CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER

Home

Ben Jealous has spent his professional life at the nexus of social change, media, and emerging technologies.

He is a former Democratic Nominee for Governor of Maryland, former National President & CEO of the NAACP, former Executive Director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), and for more than half a decade has been investing in social impact startups.

While at the NAACP, Jealous led a series of wholesale changes in how the organization used social media and related technologies to enhance its organizing.

He is a visiting scholar at the Annenberg School for Communication.

His efforts started with proving the efficacy of online viral voter registration drives in the 2008 Presidential Election. The NAACP’s numbers of online activists really took off when Jealous began using their platforms to organize support for individuals fighting injustices in the criminal justice system. The last such campaign he led for the NAACP signed up more than 600,000 new activists on email and approximately 400,000 via text in less than two weeks. These efforts have also been credited by a major polling firm with shifting public opinion and paving the way for landmark civil rights state legislative victories.

SCHOLAR

Home

Penn Today

A Q&A with Ben Jealous

Home

The Chronicles of Philantropy

Benjamin Jealous Leaves the NAACP a Far Stronger Place

PHILANTHROPIST

MAMIE AND JEROME TODD RELIEF FUND

COVID-19 Community Response and Recovery Fund for Baltimore!

I set up The Mamie and Jerome Todd Relief Fund to honor my grandparents who overcame their own great odds and still always found a way to give back to their community. 100% of your donations will be used to provide aid to those most impacted by this pandemic.

As Baltimore continues to heal from conflicts with authorities around the murder of Freddie Gray as well as constant insults from Trump, our city needs your help more than ever. Our current effort is to support hotel and restaurant workers who have been hit hard by COVID-19 in Baltimore — 95% of them have lost their jobs.

Together, we can help protect the most vulnerable who have been laid off, lack health care, and worry daily about food and shelter.

By the way, Mamie Todd is 103, and she’s still kicking.

Keep the faith. Better times are ahead.

Love,

Ben Jealous

AUTHOR

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER

REACH: 40 Black Men Speak on Living, Leading, and Succeeding

by Ben Jealous (Editor), Trabian Shorters (Editor), Russell Simmons (Foreword by)

A New York Times and Washington Post Bestseller

In this timely and important collection of personal essays, black men from all walks of life share their inspiring stories and ultimately how each, in his own way, became a source of hope for his community and country.

Reach includes forty first-person accounts from well-known men like the Rev. Al Sharpton, John Legend, Isiah Thomas, Bill T. Jones, Louis Gossett, Jr., and Talib Kweli, alongside influential community organizers, businessmen, religious leaders, philanthropists, and educators. These remarkable individuals are living proof that black men are as committed as ever to ensuring a better world for themselves and for others.

Powerful and indispensable to our ongoing cultural dialogue, Reach explodes myths about black men by providing rare, candid, and deeply personal insights into their lives. It’s a blueprint for better community engagement. It’s an essential resource for communities everywhere.

Proceeds from the sale of Reach will go to BMe Community, a nonprofit organization dedicated to building caring and prosperous communities inspired by black men. Reach is also a Project of the Kapor Center for Social Impact, one of the founding supporters of President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative.

NEWSLETTER

BEN JEALOUS