As the youngest NAACP president in history at 35, Benjamin Jealous has a unique perspective to bring to the organization. His priorities and goals for the organization reflect his background in human rights and status as a father.

“It’s affirming that they have chosen to embrace a leader who is raising a young child in this country,” Jealous said. “My daughter is two years old and when she was born I was forced as a new parent to take stock of how far we’ve come as a country.”

JEALOUS

While Jealous believes progress has been made in terms of human rights, he refuses to disregard the clear inequality still present in this country.

“It’s still more difficult for a Black man without a criminal record than for a White man with a criminal record to find a job,” Jealous said. “The state of racism in this country is still deeply troubling, and the need for justice for families regardless of race—for working families—is huge.”

Instead of limiting his focus to the need for advocacy on the side of African-Americans, Jealous is also focused on providing equal rights for all Americans.

“The reality is that the struggle of Black people in this country is the struggle of all people in this country historically,” Jealous said. “You look at what’s happening with the economy and the pressing nature of those realities is very clear.”

Jealous, who served as the president of the Rosenberg Foundation, an institution that helps California’s working families, has always been focused on the rights of the working class. This experience, along with his previous work with Amnesty International, fighting for human rights, will factor into his goals for the NAACP.

“My goal is to continue the tradition of transformational change that defines the NAACP and that means not just fighting for civil rights but fighting for human rights,” Jealous said. “My goal is for us to tackle the problems of the 21st century at the scale that they occur.”

As president Jealous will have to coordinate with the 12,000 NAACP branches around the country. At this point he is unsure what mandates he will make for them, but is eager to listen to what each branch hopes to accomplish.

“Branches are the heart of the organization. My hope is to inspire them to dream boldly about what we can accomplish in this century and to provide them with the tools they need to follow through,” Jealous said. “I want to see us work better coordinated with our branches. We have to use them more effectively.”

In the future, one of Jealous’ main priorities will be working with the branches to guarantee high quality education and equal opportunity schooling throughout the country.

“We need to design programs that allow us to mobilize across the board,” he said. “If you want to fix schools around the country we need to be in the 12,000 communities. I want to make sure every branch is equipped to transform their local community to solve serious social problems in the community.”

In the more immediate realm, Jealous plans to work with the branches to ensure everything goes smoothly with the upcoming presidential elections.

“What I’m asking of local branches right now is to make sure we register every last vote, that we mobilize every last vote and that we protect every last vote that’s cast,” Jealous said.

He has held a variety of positions in the past including working for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in Harlem and serving as the managing editor of  Jackson Advocate newspaper in Mississippi.

“God bless the Black Press,” Jealous said. “That’s where I got my start.”

Jealous was elected to office May 17 and began his presidency in September.

Jealous is married to Lia, daughter of David and Cecelia Epperson of Point Breeze.