Ben Jealous discusses his experiences with Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and the Obama administration while serving as president and CEO of the NAACP from 2008 to 2013. Jealous focuses on his fundraising work for the Obama campaign through Vote Hope, a super PAC he launched. Jealous discusses becoming president of the NAACP and overseeing the modernization of the organization, including viral voter registration drives. Reflecting on his meetings with Obama, Reverend Al Sharpton, and Marc Morial, Jealous outlines Obama's dedication to civil rights issues. Also discussed are Jealous' organizing for Jesse Jackson's 1988 presidential campaign, assassination fears, and Obama's remarks at the NAACP centennial celebration in 2009
Presidents--United States; Fund raising; Voter registration--United States; Civil rights--United States; Jealous, Ben, 1973-; Obama, Barack; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2022
Physical Description
29 pages
Note (Biographical)
Ben Jealous is an American civil rights leader. From 2008 to 2013, Jealous served as the seventeenth president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the United States' oldest civil rights organization. Whil e at the NAACP, he also served on the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy. Jealous is also a former Democratic nominee for governor of Maryland, former executive director of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, and former director of Amnesty International's U.S. Human Rights Program. At the time of the interview, Jealous was president of People for the American Way
Note
Interviewed by Terrell D. Frazier on April 21, 2022. This interview is part of the Columbia University: Obama Presidency Oral History
Note (Provenance)
Ben Jealous, Gift, transferred from Columbia Center for Oral History Research 2023