“As we seek individually and institutionally to meet the challenges before us, we naturally seek to learn from those who have experiences, perspectives and backgrounds different from our own – perspectives that inform and challenge us,” said Elizabeth Stroble, president of Webster University.
Stroble was welcoming to campus Benjamin Jealous, who until recently was president and CEO of the NAACP and has since joined the Oakland, Calif.-based Kapor Center for Social Impact as its first venture partner.
Jealous announced his resignation as head of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization in September, after serving a five-year term. He is a fifth-generation member of the NAACP and was the youngest person to lead the organization.
Before taking questions from the diverse crowd assembled at the Loretto-Hilton Center for the Performing Arts, 130 Edgar Rd., Jealous spoke of the future of the NAACP. He said it was time for a female president and CEO to lead the male-dominated organization. Lorraine C. Miller was named interim president and CEO in October 2013 and is leading the NAACP now as it searches for Jealous’ successor.
“We are in the beginning of a century that in too many ways feels like the end of last century,” he said. “We need somebody who rather than try to re-live the ‘60s understands that we’re in a whole new territory.”
Jealous said the “inertia of white supremacy” will come to an end by 2043, when the nation becomes a majority-minority country. He spoke of remaining vigilant against “Latino exclusion” laws targeting illegal immigrants, which harbor a racist approach to law enforcement.
“If you’re stopped and requested by a police office to show proof of citizenship on probable cause, understand that the second-largest undocumented group is Canadians,” he said. “And no one’s pulling you over because you look like Justin Bieber.”
Dianne Perry, assistant secretary of the St. Louis County Branch of the NAACP, held a “Support Trayvon’s Law” poster. Speaking from the audience, she expressed anger over the Michael Dunn verdict and asked Jealous to offer his insight.
Last month, a Jacksonville, Fla. jury deadlocked on a first-degree murder charge on Dunn for the killing of Jordan Davis. Dunn was convicted of attempted second degree murder for firing 10 shots into a vehicle of unarmed black teenagers. Dunn claimed self-defense under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, as did George Zimmerman, who was exonerated in the killing of Trayvon Martin.
“If you quiver because you’re a coward on the street and you have enough money to buy a gun,” Jealous said regarding Stand Your Ground laws, “you can shoot anybody you’re afraid of – that’s what this law says.”
Also speaking from the audience, William “Bill” Monroe gave a synopsis of a charter school proposal he intended to present to Stroble, requesting sponsorship from Webster University for the Harriet Tubman High School and Career Center. Monroe – an elected member of the St. Louis Public Schools Board of Education, which does not govern the district – also expressed uncertainty for children in failing North County school districts, like Normandy.
Jealous said more creative and pragmatic methods are needed to save more youth in an educational climate where segregation creates disadvantages and educational gaps among children. He said that charter schools should be community-based, public and not-for-profit. In terms of school vouchers, he said they de-stabilize schools “that are mandated to serve everybody.”
As for his new venture in Silicon Valley with Kapor Center for Social Impact, Jealous told Hazel Trice Edney, “Very similar to my work at the NAACP, we’re working on multiple gaps simultaneously.”
He said the center has helped to fund technology that lowers the cost of telephone calls from inmates to their families; a hearing aid that costs only $75; technology that helps parents and children with bi-lingual education; and a way to send money home to another country without paying a 30 percent remittance fee.
Jealous previously brought digital progress to both the NAACP and the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), of which The American is one of almost 200 member papers. Under his leadership, the NAACP’s mobile messaging base grew from 5,000 activists to 423,000 and from 175,000 email activists to 1.3 million. At the NNPA, which he led in the early years of the 21st century, he pushed publishers of member papers to add digital publishing on websites to their news services.
When Jealous left the NAACP last year, he said he would spend more time with his family and would work to start a political action committee (PAC). He said the Kapor Center will get “80 percent” of his time, while “20 percent will be continuing to build the PAC.” He told the Washington Post he intends for the PAC to serve as the equivalent of an Emily’s List (which supports women candidates) for “candidates of color.”
Follow this reporter on Twitter: @BridjesONeil.
Additional reporting by Hazel Trice Edney.
