BENJAMIN F. CHAVIS, JR. NAMED NNPA
INTERIM PRESIDENT AND CEO
PORTLAND, OREGON
(NNPA) – Benjamin
F. Chavis, Jr. a global
business leader,
educator, and longtime
civil rights activist, was
elected interim president
and CEO of the National
Newspaper Publishers
Association at the group’s annual meeting on
June 25, NNPA Chairman Cloves Campbell has
announced.
Chavis is president of Education Online
Services Corporation (EOServe Corp.), the
premier provider of online higher education
for Historically Black Colleges and Universities
(HBCUs). He is also president, CEO and
Co-Founder with Russell Simmons of the
Hip-Hop Summit Action Network (HSAN),
the world’s largest coalition of hip-hop artists
and recording industry executives. He serves
on numerous boards, including the National
Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher
Education (NAFEO).
He was the leader of the Wilmington Ten, a
group of wrongly convicted activists who were
recently pardoned by North Carolina Gov. Bev
Perdue; a former president of the NAACP (19931994) and in 1995 served as director and chief
organizer of the Million Man March. Chavis
writes a weekly syndicated column for the NNPA
News Service.
“We are pleased that Ben Chavis, a longtime
supporter of NNPA, will be able to use his skills
and his numerous domestic and international
contacts to strengthen NNPA – the Black Press
of America,” Campbell said. “Dr. Chavis has
the talent, contacts and energy to make an
immediate impact on our organization, which
represents approximately 200 African American
newspapers in the U.S.”
Upon his election, Chavis said, “I am honored
to have the opportunity to serve, promote
and secure the interests of the National
Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA). As
the uncensored, objective, unflinching media
voice of Black America, NNPA newspapers, the
NNPA News Service and the companion site,
BlackPressUSA.com, represent one of the most
important newsgathering and news analysis
operations in the world.”
Chavis continued, “I am eager to deliver trusted,
sustainable and innovative relationships for
the NNPA with advertisers, partners, sponsors,
and supporters. More than ever before, the
leadership and readership of NNPA newspapers
and BlackPressUSA are important to the future
of America and the global community.”
A native of Oxford, NC, Chavis received
his Bachelor of Arts in chemistry from the
University of North Carolina; his Master of
Divinity from Duke University (magna cum
laude) and a Doctor of Ministry from Howard
University.
An ordained minister in the United Church of
Christ, Dr. Chavis began his career in 1963 as
a North Carolina statewide youth coordinator
for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). In
1970, Chavis was appointed Southern Regional
Program Director of the 1.7 million-member
United Church of Christ Commission for Racial
Justice (UCC-CRJ) and in 1985 was named
Executive Director and CEO of the UCC-CRJ. In
1988, Dr. Chavis was elected Vice President of
the National Council of Churches of the USA.
He has traveled and worked extensively in Africa
and the Caribbean. He is a senior adviser and
former president of the Diamond Empowerment
Fund, which supports higher education
scholarships in Africa.
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