help with fundraising — especially
as the NAACP looks to raise $100 million in conjunction with
its 100th anniversary in February.
"Ben
would be a good administrator and a thorough and detailed
kind of executive," Lowery said. "He would meticulously
follow through on details."
Lowery
said Jealous' Publishers Association experience also gave
him an edge with national black leadership and maturity —
not that Lowery thinks his age is an issue.
"That's
not young," Lowery said when told Jealous was 35, pointing
out that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was 26 when he led
the Montgomery bus boycott. "I wouldn't say he's too
young. He's an emotionally and intellectually mature fellow."
Jealous
said having the energy of a 35-year-old will be an asset to
the organization.
"It
means having somebody who is impatient and outraged that race
is still a factor in our society," he said.
He added
that he can attract 25- to 50-year-olds — the missing
demographic among most chapters — back to the organization.
And he said he is eager to work with other groups to push
his agenda.
"This
is the century when white people will become a minority in
this country," he said. "What that means is right
now, we need to have a clear picture of where we're headed
and work together diligently with Latinos, Native Americans,
Asians and progessive white groups as if our collective future
depends on it. I'm committed to that."
It's a
tall order that isn't likely to happen overnight, but Jealous
— whose resume doesn't reflect a record of longevity
— said he's ready to settle in for the long haul. He
has spent much of his life in California but has roots in
Baltimore, where the NAACP is based. His mother was born in
Baltimore, and his parents met while teaching at a junior
high school in the city.
"As
a black child growing up in this country, there was no higher
ambition possible than to lead the NAACP," he said. "No
one should be concerned about me going anywhere too soon."
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