Benjamin Chavis
1993–1994
(1948-01-22) January 22, 1948 (age 76)
Duke University (MDiv)
Howard University (DMin)
Union Theological Seminary
Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr. (born January 22, 1948, in Oxford, North Carolina) is an African-American activist, author, journalist, and the current president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association. He serves as national co-chair for the political organization No Labels.[1]
In his youth, Chavis was a youth coordinator and SCLC assistant to Martin Luther King Jr., who inspired him to work in the civil rights movement. At the age of 23, Chavis rose to international prominence in 1971 as the leader of the Wilmington Ten in North Carolina, civil rights activists who were unjustly convicted of committing arson. As the oldest of the ten, Chavis received the longest sentence of 34 years in NC prisons. The Wilmington Ten convictions and sentences were appealed and overturned, and in 1980 all ten were freed by the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals due to "prosecutorial misconduct." Chavis returned to graduate school and the field of civil rights, and he became a Vice President of the National Council of Churches in 1988 in New York City.
In 1993, the national board of directors of the
On June 24, 2014, Chavis became the president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, an African-American organization which focuses on supporting and advocating for publishers of the nation's more than 230 black newspapers.[4]
Early life
Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr. was born and grew up in
Chavis worked in the civil rights movement, leading a march in 1970 to the state capital in protest after three white men were acquitted of killing Henry D. Marrow in Oxford. He was a leader of the Wilmington Ten, who all were convicted of arson during a civil rights protest in the city for school desegregation. The oldest at 24, he was sentenced to 34 years in prison and served two years. The convictions and sentences were appealed. In 1980 the federal appeals court overturned the convictions, citing "prosecutorial misconduct." and ordering a new trial. The state of North Carolina decided against a trial. North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue issued "Pardons of innocence" to each member of the Wilmington 10 on December 31, 2012.
Chavis received his
Career
Civil rights and political activities
In 1963, while a high school student, Chavis became a statewide youth coordinator in
In 1968, Chavis also worked for the
Chavis was appointed Field Officer in the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice in 1968.[6]
Chavis was ordained in the United Church of Christ in 1980
Wilmington Ten
In 1971 the Commission for Racial Justice assigned Field Officer Chavis to
Chavis and nine others were arrested in February 1972, charged with conspiracy and arson. Following a controversial trial, all ten were convicted in 1972. The oldest man at age 24, Chavis drew the longest sentence, 34 years. The ten were incarcerated while supporters pursued appeals. The case of the Wilmington Ten was condemned internationally as a political prosecution.[10]
In 1978 Amnesty International described Benjamin Chavis and eight others of the Wilmington Ten still in prison as "American political prisoners" under the definition of the Universal Rights of Man and the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They were prisoners of conscience. In December 1980, the Federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial and overturned the original conviction because of "prosecutorial misconduct."[10][11]
Chavis drew from this experience in his books: An American Political Prisoner Appeals for Human Rights (1978) (written while he was still in prison) and Psalms from Prison. In 1978, Chavis was named as one of the first winners of the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award.
On December 31, 2012, Chavis and the surviving members of the Wilmington Ten were granted Pardons of Innocence by North Carolina Governor
Environmental racism
Some have asserted that Chavis coined the term environmental racism in 1982, during environmental justice protests in Warren County, NC, although Carolyn A. Burrow (Adjoa Aiyetero) had used the term in 1970. Over the past four decades, Chavis has emerged as the "Godfather of the Environmental Justice Movement." Some have asserted that Benjamin Chavis cried out: "this is environmental racism!" at the moment of his arrest during the 1982 PCB landfill protests in North Carolina, but legal scholar Richard J. Lazarus found this likely apocryphal; Chavis first was recorded using the term in 1987.[14] He writes in the forward of a 1993 testimonial of the environmental justice movement:
Environmental racism is racial discrimination in environmental policymaking. It is racial discrimination in the enforcement of regulations and laws. It is racial discrimination in the deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste disposal and the siting of polluting industries. It is racial discrimination in the official sanctioning of the life-threatening presence of poisons and pollutants in communities of color. And, it is racial discrimination in the history of excluding people of color from the mainstream environmental groups, decisionmaking boards, commissions, and regulatory bodies.[15]
In 1986 Chavis conducted and published the landmark national study: Toxic Waste and Race in the United States of America, that statistically revealed the correlation between race and the location of toxic waste throughout the United States.[16] Chavis is considered by many environmental grassroots activists to be the "Godfather of the post-modern environmental justice movement" that has steadily grown throughout the nation and world since the early 1980s.[citation needed]
National Council of Churches
In 1988, Chavis was elected Vice President of the National Council of Churches. Chavis also served as chairman of its Prophetic Justice unit as a Minister of the United Church of Christ.[7] In 2013, Chavis began writing weekly columns for the National Newspaper Association. His columns both insightful and educational, have been published in the country's leading minority newspapers, such as The AFRO. Theologically, Chavis has worked for decades on identifying the common points of unity between the three Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Today, Chavis continues to work on ecumenical and interfaith matters across the United States and throughout the world.
