[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 104 (Monday, June 23, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1312]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         NAACP PICKS YOUNGEST LEADER EVER, JEALOUS AT THE HELM

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                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 23, 2008

  Mr. RANGEL. Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Ben 
Jealous, the new president of the National Association for the 
Advancement of Colored People, NAACP, and to enter into the Record an 
article from the New York Carib News for the week ending June 3, 2008 
titled ``NAACP Picks Youngest Leader Ever.''
  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. The mission of the National Association 
for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, 
educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and 
to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.
  With a background in communication, community activism and extensive 
civil rights experience, Ben Jealous has strong credentials for 
leadership of the NAACP. Ben, who will start his position September 1, 
is a former managing editor of Mississippi's historic Jackson Advocate. 
In 2000, he became executive director of the National Newspaper 
Publishers Association, NNPA, 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.
  Among his plans for the organization are strengthening online 
presence to connect with activists, mobilize public opinion, and build 
a database for tracking racial discrimination and hate crimes. His 
agenda includes ensuring a high voter turnout among the Black community 
in the November election, pushing an aggressive stance on civil rights, 
and retooling the national office to make it more effective at helping 
local branches effect change in their communities.
  As a young Black activist, he is poised to attract young African 
Americans who have criticized the NAACP for being out of step with 
people who still face racial discrimination after the demise of 
legalized segregation. Ben Jealous has the smarts, talent, and 
leadership experience to modernize the organization and lead it into 
the 21st century better able to continue its historic record of 
achievement on behalf of the Black community.

                 [From the NY Carib News, June 3, 2008]

                    NAACP Picks Youngest Leader Ever

       The 64-member Board of the National Association for the 
     Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the nation's largest 
     civil rights organization, decided that it was time to invest 
     in the youth when it announced the decision that 35-year old 
     Ben Jealous will become the organization's President making 
     him the youngest leader in its 99-year history. He will take 
     the helm of the NAACP this September.
       ``I'm excited. 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, Jealous 
     said after his confirmation.
       Jealous is not a politician, minister or civil rights icon. 
     His background is in communications and community activism. 
     It is hoped that Jealous will provide the NAACP with a new 
     youthful face in order to attract more young people to the 
     organization's ranks. He will bring another invaluable 
     asset--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.''
       He succeeds Bruce Gordon, who resigned abruptly in March 
     2007 after serving just 19 months. It has been public 
     knowledge for some time that he has had a number of bruising 
     clashes with board members over management style and the 
     NAACP's mission. Dennis Courtland Hayes had been serving as 
     interim president and chief executive officer since that 
     time.
       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.
       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.
       What Jealous lacks in oratorical appeal, he makes up for as 
     an administrator skills he honed during his tenure with the 
     Publishers Association. 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.




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