A New Role in Education for Civil Rights Leader Benjamin Chavis

Veteran civil rights leader Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. has been named president of Education Online Services Corporation. The company is a leader in providing online or distance education platforms for higher educational institutions. Among his duties as president Dr. Chavis will concentrate on marketing the company’s services to historically black colleges and universities.

Chavis is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He holds a master of divinity degree from Duke University and a doctorate in ministry from Howard University.

In 1976 Chavis was convicted of conspiracy and arson for his protest efforts to desegregate the public schools in Wilmington, North Carolina. He was sentenced to 34 years in jail. The convictions were overturned in 1980.

For 18 months in the early 1990s Chavis was executive director of the NAACP but was forced out by the board after it was alleged he used organization funds to settle a sex discrimination lawsuit. In 1995 he was national director of the Million Man March.

Since 2001 Chavis has been chair of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network.

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