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News: Ben Jealous Named Head Of NAACP (But are people jealous?)

When I first read the story of Ben Jealous winning the position of President of the NAACP, I read a short, nice story and I proceeded to repost it. When I went back to get the link, I found I had lost the page. I went back to get it but happened upon another story that had a completely different take. The first line jumped out at me.

“When the 34-21 vote was announced, “no one clapped or celebrated,” one board member said after the meeting in Baltimore, Maryland.”

I was shocked because that directly contradicted the first story of a fluffy congradulatory piece that I read first. What followed next was an hour’s worth of clicking through all the stories on the subject through Google I was able to come up with the following:

Who is Ben Jacobs?

Jealous was raised in California and attended schools in Monterey County. According to the NAACP’s statement, he holds a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a master’s degree in social policy from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. His activism started at age 14, when he participated in a voter-registration drive.

Jealous is president of the California-based Rosenberg Foundation, and before that he directed the U.S. human rights program for Amnesty International.

In the mid-1990s, Jealous was the managing editor of the Jackson Advocate, the oldest black newspaper in Mississippi. He was later the executive director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, a federation of more than 200 black community papers.

Who is he’s replacing?

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.  The former Verizon executive came to the organization amid fanfare and a hope that he could help boost its lagging fundraising. But Gordon clashed with board members over the group’s vision and civil rights tactics, leaving suddenly in March 2007, after less than two years at the helm.

Gordon’s sudden departure frustrated many board members, coming at a time when the organization – two years from its centennial celebration – was struggling to increase membership, raise money and cement a vision of how to fight discrimination in the post-civil rights era. Dennis Courtland Hayes had been serving as interim president and chief executive officer.

Who else was in the running?

The finalists include Benjamin Todd Jealous, 35, president of the San Francisco-based Rosenberg Foundation, which supports social justice advocacy; Alvin Brown, 37, a senior adviser to former President Bill Clinton; and the Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III, pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas.

Why the Board Members are mad?

The selection process has been a source of internal strife at the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. Some of the board’s 64 members say they feel shut out of the process, complaining that the NAACP’s inner circle has narrowed down the list of finalists without their consent. However,
last year, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People recruited a 15-member search committee comprising educators, activists and eight board members. Now some board memebers are expressing their displeasure:

“The process in my view has not involved the full board, and that is something that concerns me very much,” said Alfred Rucks, a 12-year board member from Las Cruces, N.M., who has said in the past that the selection process gives too much power to NAACP outsiders. “Others also have doubted the process, raising concerns about who has been selected. But I want to have an open mind and let the process unfold. The selection of a president and CEO is one of the most important decisions the board can make.”

However, board member Adora Obi Nweze contends that the process under debate was voted upon by the full board months ago.

“You can’t be upset about something you voted for,” said Nweze, president of the Florida conference of the NAACP. “We are in America, and people are entitled to their difference of opinion. But the most important thing is we will come out of this meeting this weekend with a new president and CEO.” 

What does Ben Jacobs have to say?

He told AP that many in his generation have a false sense of progress in racial equality.

“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 told AP

“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 told AP before the vote. “There is work that is undone … the need continues and our children continue to be at great risk in this country.”

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 progressive white groups as if our collective future depends on it. I’m committed to that.”

Jealous said he’s ready to settle in for the long haul.

“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.”

There you have it. The complete story of what happened with the appointment of Ben Jealous to the presidency of the NAACP. I know that this experience will lead me to delve deeper into the media reports.

 

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