NAACP President Ben Jealous Resigns

Benjamin Jealous, the president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, announced today that he plans to step down by the end of the year. The Baltimore-based NAACP is the largest US civil rights organization. When Jealous was hired as its president in 2008 at age 35, he became the youngest leader in the group's history. Over the past five years, the group said its rosters of online activists and donors have grown exponentially. During his tenure, the group says its donors have increased from 16,000 people giving each year to more than 132,000.

In a written statement, Jealous says he plans to pursue teaching at a university and wants to spend time with his young family. "The NAACP has always been the largest civil rights organization in the streets, and today it is also the largest civil rights organization online, on mobile and at the ballot box too," Jealous said. "I am proud to leave the association financially sound, sustainable, focused, and more powerful than ever." (More Benjamin Jealous stories.)