PERSON: Cornell William Brooks

President and CEO

Cornell William Brooks is the president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the nation’s oldest, largest, and most widely respected grassroots-based civil rights organization. In 2014, he became the 18th person to serve as chief executive of the Association, whose members in the United States and worldwide are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities.

A graduate of Head Start and Yale Law School, Brooks considers himself ‘a grandson, heir and a beneficiary’ of the landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education argued by legendary NAACP litigator Thurgood Marshall. As a civil rights attorney, social justice advocate, fourth generation ordained minister and coalition-builder, Brooks’ life and experience exemplify the NAACP’s mission to secure political, educational, social, and economic equality for all citizens. As the CEO, he is working with Association leadership and membership to build an NAACP that is multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-generational, and one million members strong.

Prior to joining the NAACP, Brooks led the Newark-based New Jersey Institute for Social Justice as president and CEO. There, he directed the Institute’s successful efforts to win the passage of three landmark prisoner reentry bills in 2010.

Brooks also galvanized broad support among leaders in New Jersey’s finance and educational institutions for an innovative finance instrument to stimulate urban economic development. Social Covenant Bonds increased demand for local workers and suppliers, complementing the Institute’s supply-side programs of job training, placement and retention. By adding socially beneficial terms to capital construction bonds, urban colleges and universities could commit to meeting benchmarks of local hiring and sourcing in exchange for reduced interest rates.

In 2010, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie selected Brooks to serve on his transition team on the Committee on Homeland Security and Corrections. While in New Jersey, Brooks served as Second Vice-Chair of the East Orange General Hospital Board of Trustees, Vice-Chair of the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority, and on the National Governing Board of Common Cause.

Brooks, his wife Janice Broome Brooks, and their sons Cornell, II and Hamilton, are members of Turner Memorial A.M.E. Church in Hyattsville, MD.

— naacp.org