11431: From NAACP To PAC.

From USA TODAY…

Wickham: NAACP chief steps down to take next step

By DeWayne Wickham, USATODAY

When Ben Jealous announces Monday that he is cutting short his leadership of the NAACP, a big wave of disappointment, no doubt, will ripple across this nation’s civil rights community.

But the feeling of loss that many will have over the departure of the youngest person to ever lead the NAACP, America’s oldest and largest civil rights organization, will quickly turn to celebration if Jealous is as successful in his new venture as he has been at the NAACP’s helm.

While Jealous says his decision to leave the NAACP presidency—a position he assumed five years ago at the age of 35—is rooted largely in a desire to spend more time with his wife and two young children, he also plans to play an active role in the politics of his nation. He’s going to create an “EMILY’s List for people of color,” Jealous told me Saturday during a telephone interview.

But unlike EMILY’s List, a 28-year-old organization dedicated to electing pro-choice Democratic women to office, the political action committee Jealous envisions will not be so narrowly defined. He says he wants to change the nation’s political landscape by raising money to help elect a wider group of progressive candidates.

“It’s not altogether clear to me that every candidate to be supported is a Democrat,” said Jealous, who will leave the NAACP on Dec. 31, with nearly two years remaining on his contract. “The fact that civil rights has become a one-party affair is very dangerous to the cause of civil rights.”

Jealous believes that Southern black politicians such as Jacksonville, Fla., Mayor Alvin Brown, and Democratic Rep. Stacey Abrams, the House minority leader in Georgia’s legislature; and Hispanics such as San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro and his twin brother, Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, are the front ranks of a new political force. This new wave of minority politicians, Jealous said, is a byproduct of the growth in the political participation of Southern blacks and an expanding number of young whites “who are not hung up on race.” Together, Jealous said, they will challenge the stranglehold conservatives have on the South.

Though it might take some time for the PAC he imagines to find black and Hispanic Republican candidates to embrace, its efforts could blur the dividing line in American politics. Already, the changing demographics in Virginia have helped turn that state from red to purple. And a PAC for candidates of color could, in a little more than a decade, transform Texas—where whites are now just 44.5% of the population—from a red to blue state.

For Jealous, creating a political PAC is no pipe dream.

During Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign, Jealous teamed with Steven Phillips and Andrew Wong to create Vote Hope, a PAC that Jealous said raised $10 million to support the then long shot presidential campaign of the man who became this nation’s first black president.

“Our big victories derive from bold dreams,” Jealous told me. He was talking about the advances made by the NAACP under his leadership. He pointed to “five years of double-digit financial growth” for an organization that too often found itself making headlines for it shaky finances in the years before Jealous became president.

Jealous also touted the work the NAACP did on his watch to abolish the death penalty, end racial profiling and combat efforts to restrict the voting rights of blacks and other minorities.

“He put us on a sound financial footing and energized our membership,” said Roslyn Brock, who chairs the NAACP’s 64-member governing board.

But the PAC Jealous talked about is his boldest dream—and could well produce his biggest victories.

DeWayne Wickham writes on Tuesdays for USA TODAY.

7538: New Leader For NAACP.

From The New York Times…

Health Executive to Lead N.A.A.C.P.

By Ian Urbina

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on Saturday announced the selection of its first new board leader in more than a decade.

Roslyn M. Brock, 44, the board’s current vice chairwoman, will become chairwoman of the board, taking the reins from Julian Bond, who last year, on the eve of the organization’s centennial celebration, announced his decision to step down. The 64-member board is the policymaking arm of the organization.

In being named vice chairwoman of the N.A.A.C.P. board at 35, Ms. Brock was the first woman and the youngest person to hold the position.

Previously she worked in health care administration and policy. In her current job as a vice president of Bon Secours Health Care, Ms. Brock serves as the chief spokeswoman on government relations, advocacy and public policy.

“This is the time for renewal,” said Mr. Bond, 70, who took over the chairmanship in 1998. “We have dynamic new leadership. Roslyn understands firsthand how important youth are to the success of the N.A.A.C.P. She was introduced to the N.A.A.C.P. 25 years ago when she served the N.A.A.C.P. as a youth board member and Youth and College Division State Conference president.”

