Cornell William Brooks

Brooks's grandfather, the Rev. James Edmund Prioleau, ran for Congress in the 1940s as a Progressive Democrat in a symbolic effort to help increase voter registration among blacks and recruit NAACP members.

Cornell William Brooks (born 1961) is an American lawyer and activist.

Brooks was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1961.

He grew up in Georgetown, South Carolina, and is a graduate of Head Start.

Brooks attended Jackson State University, where he received a B.A. degree in political science with honors.

He subsequently earned his Master of Divinity, with a concentration in social ethics and systematic theology, at the Boston University School of Theology.

While studying as a Martin Luther King Scholar, Brooks was awarded both the Oxnam-Leibman Fellowship for outstanding scholarship and promoting racial harmony, and the Jefferson Fellowship for outstanding scholarship and excellence in preaching.

He also received a J.D. degree from Yale Law School, where he was a senior editor of the Yale Law Journal and member of the Yale Law & Policy Review.

Brooks began his career serving a judicial clerkship with Chief Judge Sam J. Ervin, III, on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

In Washington, DC, he directed the FCC's Office of Communication Business Opportunities and served as the executive director of the Fair Housing Council of Greater Washington.

His work continued as a trial attorney with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the U.S. Department of Justice, where he secured one of the largest government settlements for victims of housing discrimination based on testing, and filed the government's first lawsuit against a nursing home alleging housing discrimination based on race.

He also served as a trial attorney with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and ran as the Democratic nominee for U.S. Congress for the 10th District of Virginia in 1998.

Brooks has served on the transition team for two New Jersey governors.

Brooks was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Congress for the 10th District of Virginia in 1998.

He was the president and CEO of Newark-based New Jersey Institute for Social Justice prior to taking the helm of the NAACP.

Following his tenure with the NAACP, Brooks has held a variety of appointments in higher education, including visiting professor of social ethics, law, & justice movements at Boston University, visiting fellow and director of the Campaigns and Advocacy Program at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School, and a senior fellow at the New York University School of Law.

He is a regular contributor on CNN.

In 2012, Brooks was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board.

He was chosen to be the president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in May 2014.

He previously served as president of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice in Newark, New Jersey, and as executive director of the Fair Housing Council of Greater Washington.

Brooks was formerly senior counsel with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), directing the FCC's Office of Communication Business Opportunities.

The executive board of the NAACP elected Brooks as the next chief executive on May 16, 2014 by a large majority.

His appointment followed a period of turmoil for the organization, which had a severe budget shortfall and laid off workers only months before Brooks' election.

Furthermore, even though branches are autonomous from the main organization, the national office received scrutiny about fundraising after the Los Angeles branch awarded Donald Sterling, the Los Angeles Clippers owner who was banned from the NBA after racist remarks, with a lifetime achievement award.

Brooks led the NAACP during a period of national turmoil through a three-pronged action plan of polls, protest, and policy.

During the NAACP's 2014 convention, where Vice President Joe Biden addressed delegates about voter suppression, Brooks called for an NAACP "one million members strong".

In October 2014, Brooks began a Justice Tour, starting in his birthplace, El Paso, Texas.

The bus tour had a goal to encourage people to vote and discuss social justice issues in their community.

He also led a 7-day "Journey for Justice" through Missouri from the Canfield Green Apartments, where unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer, to Jefferson City in 2014.

The march met ice storms, bitter cold, and racist taunts.

Brooks was heckled down by St. Louis activists about the organization lack of youth participation at a major "Ferguson October" rally.

One woman is quoted as saying, "I had my back turned while that NAACP guy was speaking", explaining the divide between historic black civil rights organizations and the new Black Lives Matter movement taking shape.

In Rosebud, Missouri, a "display of fried chicken, a melon and a 40-ounce beer bottle had been placed in the street."

The 134-mile march culminated with a protest at the state Capitol Building.

The agitation and advocacy in Missouri contributed to the Ferguson Police Department being held accountable by the Department of Justice using the Racial Profiling Law that the NAACP passed.

In the summer of 2015, the NAACP took the Journey for Justice millions of steps further.

NAACP staff, volunteers, and allies marched 1,002 miles from Selma, AL to Washington, DC to demonstrate the urgency of voting rights and police reform.

Near his exit youth leaders protested at the National Convention in 2016, stating "We are tired. We want accountability."

"Youth leaders want its demands heard by national NAACP president Cornell William Brooks and the board."

As of August 2018, Brooks is Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Social Justice at Harvard Kennedy School.