Black PR Wire Power Profiler on Benjamin Chavis

Benjamin Chavis

Dr. Benjamin Franklin Chavis, Jr. is a civil rights leader born in Oxford, North Carolina. In his youth, Dr. Chavis was an assistant to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who inspired him to work in the civil rights movement.

At the age of 24, Dr. Chavis rose to international prominence as the leader of the Wilmington Ten. After the conviction of the entire group that would be overturned on appeal, Dr. Chavis received a sentence of 34 years in prison. Along with the other members of the Wilmington Ten, Dr. Chavis walked to his freedom in 1980 after the federal appeals court overturned the convictions and cited "prosecutorial misconduct." Upon his release from prison, Dr. Chavis returned to the field of civil rights, and he became a Vice President of the National Council of Churches.

The board of the NAACP elected Dr. Chavis as the Executive Director of America's oldest civil rights organization. Dr. Chavis later served as the National Director of the Million Man March, and the Founder and CEO of the National African American Leadership Summit (NAALS). Since 2001, Dr. Chavis has been CEO and Co-Chairman of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network in New York City, which he co-founded with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.

In 2009, Dr. Chavis joined with Ezell Brown and established Education Online Services Corporation, headquartered in Coral Springs, Florida. In 2011, Dr. Chavis collaborated with multi-platinum music producer and author Sahpreem A. King on "Surviving the Game: How to Succeed in the Music Business." Dr. Chavis is credited as author of the foreword and technical advisor.

On June 24, 2014, Dr. Chavis became the interim president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, an African-American organization which focuses on supporting and advocating for publishers of the nation's more than 200 black newspapers.