NAACP announces new leader

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

As a Head Start and Yale Law School graduate, Cornell William Brooks calls himself a direct beneficiary of Brown v. Board of Education.

Now the lawyer and activist is taking over as the next national president and CEO of the NAACP, whose legal arm brought that landmark legal case challenging segregation in public schools.

On the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision that said separating black and white children was unconstitutional, the nation’s oldest civil-rights organization announced Brooks’ selection.

The NAACP’s board made the final decision Friday night, and chairwoman Roslyn Brock told The Associated Press about Brooks’ new position Saturday morning.

Brooks will be formally presented to the Baltimore-based organization’s members at its national convention in Las Vegas in July.

“I am a beneficiary, an heir and a grandson, if you will, of Brown versus Board of Education,” Brooks told the AP.

“My life is the direct product, if you will, of the legacy of the blood, sweat and tears of the NAACP, and so today, I’m particularly mindful that the NAACP has made America what it is, and certainly made my life possible, and we are all grateful heirs of that legacy.”

Brooks, 53, of Annandale, N.J., will become the NAACP’s 18th national president, replacing interim leader Lorraine Miller. Miller has served in that position since Benjamin Jealous ended his five-year tenure last year.