Benjamin Jealous
| Benjamin Jealous | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| 17th President of the NAACP | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office September 1, 2008 |
|
| Preceded by | Bruce S. Gordon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Benjamin Todd Jealous January 18, 1973 Pacific Grove, California, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse(s) | Lia Epperson |
| Alma mater | Columbia University (A.B.) Oxford University (M.A.) |
| Religion | Episcopalian |
Benjamin Todd Jealous (born January 18, 1973) is the current president and chief executive officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He is the youngest ever national leader of the organization.[1]
Contents |
Early life and Career[edit]
Jealous was born in Pacific Grove, California and grew up in Monterey Peninsula, California. He holds an B.A. in political science from Columbia University and a master's degree in comparative social research from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Jealous went to York School in Monterey for high school.
His mother, Ann Todd Jealous, is a retired psychotherapist from Baltimore, Maryland who participated in Western High School's desegregation. She is also the author, with Caroline Haskell or Combined Destinies: Whites Sharing Grief about Racism, released in April 2013. [2] His father, Fred Jealous, from New England, is the Founder and President of the Breakthrough Men's Community and participated in Baltimore sit-ins to desegregate lunch counters.[3] It was illegal for them to get married in Maryland until 1967; therefore the couple had to marry in Washington before returning to Baltimore.[4] Afterward, Jealous’ father was disowned by his white family from New England. [5]
At Columbia, Jealous began working as an organizer with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.[6] As a student, he protested the university’s plan to turn the site of Malcolm X's assassination into a research facility and was suspended.[7] During his suspension, Jealous traveled the South.[8] It was during this time, Mississippi's three black colleges were slated to be closed and Jealous organized with the local NAACP chapter to keep them open and fully funded.[9] While in Mississippi, he began working as a reporter for Jackson Advocate, Mississippi's oldest historically black newspaper, under the tutelage publisher Charles Tisdale where he eventually became its managing editor.[10] His reporting was credited with exposing corruption amongst high-ranking officials at the state prison in Parchman, and helping to acquit a small farmer who had been wrongfully accused of arson. Jealous returned to Columbia in 1997 where he applied for and was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship.[11]
Upon the completion of the Rhodes Scholarship, Jealous served as Executive Director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a federation of more than 200 black community newspapers.
After the NNPA, he served as director of the US Human Rights Program at Amnesty International. While there, he focused on issues such as federal legislation against prison rape, racial profiling, and exposing children a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. He is the lead author of the 2004 report Threat and Humiliation: Racial Profiling, Domestic Security, and Human Rights in the United States,[12] which received coverage by major media outlets in most states and on six continents.[citation needed]
Jealous then accepted a position as President of the Rosenberg Foundation, a private independent nonprofit venture capital organization.
He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and is affiliated with the Washington (DC) Alumni Chapter.
NAACP[edit]
Currently, Jealous is President of the NAACP. At the time of his appointment, Jealous lived in Alameda, California, with his wife, Lia Epperson, a law professor at American University, and a civil rights attorney, and their daughter, Morgan.
Awards and honors[edit]
In 2009, Jealous received the John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement from Columbia College.[13] He was awarded the 2012 Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship.[14]
He was also the Class Day speaker at his alma mater, Columbia University, in 2010.
References[edit]
- ^ Martin, Roland (May 17, 2008). "35-year-old chosen to lead NAACP". CNN. Archived from the original on March 26, 2009. Retrieved February 22, 2009.[dead link]
- ^ "Young man moves up".
- ^ "Young man moves up". Baltimore Sun.
- ^ "Justice's Son". Columbia Magazine.
- ^ "Justice's Son". Columbia Magazine.
- ^ "The Other Black President". The American Prospect.
- ^ "The Other Black President". The American Prospect.
- ^ "The Other Black President". The American Prospect.
- ^ "The Other Black President". The American Prospect.
- ^ "The Other Black President". The American Prospect.
- ^ "The Other Black President". The American Prospect.
- ^ Threat and Humiliation: Racial Profiling, Domestic Security, and Human Rights in the United States, Amnesty International
- ^ "College to Honor Five Alumni for Professional Achievement" . Columbia College. Retrieved on March 2, 2009.
- ^ Staff writer (December 3, 2012). "Benn Jealous Awarded the 2012 Puffin/Nation Prize". NAACP. Retrieved April 30, 2013.
External links[edit]
- NAACP Biography
- TheLoop21.com[dead link] (Archive) interview with NAACP President Ben Jealous
- Is The NAACP's Relevance Fading? We Think Not.[dead link] (Archive) by Benjamin Jealous and Julian Bond for The New Republic.
