Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.’s history in the United Church of Christ and the Civil Rights Movement go back years and reflect a legacy of justice orientation and activism.

Chavis was a part of the Wilmington 10, a group of civil rights activists who were wrongly convicted of arson and conspiracy in 1972 after deadly racial conflicts in 1971. Chavis, a staffer with the UCC’s Commission for Racial Justice (CRJ), received a 34-year sentence. CRJ came to their defense, and the 1977 General Synod meeting in Washington, D.C. held a march outside the White House for their release. Their sentences were commuted in 1978, their convictions overturned in 1980, and in 2013, the state’s governor pardoned them.

Chavis was a youth organizer in North Carolina for Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., served as Executive Director of CRJ from 1985 to 1993, headed the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People from 1993 to 1994, served as national director of 1995 Million Man March in D.C., co-founded the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, and now leads the National Newspaper Publishers Association. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and Duke Divinity School and holds a D.Min. degree from Howard University.

Originally published in 1983, Chavis’ Psalms from Prison is available for pre-order at The Pilgrim Press: https://www.thepilgrimpress.com/products/psalms-from-prison-chavis

SERVICE OFFERING:
General Synod 2021 Racial Justice Offering: https://app.mobilecause.com/form/8UPTUQ?vid=oe38y

The offering is for the critical work of racial justice. The offering will be divided three ways:

1. BOLD: a national training intermediary focused on strengthening Black social justice infrastructure in the U.S. We do this by transforming the practice of Black organizers to increase their alignment, impact, and sustainability to win progressive change.

2. Color of Change: the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. They help people respond effectively to injustice in the world around us. As a national online force driven by 7 million members, they move decision-makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people in America.

3. Racial Justice Ministries in the National Setting.

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