Cornell William Brooks

Brooks, of Annandale, New Jersey, will become the organization's 18th national president, replacing interim leader Lorraine Miller. Miller has been serving in that position since Benjamin Jealous ended his five-year tenure last year. "As a graduate of both Head Start and Yale Law School, I am a beneficiary, an heir and a grandson if you will of Brown versus Board of Education," Brooks said. "My life is the direct product, if you will, of the legacy of the blood, sweat and tears of the NAACP and so today I'm particularly mindful that the NAACP has made America what it is, and certainly made my life possible and we are all grateful heirs of that legacy." Brooks, a minister who is originally from Georgetown, South Carolina, is currently president and CEO of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, a Newark, New Jersey-based urban research and advocacy organization. He graduated from Jackson State University, received a Master of Divinity from Boston University School of Theology and got his law degree from Yale. Brooks has worked as a lawyer for the Federal Communication Commission and the Justice Department. He also ran for Congress as a Democrat in Virginia in 1998. He still owns a home in Woodbridge, Virginia.