NAACP
In 1993, Chavis was selected as the executive director and CEO of the
Chavis traveled to a Los Angeles, CA housing project to "get to the heart of the issue," stating that in economically deprived areas, youth often go from childhood to adulthood with no adolescence because of the economic demands.[17] On August 28, 1993, NAACP Chairman William Gibson, Executive Director Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., Coretta Scott King, William Fauntroy, and AFL-CIO's Lane Kirkland joined to organize the 30th Anniversary March on Washington for Economic Democracy. In 1993, President Clinton named Chavis to the twenty-five-member President's Council on Sustainable Development to help develop U.S. policies that would encourage economic growth, job creation, and environmental protection.
The NAACP in 1993 received a $2 million commitment from the estate of the late Reginald F. Lewis to establish the NAACP Reginald F. Lewis Memorial Endowment.
Chavis spoke on the PBS series Earthkeeping. He said that "environmental racism" was a life-and-death issue and noted the work of the NAACP to end it. Chavis said that often people of color were excluded from decisions on public policy. The NAACP organized Branches to speak out on the issue and advocated for reform of the Superfund legislation.
In 1994, Chavis set the NAACP's focus on economic empowerment to ensure a strong economic infrastructure for the African-American and other communities of color. The NAACP created a Telecommunications Task Force of board members and industry leaders to ensure that African Americans took part in the ownership, management, and total employment package of President Clinton's proposed "National Information Superhighway."
The NAACP conducted a voter education teleconference in seventeen cities across the U.S. to prepare South African citizens residing in the U.S. and NAACP volunteers for participation in the special South African elections on April 26.
Through the NAACP Community Development Resource Centers (CDRC), the Association established the Youth Entrepreneurial Institute to sharpen business acumen and launch enterprises for students ages fourteen to eighteen. In May 1994, Chavis led the NAACP and other organizations in sponsoring a youth summit to seek solutions to the drugs and violence in their communities.[18]
In August 1994 Chavis was dismissed by the NAACP executive board in a 53 to 5 vote over a report that he had authorized payment of NAACP funds to his former assistant to drop a sexual discrimination claim. Chavis sued the NAACP but a settlement was reached in October 1994.[19][20]
Advocacy and leadership
In 1994, Chavis convened summit conferences of civil rights leaders in Baltimore in August and in Chicago in December. In June 1995, they founded the National African American Leadership Summit (NAALS). A constitution and by-laws were adopted that month. Chavis served as executive director and CEO of NAALS from 1995 to 1997.
In 1995, NAALS appointed Chavis to serve as the National Director of the Million Man March Organizing Committee that conceived, designed, arranged and promoted the Million Man March.[10]
Newspaper and radio
Chavis wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column Civil Rights Journal from 1985 to 1993. At the same time, he produced and hosted a national radio program of the same name.[7][21][22]
Hip-hop
The journey into the hip-hop culture actually had its roots for Chavis dating back to 1969 when he was the proprietor and regular "DJ" and "MC" for The Soul Kitchen Disco in his hometown of Oxford, North Carolina. In the 1970s, Chavis saw the connection between the urban culture of underground music and the post-civil rights era.[citation needed] During the 1980s, Chavis witnessed the growing popularity of hip-hop with disfranchised youth entrapped into urban poverty.[citation needed]
While serving as a mentor to
Chavis performed the Intro and Outro to Jim Jones and the Diplomats 2004 hip-hop album, "On My Way to Church." In 2005, Chavis was the spoken word artist feature in Cassidy's latest platinum selling album I'm a Hustla. When Chavis helped organize both the Million Man March (1995) and Million Family March (2000), Russell Simmons worked with him to mobilize hip-hop leaders to support the marches. Ultimately, the two men realized they had a similar vision for this generation of hip-hop youth, and to that end, they created the first national "Hip-Hop Summit" in New York City, from which grew the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN).[citation needed][24]
One-and-a-half years later, HSAN is the largest and broadest national coalition of hip-hop artists, recording industry executives, youth activists and civil rights leaders.[
Meetings with the
In 2002, Chavis and the HSAN joined the
Chavis joined "Sex and the City" star Cynthia Nixon, actor Bruce Willis and Russell Simmons to demand adequate funding for education across the state of New York.[citation needed]
Chavis was a spokesperson for TI's Respect My Vote campaign, and introduced TI's performance at the 2008 FAMU Homecoming Concert in Tallahassee Florida that was hosted by FAMU and Blazin 102.3.
