Benjamin Chavis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Executive Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People | |
| In office 1993–1994 | |
| Preceded by | Benjamin Hooks |
| Succeeded by | Earl Shinhoster |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr. January 22, 1948 Oxford, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Education | St. Augustine University University of North Carolina, Charlotte (BA) Duke University (MDiv) Howard University (DMin) Union Theological Seminary |
Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr. (born January 22, 1948, in Oxford, North Carolina) is an African-American activist, author, journalist, and the current president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association. He serves as national co-chair for the political organization No Labels.[1]
In his youth, Chavis was a youth coordinator and SCLC assistant to Martin Luther King Jr., who inspired him to work in the civil rights movement. At the age of 23, Chavis rose to international prominence in 1971 as the leader of the Wilmington Ten in North Carolina, civil rights activists who were unjustly convicted of committing arson. As the oldest of the ten, Chavis received the longest sentence of 34 years in NC prisons. The Wilmington Ten convictions and sentences were appealed and overturned, and in 1980 all ten were freed by the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals due to "prosecutorial misconduct." Chavis returned to graduate school and the field of civil rights, and he became a vice president of the National Council of Churches in 1988 in New York City.
In 1993, the national board of directors of the NAACP elected Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr as the executive director and CEO of civil rights organization. Chavis later served in 1995 as the National Director of the Million Man March, and the Founder and CEO of the National African American Leadership Summit (NAALS). Since 2001, Chavis has been CEO and Co-Chairman of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network,[2][3] in New York City which he co-founded with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.
On June 24, 2014, Chavis became the president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, an African-American organization which focuses on supporting and advocating for publishers of the nation's more than 230 black newspapers.[4]
- ^ "No Labels - Meet the Team". No Labels. 2023. Retrieved August 11, 2023.
- ^ "HSAN.org - Board of Directors". Archived from the original on September 18, 2008. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
- ^ "HSAN.org - Leadership and Support". Archived from the original on September 22, 2008. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
- ^ "The Miami times". original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu. Retrieved August 28, 2023.