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Benjamin Todd Jealous

Former Black Press Exec Named NAACP President

By Hazel Trice Edney

NNPA Editor-in-Chief

   BALTIMORE (NNPA) – Already mapping a strategy to maximize Black voter participation and issues in the general election Nov. 4, former Black Press executive Benjamin Todd Jealous has been named the new national president of the NAACP.
“My primary goals are to make sure that the Black surge that we saw in the primary is repeated in the general election and to make sure that we have both, an agenda for the transitioning government that will be happening in January as well as for this next century,” said Jealous in an NNPA interview just moments after the official announcement of his appointment to lead the 99-year-old civil rights organization, the nation’s oldest.
   “We have one heck of a batting average and we need to maintain it,” he said of the record voter turnouts during the primary. “It’s to make sure that we are as strong of a player in this century as well as the next. So, a lot of this is about raising money, it’s about the use of technology, it’s about rebuilding the staff.”
    Jealous, 35, who will start the job Sept. 1, has an extensive resume, entrenched in civil rights. He is a former managing editor of Mississippi’s historic Jackson Advocate. In 2000, he became executive director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the Black Press of America.

   He left NNPA after three years to become director of Amnesty International’s U. S. Human Rights Program. He comes to the NAACP from the San Francisco-based Rosenberg Foundation, where he has served as president since 2005.
    A positive aura exuded from the horde of beaming civil rights leaders as Jealous stood outside of the organization’s Baltimore headquarters alongside board chairman Julian Bond, Vice Chair Roslyn Brock and other supporters from the 64-member board that voted to hire him.
    However, no one denied the reality of the daunting challenge ahead given the major problems that have plagued the organization in recent years. Former Verizon executive Bruce Gordon, resigned abruptly in February last year after a 19-month presidency with the organization. He cited irreconcilable differences with the 64-member board.
Four months later Chairman Bond made a national appeal for board members and NAACP supporters to “show some love'' to the NAACP by giving money.
    Interim CEO Dennis Hayes, who stepped into leadership behind Gordon had announced staff cuts at the Baltimore headquarters from 119 to 70 people. He said the organization had already depleted more than $10 million in reserve monies left by former NAACP President and CEO Kweisi Mfume.

Posted May 21, 2008

  
   That money had been raised by Mfume during his nearly 10-year presidency. Mfume announced his resignation in 2004, and left the organization in strong financial standing.
    Despite the recent financial woes, which are intrinsic to most civil and human rights organizations, Bond has steadily pointed to the social ills of America and the necessity of voter registration as the greatest priority of the organization.
    The selection of Jealous means going from Gordon, a corporate executive who had never participated in a civil rights march, to a young, but seasoned civil rights advocate with a background entrenched in the priority issues of the NAACP, including voter registration and education.
   “Of the many people that we interviewed, he was head and shoulders above the others for this reason,” says Bond. “He has spent his entire professional life working on the issues that the NAACP holds dear. He has spent his entire professional life raising money for organizations much like the NAACP. He is in sync with the NAACP to a high degree and we are very happy to have him with us... He’s a perfect fit for us in every way.”
   Jealous’ election was not without the heated debate that has long been typical of the 64-member board, packed with civil rights warriors from communities and trenches across America. Board members said discussions that started Friday evening continued until the wee hours of Saturday morning.
   “There was a great discussion, a great debate on the issues that are critically important to the NAACP,'' says labor leader Bill Lucy. ''And I think those are the kinds of discussions that engender strong feelings. But, the fact that people debated it out into the wee hours of the morning was a good healthy discussion. The fact is that in the end, there was an agreement on his candidacy and that was a good thing.”
    Actually, sources said the debate was not all about the candidate. Much of it was about the process. Jealous had been selected unanimously by the organization’s three-member executive committee after it had reviewed two other candidates.
    The three finalists had been presented to the executive committee by a search committee for the selection of one candidate to present to the board for an interview, which sources say has been the normal process for selecting NAACP presidents.

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