New Leadership Taking Control

Ben Jealous became the newly elected leader of the NAACP. He was a graduate of Oxford University and is not the typical choice for the NAACP. He was the executive director of the National Newspapers Publishers Associations. "I think that it's a real affirmation that this organization is willing to invest in the future, to invest in the ideas and the leadership of the generation that is currently raising black children in this country," said Ben Jealous.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded February 12, 1909 by W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells, and Henry Moskowitz along others. The purpose of the association was to "ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination."