Benjamin Chavis Mohammad - a Protagonist for Racial Equality - Research Paper Example

Benjamin Chavis Mohammad: A Man Dedicated to the Struggle for Racial Equality Introduction Benjamin Chavis Mohammad, born in Oxford, North Carolina on January 22, 1948, is one of those renowned African-Americans who have dedicated their whole life against any form of racism, withering it out from the very heart of the American Society. Benjamin Chavis, a man thoroughly educated in institutional education, is also a self-educated person. He has always tried to delve deep into the heart of racism and raised a strong voice against it. He never has retreated, in the face of any kind of threat or imprisonment, from his position on the side of discriminated black people, as Encyclopedia of World Biography reports, “Lifelong activist Benjamin Chavis Muhammad overcame racial injustice and wrongful imprisonment to become a vocal leader in the civil rights movement, which pressed for equality between the races” (2). Though Dr. Chavis is well-known as a civil right movement leader who worked closely with the Prominent African-American leader, Martin Luther King, he has actively took part in a number of other movements including “National African American Leadership Summit” (NAALS), “National Association for the Advancement of Colored People” (NAACP), Million March, etc. From the very beginning of his youth, he has started an activist’s life. While he had been a freshman at St. Augustine College in 1965, he became Martin Luther King’s youth coordinator for the State of North Carolina. In the same year, he also joined the “Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee” (SNCC), the “American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees” (AFSCME), and the “Congress of Racial Equality” (CORE). Religious Activism of Benjamin Chavis Mohammed One of the most significant aspects of Benjamin Chavis’ activism is the religious dimension. Indeed Benjamin Chavis had a long ancestral history of activism as well as religiosity, as Encyclopedia of World Biography says, “Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr….was born in 1948 in Oxford, North Carolina, into a long and distinguished line of preachers” (Encyclopedia of World Biography 1). John Chavis, his great-great-grandfather was the “first black graduate of Princeton University” that was initially a religious seminary school. In 1968, starting his career as a field officer in the “United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice” Chavis Mohammad significantly contributed to the coordination of racial justice strategies with American Black community. Starting with the membership in the “Southern Christian Leadership Conference” (SCLC) Benjamin had been involved with a significant number of Christianity related organizations throughout his whole life until he joined the Nation of Islam. Though his strategy to join the Nation of Islam was to set an example of peaceful religious cohabitation and to increase the religious tolerance, he was suspended by the authority of the “United Church of Christ” (UCC). Often some critics allege that Benjamin Chavis’ religiosity was more of a strategy to survive amid the hostility of the whites than of a wholehearted Christian emotion. In this regard, Encyclopedia of World Biography writes that in the mid 20th century, even as the walls of racial segregation was crumbling down under the crushing pressures of various civil society movements, leaders like Chavis Muhammad and Martin Luther King’s were being “shaped against this back drop of hatred and bigotry. Chavis became involved in his church, finding shelter from such hostile attitudes”. (Encyclopedia of World Biography 1) Racial Awareness and Family-inspiration to Fight for Rights Since Benjamin Chavis was blissfully born in a self-aware African-American family, he was familiar with the black people’s struggle for right in the white dominated US society. At the age of twelve, he became a member of the “National Association for the Advancement of Colored People” (NAACP) inspired by his father. Indeed from the very beginning of his early education he learnt to be aware of his right as a member of the less privileged people of color. From this awareness, he had been able to abolish the racial entrance rule in a library at Oxford in North Carolina. (Lewis 1) A querulous boy who could question a white-only library authority about his right to enter into it, Benjamin was carefully taught by his wise father to be a non-violent but studious pursuer of right. This teaching enabled him greatly to successfully involve in various civil society organizations and movements, as in this regard, Encyclopedia of World Biography writes, “A child's simple act of disobedience and intellectual curiosity had shattered the overt racism of an institution whose sole mission, young Chavis Muhammad knew, should have been the enrichment of minds—those of blacks and whites” (Encyclopedia of World Biography). Great Leadership and Sagacity of Benjamin Chavis Mohammad Prudently Benjamin Chavis Mohammad was able to pursue the zeal of his age, the role of people’s unity and awareness against the built-in racism in establishing the right of the Black. After taking the directorship of the NAACP in 1993, Benjamin Chavis primarily focused the organization attention on the black youth with a view to involving them in the black community’s empowerment and education, as in an interview with Neila A. Lewis, Chavis says, “I want them to understand that we're interested in empowerment and education, A lot of things we need to do to gain their confidence we're simply not doing.” (Lewis 1) Having been involved with some leading positions during African-American Civil Right Movement in the preceding years, he prudently felt the violence of the derailed black youth that could threat the black community’s image. His insights into the problems of the Black society helped him to reach close the heart of the Black as well as the confidence of the White hegemony in the United States. Such insight is evident in the following speech of Benjamin Chavis: "I want to spend some time in the 'hood to tell the young people that the nation's largest civil rights organization cares about them…But since we're telling the people in the community to cool it we should also be telling the law-enforcement community to cool it." (Lewis 2) Pioneer Concept of “Environmental Racialism” One of Benjamin Chavis’ significant contributions to the movement for rights of the black people in the United States was to give birth to the idea of “Environmental Racialism”. Since environmental issues are the major concerns of the post Industrial Revolution world, the term drew the attention of those in the relevant field. During his career in the “Commission for Racial Justice”, Benjamin Chavis became involved with the environmental movement, alleging: “Racial discrimination in the deliberated targeting of ethnic and minority communities for exposure to toxic and hazardous waste sites and facilities, coupled with the systematic exclusion of minorities in environmental policy making, enforcement, and remediation” (Chavis 1). With this claim he attempted to include the environmental issues within the margin of the NAACP, while demanding that environmental issues should be conjoined with civil rights. In order to support his claim on environmental racism on documental basis, he attempted to conduct a research on the crisis, revealing that “three of the five largest toxic waste landfills in the country were in minority neighborhoods” (Encyclopedia of World Biography). Challenges That Chavis Faces The first racial challenge he faced in his boyhood was the white-only entrance in a library. Successfully he overcame it. After his graduation from he had to another racial injustice. Instead of being daunted by Martin Luther King’s assassination in the 1968, Chavis was struggling hard for the racial equality. With a view to supporting the NAACP-offered school desegregation policy, he came to Wilmington in February, 1971. During his stay at the city, a white owned store was burnt down and in the following year Chavis along with nine other black men was convicted of the crime, while he had been sentenced to the lengthiest term, thirty-four years, in prison. After several years of imprisonment, Chavis’ story took a new turn “when three key witnesses from the trial admitted they had made up their stories after being pressured by local law enforcement authorities.” (Encyclopedia of World Biography) Finally Chavis and other activists were released in 1980. Referring to the humiliation, Lewis writes, “Mr. Chavis recalls how he was escorted in leg irons and handcuffs from jail in 1979 to the campus of Duke University to study for a divinity degree” (3). Conclusion As a member of the black community, Benjamin’s life, and career were not unchallenged. Rather he had to face every bit of hostility, hatred and racism of the society he had lived in. But even then he has not been derailed like most other black youths, since he was taught to be non-violent, tactical and to become counterchallenging by his family as well as the Prominent Leader Martin Luther King. Indeed this training and inborn talent both helped him to remain undaunted in the face of racial hostility and to fight for racial justice and equality through a life enriched with numerous activisms, as Neila A. Lewis writes, “Mr. Chavis has deep roots in the tradition of protest in the civil rights movement. He served more than four years in prison after leading civil rights demonstrations in Wilmington, N.C. The charges were later thrown out by a Federal appeals court.” (2) Works Cited Chavis, Mohammad Benjamin. “Environmental racism 2011”, The Cincinnati Herald. April 14, 2011 available at Encyclopedia of World Biography. “Benjamin Chavis Muhammad Biography”, April 14, 2011 available at Lewis, Neila A. “Man in the News: Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr.; Seasoned by Civil Rights Struggle”, The New York Times. April 11, 1993. April 14, 2011 available at Read More