Time's 40 Under 40 Rising Stars of U.S. Politics list highlights those in the political and nonprofit arena making strides

Forging ahead to strengthen race relations in a tenuous political sphere and champion financial reform and aid for homeowners facing foreclosure, NAACP President Ben Jealous, 37, has a lot on his plate. But his work has not gone unnoticed. Jealous, the youngest president of the NAACP, was honored by Time magazine as one of the most influential people in politics, under the age of 40.

“It’s an acknowledgment of the hard work this organization is doing to move the country forward,” says Jealous. It also helps to bring attention to the organization’s goals including its march on the nation’s capitol, Oct. 2. The one nation march “At its heart, [the march] has been about bringing this country back so we can work together.”

The Oct. 25 print issue of Time features its 40 Under 40 Rising Stars of U.S. Politics list, highlighting those in the political and non-profit arena who are making strides. Wrote Time:

“[He] is steering the NAACP through an era marked by both the election of the first African-American President and rising racial tension, including a spat between the Tea Party movement and Jealous himself…”

A contentious “spat” that seems to be growing as the organiztion calls for the Tea Party to excel racists from its ranks. The NAACP received a mysterious package at its headquarters, Monday. While the organization could not confirm if it was a death threat, Jealous told Blackenterprise.com that the NAACP has been subject to intimidation tactics over the last few weeks.

The list also includes Mike Johnston, Colorado state senator and education advocate; Julian Castro, San Antonio Mayor, and Stephanie Schriock, president of Emily’s List, an organization dedicated to recruiting Democratic women to run for elected office.

Jealous: "We have received dozens of death threats--more than 100--since we called for the Tea Party to expel racists from its ranks."

UPDATE: A hazmat team cleared the NAACP’s Washington D.C. headquarters, Monday evening. The team revealed the contents of the envelope to be tea and a tea bag. A spokesperson for the NAACP said the FBI notified the organization that the envelope was similar to anonymously sent packages received by members of congress during the healthcare debate.

A mysterious package arrived at the NAACP’s headquarters in Washington D.C. this afternoon. The envelope, filled with a white powder, sat in a conference room as staffers worked to alert authorities. While the organization is still investigating the envelope’s contents, it cannot confirm if it is a threat. But NAACP President Ben Jealous says the organization has seen a number of death threats over the past few weeks as it has ramped up pressure on the conservative Tea Party movement.

“We have received dozens of death threats, more than 100, since we called for the Tea Party to expel racists from its ranks,” Jealous told Blackenterprise.com today. The 37-year-old says the NAACP, along with a number of black congressmen and women, have been at the end of racially motivated intimidation over the past few weeks. He says the harassment stems from their protest against racism within the Tea Party.

The threat comes just as the organization prepares to release its report this Wednesday tying racist groups to ranking members within the Tea Party. The report, complied by the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights details various associations between Tea Party organizations and acknowledged hate groups in the United States.

Jealous says while part of the Tea Party is more concerned with fiscal conservatism and small government, there is a faction fostering these intimidation tactics.

“We’re asking the majority of the Tea Party to stand up and speak out and say there is no place in their movement for white supremacist and others who advocate violence against minority groups,” he says.

The campaign to introduce more black males to careers in advertising is named for the fictional ad exec played by actor Eddie Murphy in the film Boomerang

Early last year, the NAACP, in conjunction with Washington, D.C.-based law firm Mehri & Skalet,  issued a sounding cry about the advertising industry: African Americans were grossly underrepresented. Sixteen percent of large advertising firms had no black managers or professionals, a rate 60% higher than in the overall labor market.

That finding came as no surprise to Lincoln Stephens. When the University of Missouri-Columbia graduate started his first advertising job at the Dallas-based agency TracyLocke in 2004, “I was one of only a few black males at a company of about 300 people,” he says.

The lack of African American advertising professionals has broad ramifications, says Janelle M. Carter, an associate with Mehri & Skalet. Last year, the law firm and the NAACP launched the Madison Avenue Project, which fights racial discrimination in the ad industry. “If ad agencies were more inclusive, they could take advantage of a broad ranging diversity in talent and greater creativity,” believes Carter. And so does Stephens.

After four years working in advertising, Stephens decided to channel his energy and expertise into helping the next generation of professionals by creating The Marcus Graham Project (www.marcusgrahamproject.org), a national initiative based in Dallas that provides training and mentorship to African American men in the advertising industry.