The most recognized organization in the civil rights establishment, the association was founded in 1909. One of its main missions was to fight the lynchings of blacks.

The organization has played an important role in virtually every major civil rights issue of the last century, including the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case, the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

It has struggled in recent years, however, with declining membership, financial and political problems and questions of how best to move forward. The group’s reputation was tarnished in the mid-1990s when it fired its president for using organization money to settle a sexual harassment claim against him. In 2007, it laid off more than a third of its staff because of a budget shortfall.

In 2008, the board selected Benjamin T. Jealous, an activist and former news executive, as its youngest president, breaking with a tradition of picking ministers and political leaders and rebuffing criticisms that it was out of touch with the concerns of younger African-Americans.

“We’re looking at a generational shift in our communities,” Ms. Brock said. “We have a 48-year-old president in the White House, an N.A.A.C.P. president who was 35 at the time of his election and a 44-year-old board chair. The wisdom of those who stood the test of time got us to this point, and the youth are who will ensure the future legacy of this organization.”

6983: Jealous Talk.

From The New York Times…

Questions for Benjamin Todd Jealous

Race Matters

By Deborah Solomon

As the new head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, can you tell us how your organization plans to respond to the case of Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Harvard professor who was recently arrested for disorderly conduct at his own home — charges that have since been dropped — after he reportedly chewed out a cop who suspected him of burglary?
Our local volunteers are already engaged with the Cambridge Police Department, as we are with police departments across this country. The next step is passing the End Racial Profiling Act in Congress. Racial profiling is a constant drumbeat in this country. It’s a form of humiliation that strikes like lightning on a daily basis, and that is part of what Professor Gates was responding to. It’s hard to be in your house, told you’re a burglary suspect and then when you are no longer a suspect, told you are the problem.

Even so, many of us were surprised to hear President Obama accuse the Cambridge Police of acting “stupidly.” The president didn’t try very hard to extend his famous capacity for empathy to Sgt. James Crowley, who claims he was verbally abused by Gates.
I would be concerned if the Cambridge police chief didn't feel the same way.

The N.A.A.C.P., which just held its 100th annual convention amid much fanfare, was founded to advance civil rights. Why has the organization failed to take a stand on same-sex marriage, one of the most urgent civil rights issues of our day?
We’re engaged in fighting a whole range of issues of urgent relevance to the gay community and people of color in our country, including school bullying, hate crimes and employment discrimination. But we’re a barge, not a speedboat. We’re not going to repeat the mistakes of so many other institutions that have literally torn themselves apart over this divisive issue.

Exit polling suggested that 70 percent of black voters — the largest by far of any minority group — voted to make gay marriage illegal in California by voting in favor of Proposition 8 last fall. How do you explain that? The bond between black culture and church culture?
You’re looking at this from 50,000 feet. I’m looking at if from the ground, and I know that church leaders are on both sides of the debate. Black voters have been scapegoated — so many pundits blamed the passage of Proposition 8 on them. But it would have passed even if 100 percent of the black voters had voted against it.

Why do you think it’s such a divisive issue in the black community?
If gay rights groups want to change the opinion polls in the black community, they have to invest in it. It’s a long-term conversation. The battle to oppose Prop 8 could have been much better run. They came to the black community late, with the expectation that they were going to get certain results.

So you think gays should mobilize blacks instead of expecting you to?
That’s exactly right.

As the son of a white father and a black mother, do you refer to yourself as black?
Yes, without qualification.

What was it like growing up with the name Jealous?
People tended not to forget me. I embraced it as a competitive advantage.

You're 36; you were born after the big civil rights struggles. Do you think that makes your generation more willing to work within existing channels of power?
You’re talking to somebody who was kicked out of school for organizing student protests and has gone to jail in New York and Mississippi for civil disobedience. So draw whatever conclusions you want.

You’re also a Columbia graduate and a Rhodes Scholar. So you must have done something right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so they say.

How were you treated when you were arrested?
They treated me better Down South than they did up North. The North is not always a refuge.

Interview has been condensed and edited.

6475: NAACP Not Monkeying Around.

From USA TODAY…

NAACP head wants N.Y. Post editor, cartoonist axed

NEW YORK — The head of the NAACP on Saturday urged readers to boycott the New York Post, calling a cartoon that the newspaper published an invitation to assassinate President Obama.

Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, called on the tabloid to remove editor-in-chief Col Allan, as well as longtime cartoonist Sean Delonas.

Earlier this week, the newspaper apologized to anyone who might have been offended by the image printed Wednesday, which some say likens Obama to a violent chimpanzee gunned down by police in Connecticut.

Jealous said the cartoon was “an invitation to assassination.”

On Thursday, after protests by notable figures including director Spike Lee, the paper posted an editorial on its website saying the cartoon was meant to mock the federal economic stimulus bill, but “to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.”

A spokeswoman for the newspaper referred the Associated Press to the paper’s editorial when asked Saturday about the proposed NAACP boycott.

Jealous called the editorial “a half of an apology, without elaboration.”

The drawing, he said, “picks off the scabs of all the racial wounds.”

He spoke as the NAACP gathered for its annual meeting in New York, where it was founded a century ago.

NAACP officials said that if the Post does not take “serious disciplinary action,” they would reach out to organizations across the country to join them in their efforts against the tabloid.

NAACP Chairman Julian Bond called the publication of the cartoon “thoughtlessness taken to the extreme. … Anyone who is not offended by it does not have any sensitivity.”

6267: HDTV = Hardly Diverse TV.

From The Associated Press…

NAACP report find TV networks lagging in diversity

By Lynn Elber

LOS ANGELES – Nearly a decade after the NAACP condemned a “virtual whiteout” in broadcast TV, the civil rights group said major networks have stalled in their efforts to further ethnic diversity on-screen and off.

Television shows of the future could be even less inclusive because of a failure to cultivate young minority stars and to bring minorities into decision-making positions, NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous said.

The effect on the country could be profound, Jealous said.

“This is America: So goes TV, so goes reality. We don’t think it’s any accident that before we had a black president in reality, we had a black president on TV,” he said, referring to the chief executive portrayed by Dennis Haysbert on Fox’s “24.”

A “critical lack of programming by, for or about people of color” can be traced in part to the lack of minorities who have the power to approve new series or make final creative decisions, said Vicangelo Bulluck, executive director of NAACP’s Hollywood bureau.

In a report due to be released Thursday, the NAACP calls on networks to revisit a 2000 agreement to diversify the ranks of actors, writers, directors and executives. It also seeks to establish a task force with network executives, the NAACP and other civil rights groups.

The report raises the possibility of political action if progress is lacking, including a boycott against an unspecified network and its major advertisers or class-action litigation against the networks and parent companies.

Particularly disturbing, Jealous said, is the course charted by the CW, born of the defunct UPN and WB networks that had featured a number of black-oriented series including “Moesha” and “The Steve Harvey Show.”

“Those two networks provided an opportunity for young talent of color in this town. ... They merged into a network which appears to have systematically cut programming targeted to communities of color,” Jealous said.

CW’s lineup includes white-oriented shows “Gossip Girl” and “90210,” although it also airs the black sitcoms “Everybody Hates Chris” and “The Game.”

A movie star such as Will Smith emerged because he could gain early exposure in the TV comedy “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” Jealous said.

CW declined comment on the report, as did ABC, NBC and Fox. CBS received a request for comment late Wednesday and did not immediately respond.

On the heels of the 1999-2000 fall lineup of new shows that lacked any minority actors in lead roles — then-NAACP head Kweisi Mfume called it a “virtual whiteout” — the NAACP and Asian-American, Hispanic and Indian civil rights groups formed a coalition to lobby networks.

Broadcasters agreed to create minority recruitment and training programs and to chart minority hiring among actors, writers, directors and managers.

The coalition groups have charted their progress with annual reports, although the NAACP has not always participated, often finding sharp underrepresentation of minorities in front of and behind the camera.

