Benjamin Jealous says a leap of faith, God’s light and his grandmother’s historical tales drove his success with the NAACP.
Jealous, the youngest person ever to become the NAACP’s president, exhaled as he surveyed the room of students in the Russell House, remembering where his own journey started.
“I remember the first time history [moved] two ways at once. I was in college,” Jealous said. “The first toast went up for my good friend who turned 21, and my other friend rose his glass with sadness.”
Jealous mimicked pouring a cup onto the ground, as he described how his friend wanted to remember the lives of young men who didn’t live long enough to turn 21. At the same time, he said, another friend raised his fist and said that at least one more black man in America had made it.
But for Jealous, the celebration wasn’t enough.
“I lost sleep — I woke up wrestling with this idea,” Jealous said. “I went to my grandma’s table, and I asked, ‘What happened?’ We are supposed to be the dream — the ones that aren’t judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
Jealous’ grandmother carried his family’s memories, more than 100 years worth of stories.
Jealous said his grandmother told him, “It’s sad, but it’s simple. We got what we fought for, but we lost what we had.”
That made Jealous begin to consider his purpose, and he decided he would one day figure out what he wanted to fight for.
“I started making a list,” he said. “Hours went by, and I realized I needed to make a choice.”
He said he closed his eyes and drew a circle on a paper that would hold all of his ideas. When he opened his eyes, “ending discrimination and injustice” was circled.
“I didn’t know how it was going to happen,” Jealous said. “But it was clear what I wanted to focus on.”
Jealous’ grandfather held words of wisdom that also helped him work towards his dream, he said.
“When you’re focused, on fire and committed, something starts to glow,” Jealous quoted. “Having the courage to commit to something will more often than not be rewarded.”
His journey led him to Mississippi. He joked that if you were an African American from outside Mississippi, Mississippi was not the place you wanted to be.
“Every place is afraid of someplace else,” he said.
His calling was to be a voice for young students, he said, as he watched the state try to turn universities into prisons. Jealous prepared himself for an opposition, he said, against everything the country stood for and believed in.
“If you act in spite of your fears and you do it enough, one day, someone may call you a coward, and they just might be right,” Jealous said. “And you should be proud.”