Entrepreneurial activities
As a longstanding advocate of entrepreneurial activities for youth and minorities, Chavis has assisted, consulted and headed several commercial projects ranging from franchising to film production and publishing.
In 2007 Chavis headed H3 Enterprises and the HipHopSodaShop, the first hip-hop corporation that soon opened two shops in Tampa and Miami, Florida. Due to pre-existing conditions, H3 closed the shops, and Chavis retired. One year later, H3 Enterprises sued Chavis for mismanagement, however an amicable settlement was reached in this case after the routine countersuit of Chavis.[27]
Chavis was the president of Education Online Services in Fort Lauderdale, until he retired to accept other opportunities for professional advancement. He serves as the senior strategic advisor to the Diamond Empowerment Fund in New York.[28] In June 2014, the National Newspaper Publishers Association elected Chavis to the office of president of their two hundred member association.[29]
A popular public speaker, Chavis frequently addresses academic, commercial and non-profit organizations and is a prominent spokesman in the national and international media.[29]
Past memberships
- CEO and founder of the National African American Leadership Summit
- Chairman of the Prophetic Justice Unit of the National Council of Churches (NCC)
- Co-chair of the Southern Organizing Committee for Economic/Social Justice
- President of the Angolan Foundation
- Co-founder of the National Black Independent Political Party
- President of the Board of the Washington Office on Africa
- Member of the Clinton/Gore Transition Team for the National Resources Center
- Co-founder of the UNC-Charlotte Black Student Union[30]
Personal life
Chavis was married to the late Martha Rivera Chavis and is the father of eight children, three of whom are by his first wife, the late Jackie Bullock Chavis. He is a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.[31][32] Chavis has told an interviewer he reads books on chemistry, for pleasure.[9]
In popular culture
- Chavis appeared as the "Minister" in Hype Williams' 1998 movie Belly.
- Chavis appeared in skits on Hustler's P.O.M.E.
- Chavis has been mistakenly listed as being the voice during the chorus on "Ringing Bells", a track from Made In Brooklyn. It is actually Minister Louis Farrakhan's voice used on the track.
- Chavis also appeared on a track called "The Message" on Cassidy's I'm a Hustla.
- Chavis appeared in Spike Lee's film about the Million Man March, Get on the Bus.
- Chavis is featured as the protagonist in the critically acclaimed autobiographical work by Tim Tyson, Blood Done Sign My Name and the critically acclaimed film of the same title where the part of the young Benjamin Chavis is played by Nate Parker.
Publications
- Chavis, Benjamin (1979). An African American Political Prisoner: Appeals for Human Rights.[7]
- Chavis, Benjamin (1983). Psalms from Prison.[7]
- Commission for Racial Justice - United Church of Christ (1987). Toxic Wastes and Race In The United States: A National Report On The Racial and Socioeconomic Characteristics of Communities With Hazardous Waste Sites. New York: Public Data Access, Inc. Archived from the original on January 9, 2006. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
References
Notes
- ^ "No Labels - Meet the Team". No Labels. 2023. Retrieved August 11, 2023.
- ^ "HSAN.org - Board of Directors". Archived from the original on September 18, 2008. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
- ^ "HSAN.org - Leadership and Support". Archived from the original on September 22, 2008. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
- ^ "The Miami times". original-ufdc.uflib.ufl.edu. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
- ^ a b "Benjamin Chavis, Jr. Biography". The HistoryMakers. December 20, 2004. Archived from the original on April 2, 2016. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
- ^ a b "Benjamin Chavis" (fee). Contemporary Black Biography, Volume 6. Gale Research. April 27, 2004. Retrieved June 27, 2008.[dead link] Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2008. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC
- ^ a b c d e
Jackson, Gerald G (2005). We're not going to take it anymore. Beckham Publications Group. p. 125. OCLC 173083091. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
- ^ Timothy Tyson, Blood Done Signed My Name (2004)
- ^ a b Kotlowitz, Alex (June 12, 1994). "A Bridge Too Far?; Benjamin Chavis". The New York Times Magazine. p. 3. Retrieved June 20, 2008.
