Benjamin Chavis

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.

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.

In 1960 at the age of twelve, Chavis became the first African American to be issued a library card at the segregated public library.

In 1963, while a high school student, Chavis became a statewide youth coordinator in North Carolina for Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

He also joined CORE, SNCC and AFSCME.

He graduated from Mary Potter High School in 1965 and entered St. Augustine College in Raleigh as a freshman.

In 1968, Chavis also worked for the presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy.

Chavis was appointed Field Officer in the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice in 1968.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (1969).

After his graduation from UNCC in 1969, Chavis returned to Oxford and taught at the Mary Potter High School, which were still segregated for African-American students although federal courts had ordered the state to desegregate.

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 1970, after the killing of 23-year-old Henry Marrow and the acquittal by an all-white jury of the three men indicted on charges, Chavis organized a protest march from Oxford to North Carolina's State Capitol Building, in Raleigh.

After the Oxford-to-Raleigh march, Chavis organized a black boycott of white businesses in Oxford that lasted for 18 months until the town agreed to integrate its public facilities, including schools.

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.

In 1971 the Commission for Racial Justice assigned Field Officer Chavis to Wilmington, North Carolina to help desegregate the public school system.

Since the city had abruptly closed the black high school, laid off its principal and most of its teachers, and distributed the students to other schools, there had been conflicts with white students.

The administration did not hear their grievances, and the students organized a boycott to protest for their civil rights.

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 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."

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.

Chavis received his Master of Divinity (magna cum laude) from Duke University (1980) and a Doctor of Ministry (D.Min.) from Howard University (1981).

Chavis was ordained in the United Church of Christ in 1980 and in 1985 was named the executive director and CEO of the UCC-CRJ.

Chavis was admitted into the PhD program in Systematic Theology as a graduate student at Union Theological Seminary of Columbia University and completed all of the academic course requirements in 1984.

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 NAACP elected Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr as the executive director and CEO of America's oldest civil rights organization.

Chavis later served in 1995 as the National Director of the Million Man March, and the Founder and CEO of the National African American Leadership Summit (NAALS).

Since 2001, Chavis has been CEO and Co-Chairman of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, in New York City which he co-founded with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.

North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue issued "Pardons of innocence" to each member of the Wilmington 10 on December 31, 2012.

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.

Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr. was born and grew up in Oxford, North Carolina.