Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr. (born January 22, 1948, in Oxford, North Carolina) is an African-American activist, author, journalist, and the current president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association.

At the age of 23, Chavis rose to international prominence in 1971 as the leader of the Wilmington Ten in North Carolina, civil rights activists who were unjustly convicted of committing arson.

Chavis returned to graduate school and the field of civil rights, and he became a vice president of the National Council of Churches in 1988 in New York City.

Chavis worked in the civil rights movement, leading a march in 1970 to the state capital in protest after three white men were acquitted of killing Henry D. Marrow in Oxford.

[citation needed] In 1963, while a high school student, Chavis became a statewide youth coordinator in North Carolina for Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).

After his graduation from UNCC in 1969, Chavis returned to Oxford and taught at the Mary Potter High School, which were still segregated for African-American students although federal courts had ordered the state to desegregate.

In 1970, after the killing of 23-year-old Henry Marrow and the acquittal by an all-white jury of the three men indicted on charges, Chavis organized a protest march from Oxford to North Carolina's State Capitol Building, in Raleigh.

After the Oxford-to-Raleigh march, Chavis organized a black boycott of white businesses in Oxford that lasted for 18 months until the town agreed to integrate its public facilities, including schools.

[10] In 1971 the Commission for Racial Justice assigned Field Officer Chavis to Wilmington, North Carolina to help desegregate the public school system.

On December 31, 2012, Chavis and the surviving members of the Wilmington Ten were granted Pardons of Innocence by North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue.

at the moment of his arrest during the 1982 PCB landfill protests in North Carolina, but legal scholar Richard J. Lazarus found this likely apocryphal; Chavis first was recorded using the term in 1987.

And, it is racial discrimination in the history of excluding people of color from the mainstream environmental groups, decisionmaking boards, commissions, and regulatory bodies.

In 1993, Chavis was selected as the executive director and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the youngest to hold this office.

Chavis first joined the organization at the age of twelve as a youth leader of the Granville County, North Carolina NAACP Branch.

The NAACP created a Telecommunications Task Force of board members and industry leaders to ensure that African Americans took part in the ownership, management, and total employment package of President Clinton's proposed "National Information Superhighway."

Through the NAACP Community Development Resource Centers (CDRC), the association established the Youth Entrepreneurial Institute to sharpen business acumen and launch enterprises for students ages fourteen to eighteen.

[7][21][22] The journey into the hip-hop culture actually had its roots for Chavis dating back to 1969 when he was the proprietor and regular "DJ" and "MC" for The Soul Kitchen Disco in his hometown of Oxford, North Carolina.

[citation needed] While serving as a mentor to Sister Souljah, Kevin Powell, Little Rob, Ras Baraka and other hip-hop activists, Chavis met Russell Simmons and Lyor Cohen in 1986 at Def Jam Records.

[citation needed][24] One-and-a-half years later, HSAN is the largest and broadest national coalition of hip-hop artists, recording industry executives, youth activists and civil rights leaders.

[citation needed] With the support of the major hip-hop labels, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and others, the HSAN has sponsored successful "Hip-Hop Summits" in New York, New York, Kansas City, Missouri, Oakland, California, Los Angeles, California, Washington, DC, Miami, Florida, Seattle, Washington, and Dallas, Texas.

[25] Meetings with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Federal Communications Commission (FCC), vocal stands before the U.S. Congress on the unconstitutionality of censoring rap lyrics, the development of literacy programs, Youth Councils, voter registration drives in conjunction with Rap The Vote, the voice for the poor, and the fight for children's public education, fill Chavis' days (and nights).

"[citation needed] Chavis joined "Sex and the City" star Cynthia Nixon, actor Bruce Willis and Russell Simmons to demand adequate funding for education across the state of New York.

As a longstanding advocate of entrepreneurial activities for youth and minorities, Chavis has assisted, consulted and headed several commercial projects ranging from franchising to film production and publishing.

[29] A popular public speaker, Chavis frequently addresses academic, commercial and non-profit organizations and is a prominent spokesman in the national and international media.