September 8, 2013 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Baltimore
After five years leading the NAACP, Benjamin Todd Jealous announced today that he is stepping down as president of the nation’s largest and oldest civil-rights group.
Mr. Jealous, 40, cites the effect of stress on his health, a need to spend more time with his family, and a desire to start a career in education as the reasons for his decision. (Read The Chronicle’s full coverage of Mr. Jealous’s legacy at NAACP.)
“While the mission of our great organization is not finished, I believe my role with it has been fulfilled,” he said in an e-mail to The Chronicle. “I am a believer in fresh blood.”
Mr. Jealous, who says he will stay at the organization until the end of the year, is leaving before his contract expires in October 2015. The board had renewed Mr. Jealous’s second contract last October.
Transforming an Organization
As NAACP’s youngest-ever leader, Mr. Jealous is credited with infusing the 104-year-old organization, once seen as graying and vulnerable, with energy, modernity—and sometimes, risky stances on issues like same-sex marriage that have rattled his board members.
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.
“It’s inarguable that Ben Jealous has forcefully brought the NAACP into the 21st century,” says Van Jones, a civil-rights activist and president of Rebuild the Dream, an advocacy group.
“For me and people of my generation—people in their 30s or 40s—you couldn’t mention the term ‘NAACP’ 10 years ago without people laughing. It had become an irrelevant relic. Ben changed all that.”
The NAACP will probably start a national search for a long-term leader soon, says Mr. Jealous, though he believes an interim leader may come from within the organization. “We’ve got a deep bench,” he says. “And we have the most gender-diverse management staff we’ve ever had.”
As for his own plans, Mr. Jealous says he is focused on a career shift into education.
“I’m going to miss the street fighting with mayors, state senators, governors—and winning,” he says. “I’ve been an organizer since I was 18. It’s not just the end of my career as head of the NAACP. This is the end of my life as an organizer.”