Named after Marcus Graham, the fictional ad exec played by Eddie Murphy in the 1992 film Boomerang, the organization is designed to spark interest in the industry as the movie did for Stephens. “I remember seeing Boomerang, and there weren’t that many images of successful blacks in the media,” says Stephens, who is now 29. “The thing most prevalent in our country is advertising, but there aren’t a lot of places where one can get exposed to these careers.”

Last year, Stephens launched a boot camp, an 11-week program in which a team of African American men between 18 and 34 created real-world marketing and advertising campaigns. In last year’s inaugural run, the seven participants created campaigns for clients such as the City of Dallas and Los Angeles-based eco-friendly clothing manufacturer Broccoli City.  Besides the program, Stephens launched an online mentoring community (www.marcusgrahamproject.ning.com).  Today, the Internet forum boasts about 150 members who network, discuss industry trends, and share career advice. “Essentially, we’re building a strategic army to go out and lead,” say  Larry L. Yarrell II, a co-founding member of the program. “We’re preparing young men for a change in the industry and allowing them to use their raw talents to affect change.”

To fund the dream, Stephens relies on donations and personal savings. He shares office space with other media professionals to keep costs manageable, and boot camp participants used in-kind donations to produce their marketing campaigns. When the team needed to build a counter for a green awareness event, for example, they used leftover Styrofoam donated by a local construction facility. Stephens hopes the program’s initial success will inspire larger donations since he’d like to offer boot campers stipends, and he estimates programming costs at $13,000 per participant. He’s also in the process of filing for 501(c)(3) status and choosing a board.
And although in the early stages, Yarrell says The Marcus Graham Project is gaining interest within the industry. “We’ve gotten calls from CEOs, young and old, who have heard or been affected by the program and they’re not just saying good job, but calling to see how they can be involved. It’s very positive. It’s very forward thinking.”

“You’re running full speed ahead, completing projects from start to finish,” says Quinton Wash of Dallas. After last year’s boot camp, the 25-year-old scored freelance advertising gigs from CBS Radio and TracyLocke, and this year he’ll create a Website for the upcoming play Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family.

Stephens aims to have The Marcus Graham Project serve as a breeding ground for companies seeking top talent. “Employers say, ‘I don’t know where to find diverse talent,’” Stephens says. “We’re giving them a place that they can go to see that we exist.”

This article originally appeared in the February 2010 issue of Black Enterprise magazine.

Benjamin Todd Jealous

Paterson joined several speakers who underscored the relevancy of the NAACP by focusing not only on the organizations accomplishments from the past, but on the challenges that lay ahead for African Americans and people of all colors.

“It is the [same] NAACP that we needed 100 years ago that we need now more than ever,” said Rep. Charles Rangel.

Speakers told attendees at the New York Hilton that the original purpose of the NAACP was the dismantling of color lines. Underscoring that fact was a continuous reminder that members should throw their support behind Judge Sonia Sotomayor, whose congressional confirmation hearings in Washington, D.C. started this morning.

Former NAACP presidents and executive directors Kweisi Mfume (1996-2004), Bruce Gordon (2005-2007), and Benjamin Lawson Hooks (1977-1993) warned the audience that the election of President Barack Obama is not the organizations final victory. “This historic election should empower us to do more,” said Mfume.

And more is what newly appointed NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous wants to do. Jealous plans to implement the original goals of the NAACP by advancing the cause of human rights. He reminded the audience of 2,300 people that while the NAACP is a very black organization in terms of its participants, but it is not an organization solely for black people.

“There are white people trapped in multigenerational poverty,” said Jealous. “In addition to there being gender conscious and race conscious affirmative action, there should be class conscious affirmative action.”

Lobbying for fair lending practices, smarter strategies on criminal justice policy, and fair unionization policies for businesses are among the goals that Jealous has set forth during his presidency.

“[The NAACP] will always be there to enforce basic civil rights, but the big battles, for good schools and healthcare for all [are] human rights battles,” says Jealous. “In order to win human rights victories, we don’t need so much litigation as we need community [organization].

However, in his speech, Jealous, 36, emphasized a necessity to include more young people his age and younger in these social justice fights, saying the position of young people in a movement is a sign of whether an organization is “merely ordinary or truly extraordinary.”

