Experts

Benjamin Jealous

President, NAACP

Interview with Benjamin Jealous April 1, 2010
Full Interview 42:08 Discuss
In the Shadow of Civil Rights 3:11 Discuss
Why the NAACP Still Matters 4:43 Discuss
Why Are So Many Black People in Jail? 3:23 Discuss
The Scandal of Prison Rape 2:48 Discuss
Brown v. Board of Education Worked—Except in Schools 6:39 Discuss
The New Bigotry in America 3:19 Discuss
The Black “Green Gap” 1:56 Discuss
For Black Activists, Gay Rights Are “Personal” 5:21 Discuss
Dreaming All the Way to the White House 2:49 Discuss
Could Obama Be Doing More for Black Americans? 6:13 Discuss
“Race Is a Lie Built on a Lie” 3:01 Discuss
Being Dave Chappelle’s “Puerto Rican Bodyguard” 0:53 Discuss

About Benjamin Jealous

Benjamin Jealous Benjamin Todd Jealous is the 17th President and Chief Executive Officer of the NAACP and the youngest person to hold this position in the organization’s nearly 100-year history. During his career, he has served as president of the Rosenberg Foundation, a private independent institution that funds civil and human rights advocacy to benefit California's working families; Director of the U.S. Human Rights Program at Amnesty International, where he led 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; and 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 launched a Web-based initiative that more than doubled the number of black newspapers publishing online.

In civic life, Jealous is a board member of the California Council for the Humanities and the Association of Black Foundation Executives, as well as a member of the Asia Society. He is married to Lia Epperson Jealous, a professor of constitutional law and former civil rights litigator with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.