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Benjamin Jealous: The Future of the NAACP?

Logo for Benjamin Jealous: The Future of the NAACP?

Guardian journalist Gary Younge talks to Benjamin Jealous, the new leader of America's oldest and largest civil rights organisation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and asks if America still needs the organisation. Jealous joins the NAACP in its centenary year, but at a time when it is suffering from an image crisis and dwindling membership. Has an organisation that fought segregation, publicised lynchings and awakened the conscience of a nation become a victim of its own success? How relevant is the NAACP in the age of Barack Obama? Mr Jealous is the youngest leader the NAACP has ever selected and he plans to kick the organisation into the 21st century, encouraging new members to use technology to document discrimination and force change, and to turn the organisation back into the political powerhouse of its prime. A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4.