Organizing youth for the causes of the NAACP in the manner that Obama did during his historic campaign for presidency will require a campaign of its own for the NAACP. Perhaps in the years to come the NAACP’s youngest president can take a primed youth movement and bring justice for all Americans.

Marcia A. Wade is the reporter for BlackEnterprise.com.

Jealous

As the NAACP embarks on its 100th anniversary, the organization and America stands on the cusp of a new era. With the nation’s first African American president takes the reins with a promise to lead the country in the right direction, the NAACP too finds itself on the threshold of change. Leading the mission to reenergize and broaden the organization’s focus from equality between blacks and whites to human rights is Ben Jealous, the NAACP’s youngest president.

On this day, the organization’s centennial, the NAACP also has its eyes are set on the government and the economic crisis. With lawmakers wrangling over the fine points of a nearly trillion dollar stimulus plan to resuscitate the economy, the NAACP is leading the charge to ensure African Americans are equal beneficiaries of the plan. Jealous says its members are pushing the Department of Labor (DOL) to rebuild its antidiscrimination infrastructure as the stimulus plan is rolled out.

“We aren’t simply interested in a bailout for Main Street,” Jealous says. “We want a fix for Back Street.” The group wants staffing increased at the DOL’s Solicitors Office, which handles many discrimination lawsuits, as well as at the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, so that money used to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure is proportionally distributed to blacks and black contractors.

“We’re also putting out a rather novel idea: that every stimulus-created job be processed through the federal employment service,” Jealous says. “We need to track who gets those jobs. We need to monitor it.”

Jealous, 35, assumed the position in September, having served as president of the Rosenberg Foundation, a San Francisco-based organization that advocates for immigrants and working-class families. He also served as managing editor of the Jackson Advocate, a black-owned newspaper in Mississippi.

His appointment may be the boost the organization needs having been mired in controversy after the unexpected resignation of former president Bruce Gordon in 2007. His efforts to redirect the organization to more humanitarian focus were challenged by the board. Chairman Julian Bond and members of the board were also disillusioned with Gordon, who they claim did not meet fundraising goals.

Many youths have also questioned the relevancy of the old guard organization. Some have questioned whether its sole focus on civil rights are out of touch with the challenges faced by blacks in the 21st century.

Founded in 1909 by abolitionist W.E.B. Dubois and Ida B. Wells, the organization fought against lynch mob justice and institutional racism. It’s played a pivotal role in landmark civil rights cases such as Brown vs. Board of Education which, in 1954, outlawed segregation in schools.

Jealous says the organization will be looking to expand its New York presence to accommodate staff that would primarily be focused on working with the United Nations.

BlackEnterprise.com: No matter who becomes president, what’s next for black America?

Ben Jealous: The next president needs to target human-rights protection, racial profiling and make sure that the 50 million uninsured people, many of whom are black, get insurance. With the expected changes in congress, we might be able to meet some of these goals even if John McCain is president.

BE: Polls look very promising for Sen. Barack Obama. How in your opinion has he been able to come this far?

Jealous: Clearly the training that Obama got on the Southside of Chicago as a community organizer has served him well. He was able to learn to listen well, push behind his fears and he learned to fight hard.

BE: How should Black America Respond to our next president, whoever he may be?

Jealous: First thing we need to do is celebrate a day of great participation and hard work to increase voter registration and engagement. But the next thing that we have to do is plan. Plan for the next administration and push forward an agenda that deals with the top issues that face our community. We are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are suffering from housing foreclosure at the highest rate of any group in the society. We have an infant mortality rate that is way too high. We need to make sure that the next president and the next Congress address those issues head on including the discrimination in law enforcement and in lending that lie beneath many of our troubles.

BE: The NAACP brought suit against a county in Virginia that would not extend polling hours or add more voting machines. What came of that and what other voting irregularities have surfaced today?

Jealous: The court ordered them to comply. Long lines have materialized nationwide. There have been long lines in Baltimore; as long as five hours. We’ve been working in states like Ohio and Mississippi dealing with cases of intimidation. At George Mason University a flier was sent misinforming students of the election date. At South Carolina State University the County Board of Elections decided to move the polls 25 miles away from the polling place nearest to the school.

BE: I know that the NAACP has played a huge role in voter registration. How has the NAACP impacted this election?

Jealous: We’ve been organizing voter registration drives for 50 years. Some predominantly black counties this year have reached 95% voter registration. That is the result of decades of work by the NAACP.