Ben Jealous
Benjamin Todd Jealous | |
|---|---|
| 17th President/CEO of the NAACP | |
| In office Sept. 1, 2008 – Incumbent | |
| Preceded by | Bruce S. Gordon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Pacific Grove, California |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse | Lia Epperson |
Benjamin Todd Jealous (born[1] January 18, 1973 in Pacific Grove, California) is the current president and chief executive officer of the NAACP. He is the youngest ever national leader of the organization.[1]
Early life
Jealous grew up in Monterey Peninsula California, but spent summers in Baltimore. His mother, who is an African American, met his father, who is White, while teaching junior high school in Baltimore.
Education
He holds a bachelor's degree 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.
Career
At the time of his appointment, Jealous lived in Alameda, California, with his wife, Lia Epperson, a law professor at Santa Clara University and a civil rights attorney, and a daughter, Morgan.
Currently, Jealous is President of the NAACP. Prior to that, he was President of the Rosenberg Foundation - a private independent institution that supports advocacy efforts to make significant improvements in the lives of California's working families and recent immigrants.
Previously he served at Amnesty International, where he directed its US Human Rights Program. While at Amnesty International, he led its efforts to pass federal legislation against prison rape, rebuild public consensus against racial profiling in the wake of the September 2001 terrorist attacks, and expose the widespread sentencing of children to 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, the release of which received coverage by major media outlets in most states and on six continents.
Formerly, Jealous served as Executive Director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)-a federation of more than 200 black community newspapers. While at the NNPA, he rebuilt its 90-year old national news service and spearheaded the creation of a proprietary software system that enabled dozens of local papers to begin publishing online.
Jealous served as Managing Editor of the Jackson Advocate during the mid-1990s, Mississippi's oldest black newspaper. His reporting for the frequently-firebombed weekly 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 and maliciously accused of arson.
He initially came to Mississippi as a field organizer on a successful campaign to stop the state's plan to close two of its three public historically black universities, and convert one of them into a prison.
Jealous began his career as an organizer with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund working on issues of healthcare access. He is a member of the Asia Society as well as a board member of Northern California Grantmakers and the California Council for the Humanities.
Election controversy
He was elected by the NAACP National Board of Directors in a 34-21 vote. CNN reported that "no one clapped or celebrated," according to one board member after the meeting.[1] According to CNN, Jealous was the only finalist presented by the search committee to the full board for consideration despite there being other qualified candidates. Although some board members wanted to examine two others whom the search committee identified as finalists, Jealous's supporters, including Chairmen Julian Bond, prevented their presentation to the board.[1]
References
Specific references:
- ^ a b c d Roland Martin (2008-05-17). "35-year-old chosen to lead NAACP". CNN. Retrieved 2009-02-22.
General references: