Benjamin Jealous

Benjamin Jealous
Partner Kapor Capital
Assumed office
2014
President and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
In office
September 1, 2008 – November 1, 2013
Preceded by Dennis Courtland Hayes
Succeeded by Lorraine C. Miller
Personal details
Born Benjamin Todd Jealous
(1973-01-18) January 18, 1973
Pacific Grove, California, U.S.
Nationality American
Alma mater Columbia University (A.B.)
Oxford University (M.A.)
Religion Episcopalian

Benjamin Todd Jealous (born January 18, 1973) is a venture capitalist, civic leader and former president and chief executive officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He is currently a partner at Kapor Capital and Board Chairman of the Southern Elections Fund.[1]

Jealous served as the youngest-ever national leader of the NAACP, and earned accolades for reviving the organization by Forbes magazine, Time magazine, The Nonprofit Times, and others.[2] In 2013, Jealous was named a Young Global Leader by the Davos World Economic Forum. The Washington Post in 2013 described him as "one of the nation's most prominent civil rights leaders."[3]

In 2014 Jealous became a senior partner at Kapor Capital, a firm that leverages the tech sector to create progressive social change. He also joined the Center for American Progress as a senior fellow.[4][5] On February 4, 2016, media reports indicated Jealous would be endorsing Bernie Sanders in his campaign for U.S. President,[6][7] and his endorsement was formally announced on February 6, 2016.[8]

Childhood and education

Jealous was born in Pacific Grove, California and grew up on the Monterey Peninsula, California. As a child, he spent his summers in the Ashburton neighborhood of Baltimore with his grandparents. His mother, Ann Todd Jealous, who is black, is a retired psychotherapist from Baltimore, Maryland who participated in Western High School's desegregation. She is also the author, with Caroline Haskell, of Combined Destinies: Whites Sharing Grief about Racism, released in April 2013. His father, Fred Jealous, who is white and from New England, founded the Breakthrough Men's Community and participated in Baltimore sit-ins to desegregate lunch counters.[9] As an interracial couple, it was illegal for them to get married in Maryland until 1967 due to anti-miscegenation laws; therefore, they had to marry in Washington, DC before returning to Baltimore.[10]

Jealous holds a B.A. in political science from Columbia University and a master's degree in comparative social research from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

Early activism

At Columbia University, Jealous began working as an organizer with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. 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. During his suspension, Jealous traveled through the South. 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.

While in Mississippi, he began working as a reporter for Jackson Advocate, Mississippi's oldest historically black newspaper, under the tutelage of publisher Charles Tisdale where he eventually became its managing editor. 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 a Rhodes Scholarship.[11]

Upon finishing his studies at Oxford, Jealous served as Executive Director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a federation of more than 200 black community newspapers. During his time there he relocated the organization's editorial office to Howard University and set up an online syndicated news service that shared content with all of the organization's member papers.

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]

Jealous then accepted a position as President of the Rosenberg Foundation, a private independent nonprofit venture capital organization.

NAACP

Jealous served as President and CEO of the NAACP for four years before stepping down in 2012. He was elected in 2008 at age 35, the youngest person to serve in that position. In his time with the organization, Jealous opened national programs on criminal justice, health, environmental justice and voting rights, expanded existing programs and opened the NAACP Financial Freedom Center to provide financial education and banking resources.[13]

The NAACP had a number of notable achievements during his tenure, including registering 374,553 voters and mobilizing 1.2 million new and unlikely voters to turn out at the polls for the 2012 presidential election, leading the charge for Connecticut and Maryland to abolish the death penalty, endorsing marriage equality, and fighting laws the NAACP claims were intended for voter suppression in states across the country. During Jealous' tenure, the NAACP's online activists increased from 175,000 to more than 675,000; its donors increased from 16,000 individuals to more than 132,000; and the number of total NAACP activists was 1.7 million.[14][15]

Coalition building

Jealous led the NAACP to work closely with other civil rights, labor and environmental groups.

In 2010 the NAACP was one of the conveners of the One Nation Working Together Rally in 2010, which he referred to as "an antidote" to the Tea Party.[16] The following year the NAACP led several thousand protesters from different groups to march down New York City's Fifth Avenue in protest of stop-and-frisk policing.[17] In 2012 Jealous formed the Democracy Initiative along with other progressive leaders to build a national campaign around three goals: getting big money out of politics, voting rights and reforming broken Senate rules.[18] Finally, in 2013 Jealous gave the keynote address at the A10 Rally for Citizenship, a major rally for immigration reform at the US Capitol.[19]

Jealous also led the NAACP to work with unlikely allies. In 2011 he spoke at the National Press Club with conservatives including Grover Norquist, former American Conservative Union President David Keene, and a representative of Newt Gingrich, all of whom endorsed the NAACP's report on over incarceration, "Misplaced Priorities: Over Incarcerate, Under Educate."[20] In Texas later that year, the NAACP worked with leaders of the Tea Party to pass a dozen criminal justice reform measures, leading to the first scheduled prison closure in state history.[21] Similarly, in 2013, the NAACP worked closely with Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell to pass bipartisan voting rights reform that gave former offenders the chance to vote after they served the terms of their sentence.[22]

Upon announcing his resignation, Jealous received accolades from advocacy leaders for his coalition-building efforts. Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin claimed that "He believes in his heart that none of us is equal until all of us are equal,"[23] while Sierra Club President Michael Brune praised him for "courageously [building] alliances that have strengthened the organization's cause and bolstered all of us in the struggle to secure a better future for every American."[24]

Awards and honors

Jealous earned accolades for his effective management of the NAACP, with a focus on his operational prowess and the dramatic increases in the Association's revenues. According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, he was:

...credited with infusing the organization, once seen as graying and vulnerable, with energy, modernity… On his watch over the past five years, the group doubled its budget and national staff, thanks to sometimes explosive growth in fundraising. It shook off years of scandal and torpor, racked up victories in city halls and statehouses, and registered hundreds of thousands of voters. Now, as Mr. Jealous, 40, this week announces his resignation… he leaves a road map for reinvigorating nonprofit advocacy.[25]

Furthermore, according to The Baltimore Sun, Jealous "brought energy, vision and focus to an organization in need of all three and showed a new generation that the pursuit of social justice remains a vital cause in these and any times."[26]

Jealous has earned the following awards and honors for his activism:

Additionally, Jealous is a 2013 Prime Mover Fellow, a program for emerging and established social movement leaders working at the national level.

Personal life and family

Jealous lives in Baltimore with his two children. He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity and is affiliated with the Alumni Chapter.

References

  1. ↑ Southern Elections Fund. Accessed December 1, 2014. http://www.southernelectionsfund.org/board.
  2. ↑ Roland, Martin (Archived from the original article on 26 March 2009). "35-Year-Old Chosen to Lead the NAACP". CNN. Archived from the original on March 26, 2009. Retrieved 15 August 2014. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ↑ Thompson, Krissah (9/8/2013). "Benjamin Jealous, president of NAACP, discusses decision to step down in January". Washington Post. Retrieved 4 August 2014. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ↑ Sanchez, Nicole. "Ben Jealous is joining our staff!". http://kaporcenter.org. Retrieved 4 August 2014. External link in |website= (help)
  5. ↑ Center for American Progress. "RELEASE: Benjamin Jealous Joins the Center for American Progress as Senior Fellow". www.americanprogress.org. Center for American Progress. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  6. ↑ Alcindor, Yamiche. "Bernie Sanders Gets Backing From Former N.A.A.C.P Chief and a Nevada Union". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
  7. ↑ Wagner, John. "Former NAACP leader Ben Jealous to endorse Bernie Sanders". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
  8. ↑ McCaskill, Nolan; Debenedetti, Gabriel. "Former NAACP President Ben Jealous endorses Bernie Sanders". Politico. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
  9. ↑ Reddy, Sumanthi (28 September 2008). "Young Man Moves Up". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  10. ↑ Hond, Paul. "Justice's Son" (Spring 2013). Columbia University Magazine. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  11. ↑ Serwer, Adam (16 February 2009). "The Other Black President". The American Prospect. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  12. ↑ Jealous, Benjamin. "Threat and Humiliation: Racial Profiling, Domestic Security, and Human Rights in the United States" (PDF). amnesyusa.org. Amnesy USA. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  13. ↑ NAACP (4 April 2011). "NAACP Opens Financial Center to Provide Financial Education and Freedom". NAACP. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  14. ↑ Love, David (9 September 2013). "What Will NAACP President Ben Jealous' Legacy Be?". The Grio. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  15. ↑ "Benjamin Jealous Leaves the NAACP a Far Stronger Place". The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Retrieved 19 October 2015.
  16. ↑ Bacon, John (2 October 2010). ""One Nation" Rally Offers "Antidote" to Tea Party". USA Today. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  17. ↑ N/A (18 June 2012). "Thousands Hold Silent March to Mayor Bloomberg's Home in Protest of NYPD's 'Stop-and-Frisk'". Democracy Now. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  18. ↑ Leland, John (17 June 2012). "Thousands March Silently to Protest Stop-and-Frisk Policies". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  19. ↑ Hesson, Ted. "Why the NAACP Gets Top Billing at an Immigration Rally". fusion.net. Fusion Beta. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  20. ↑ NAACP. "MISPLACED PRIORITIES: A NEW REPORT FROM NAACP". naacp.org. NAACP. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  21. ↑ Weigel, David (26 January 2012). "Two Questions for Ben Jealous, President of the NAACP". Slate. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  22. ↑ Richmond-Times Dispatch (31 May 2013). "NAACP Leader, McDonnell Praise Cooperation on Rights Initiative". Richmond-Times Dispatch. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  23. ↑ Wells, Carrie (8 September 2013). "NAACP President Ben Jealous to Resign". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  24. ↑ Brunne, Michael. "Sierra Club Statement on NAACP's Ben Jealous". sierraclub.org. Sierra Club. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  25. ↑ Anft, Michael (8 September 2013). "NAACP Leader Departs After 5 Years". The Chronicle Of Philanthropy. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  26. ↑ N/A (29 December 2013). "Marylander". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  27. ↑ Columbia College. "Five Alumni Presented with John Jay Awards". columbia.college.edu. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  28. ↑ "40 Under 40 (Ben Jealous)". Time. 13 October 2010. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  29. ↑ Clolery, Paul. "The NonProfit Time Power and Influence: Top 50- '11" (PDF) (2011). The NonProfit Times. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  30. ↑ "40 Under 40". Fortune. 11 October 2012. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  31. ↑ Salomon, Sheryl Huggins (19 September 2012). "100 Black Influencers to Know in 2012". The Root. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  32. ↑ Puffin Nation. "Benjamin Jealous | 2012 Recipient". nationinstitute.org. Puffin Nation. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  33. ↑ World Economic Forum. "Young Global Leaders" (PDF) (2013). Davos World Economic Forum. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  34. ↑ The Root Staff (7 June 2013). "Root Top 100" (2013). The Root. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  35. ↑ Baltimore Sun (28 December 2013). "Marylander of the Year: Ben Jealous" (2013). The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 15 August 2014.

External links

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