NAACP ousts Brooks as chief

The national board of the NAACP voted Friday to dismiss the organization’s president, the Rev. Cornell William Brooks, just three years after putting Brooks in charge of the nation’s largest and perhaps bestknowncivil rights organization.

NAACP board chairman Leon Russell said the change is necessary to better position the organization to combat the onslaught of civil rights assaults and rollbacks the board expects under President Donaldtrump andattorney General Jeff Sessions and to prepare the organization to shape the country in the next century.

While Brooks has been present at social justice demonstrations across the country, Russell says the board is looking for a leader who can focus on strengthening the local chapters and navigating local, regional and state policymaking processes.

For instance, Brooks was among the activists arrested in January at the office of Sessions, then arepublican senator, during a sit-in protesting his nomination for the Cabinet position of attorney general.

“I think Cornellwas good at raising the issue in terms of going out and being able to do the protest part of it,” Russell said. “But we are now at the point where the issues are raised. Everyone is aware of them. But it’s time to put something on the table to actualize solutions.” Russell said the board will launch a search for a newpresident with the aim of completing that process by year’s end.

When Brooks was appointed president and chief executive in May 2014, he was best known as a minister, head of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice and a former trial attorney for the Lawyer’scommittee for Civil Rights Under the Law.