- ^ a b c d "Benjamin Franklin Chavis Muhammad". The Columbia Encyclopedia (Sixth ed.). Columbia University Press. 2008. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
- ^
"Chavis to head NAACP". Christian Century. April 28, 1993. Retrieved June 26, 2008. [dead link]
- ^ Blythe, Anne (January 1, 2013). "RALEIGH: Perdue pardons Wilmington 10". News Observer. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved February 14, 2014.
- ^ "Pardons for the Wilmington 10". New York Times SundayReview. December 22, 2012. p. SR10.
- ^ Lazarus, Richard J. "Environmental Racism-That's What It Is." U. Ill. L. Rev. (2000): 255; Carolyn Burrow, “Environmental racism,” Proud Vol. 1 No. 10 (December 1970), 6-9.
- ^ Chavis, Benjamin. "Foreword" in Confronting environmental racism: voices from the grassroots. 1993. Boston, Mass: South End Press. 31.
- ^ Chavis, Benjamin (1987). "Toxic Wastes and Race in The United States" (PDF). Commission for Racial Justice.
- OCLC 777827674.
- ISBN 978-1-4236-0527-0.
- ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
- ^ Bock, James (October 24, 1994). "Chavis drops claims against NAACP". Baltimore Sun. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
- ^
"Leadership summit sets black agenda following Million Man March - National African American Leadership Summit". Jet. December 11, 1995. Retrieved June 27, 2008.
The organizers of the Million Man March are working to turn the spirit of the March into something tangible. Something real.
- ^
Feiden, Douglas (June 16, 1995). "Whites and Jews Unwelcome As Chavis' Summit Convenes" (fee). Forward. Retrieved June 27, 2008.
No whites -- or Jews -- need apply. That was the message in the founding charter of the National African American Leadership Summit, the new organization of black nationalists unveiled by the Rev. Benjamin Chavis at a conference here dominated by the Rev. Louis Farrakhan.
- ^ "Belly". Rotten Tomatoes.
- ^ "Welcome to HSAN". Archived from the original on February 2, 2011. Retrieved March 30, 2011.
- ^
Segal, David (October 30, 2004). "Vote, Dude: Hip-Hop Singers and Celebrities Try to Tap A Potentially Powerful Force -- Black Youth". The Washington Post. p. C01. Archived from the original on November 18, 2018. Retrieved June 27, 2008.
... at the moment there isn't a young voter in sight
- ^
"United Federation of Teachers, the Alliance for Quality Education and the Hip Hop Summit Action Network Form an Unprecedented Coalition to Protest Bloomberg's Education Budget Cuts". Business Wire. Gale Group. May 29, 2002. Retrieved June 27, 2008.
It is with a sense of urgency that the HSAN is encouraging a massive hip-hop protest of Mayor Bloomberg's proposal to cut $1 billion from public education in New York City. These proposed cuts will hurt students, teachers and our entire community. Hip-hop is about speaking truth to power, and we intend to speak the truth directly to Mayor Bloomberg on June 4, 2002 at City Hall.
[permanent dead link] - ^ Leone, Jarad. "Tampa's Hip Hop Soda Shop 'was not executed well in the end'". Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved February 12, 2014.
- ^ "Dr. Benjamin Chavis". Diamonds Do Good. Archived from the original on June 3, 2019. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
- ^ a b "Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr". drbfc. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
- ^
Jackson, Gerald G (2005). We're not going to take it anymore. Beckham Publications Group. p. 126. OCLC 173083091. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
- ^
"Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity - Epsilon Chapter @ Temple University". Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity - Epsilon Chapter @ Temple University. Archived from the original on May 17, 2008. Retrieved June 28, 2008.
Much Love to Bro. Chavis Mohammad (Benjamin Chavis) who was a major contributor in organizing the March.
- ^ "Famous Men of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc". Mississippi University For Women. Archived from the original on April 21, 2008. Retrieved June 26, 2008.
Bro. Benjamin Chavis Muhammad Organizer, Million Man March
Bibliography
- Thomas, Larry Reni. The True Story Behind The Wilmington Ten.Hampton, Va.: U.B. & U.S. Communications Systems, 1993.
- Thomas, Larry Reni. Rabbit! Rabbit! Rabbit!: A Fictional Account of The Wilmington Ten Incident of 1971. Charlotte, N.C.: KHA Books, 2006.
External links
- Homepage of Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr.
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Official Site For Hip-Hop Action Network
- The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press
- The Story of The Wilmington 10
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Preceded by | Executive Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 1993–1994 |
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