The four major broadcast networks have made “important strides” in increasing diversity, the new NAACP report said, including filling lead roles with actors such as Haysbert, starring in CBS’ “The Unit,” and Laurence Fishburne, now on CBS’ “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

However, using figures compiled by the networks and industry guilds, the NAACP found a less rosy picture overall.

The number of minority actors in prime-time shows has remained flat or even dipped in recent years, decreasing from 333 in the 2002-03 season to 307 in 2006-07, according to the report. The number of minority writers working during the 2006-07 season was 173, a drop from the 206 employed during the previous season, the report said.

Reality programming has dampened employment prospects for minority actors and writers, as it has for whites, but shows like “Survivor” and “American Idol” do offer a benefit: They are likely to be more diverse in casting than most scripted series, the NAACP noted, providing a truer national portrait.

5609: NAACProgressive

From The Chicago Tribune…

The changing NAACP

A sign of changing times: The new president of America’s oldest and largest civil rights organization wasn’t alive in the 1960s. Benjamin Todd Jealous, 35, is the youngest president and CEO in the 99-year history of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Take that as a nod by the NAACP that its agenda, and that of other civil rights organizations, is changing. Laws to safeguard rights have long been in place. The focus now is on creating economic opportunity for African-Americans.

Jealous takes the leadership of the NAACP at a tough time for the organization. Its membership and funding have declined. It has struggled to get attention.

He replaces Bruce Gordon, a former Verizon executive whose business experience offered the promise of new fundraising connections and an updated agenda. Gordon expanded the NAACP’s mission to social services such as pregnancy counseling, mentoring programs and the teaching of entrepreneurial and financial skills, but he resigned over disputes with the NAACP board after just 19 months on the job.

Jealous has a broad, impressive background: He’s a former Rhodes scholar and director of Amnesty International USA’s Domestic Human Rights Program, and president of the San Francisco-based Rosenberg Foundation, which finances social justice organizations. He was executive director for three years of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, an organization of black-owned community newspapers.

His mother, who is black, was among those who desegregated Baltimore’s Western High School in the 1950s. His father, who is white, participated in sit-ins to desegregate Baltimore lunch counters. His family has stayed active in the NAACP.

All that would seem to give him a solid sense of the historic importance of the NAACP.

And the knowledge that dynamic organizations realize history is just that … history.

5483: NAACP Gets Jealous.

From The Associated Press…

NAACP picks young activist as its new president

The Associated Press

The NAACP board of directors has chosen Ben Jealous, a 35-year-old former news executive and lifelong activist, as the organization’s next president and the youngest in its 99-year history.

The 64-member board met and voted in Baltimore and plans to formally announce its decision on Saturday at a noon press conference.

NAACP national spokesman Richard J. McIntire confirmed the vote with The Associated Press early Saturday after the 8-hour closed door meeting.

Though he is not a politician, minister or civil rights icon, in Jealous the organization gets a young but connected leader 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, as the group grapples with dwindling membership and 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 told The Associated Press in a telephone interview 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 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. Dennis Courtland Hayes had been serving as interim president and chief executive officer.

Jealous was born in Pacific Grove, Calif., and educated at Columbia University and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

He has worked as a community organizer for the NAACP; as managing editor of a black newspaper in Mississippi; executive director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, the country’s largest group of black community newspapers; and as director of Amnesty International’s U.S. Human Rights Program.

Since 2005, Jealous has served as president of the San Francisco-based Rosenberg Foundation, a private institution that supports civil and human rights advocacy.

Despite his own successes, Jealous said blacks in America still have a hard row to hoe, and that the gains of recent decades have created a false sense of progress.

“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 said.

The NAACP was founded in 1909 by an interracial coalition who battled segregation and lynching and helped win some of the nation's biggest civil rights victories. But in the wake of racial advances, membership has dwindled and the organization has run a deficit.

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.

His plans for the group include ensuring high voter turnout among blacks in the November election and pushing civil rights.

Jealous said he is eager to work with similar 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.”

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