Web Letters: The Trials of Benjamin Jealous

I was disappointed in Ta'Nehisi Coates's profile of Ben Jealous and the new NAACP. To characterize the organization under Jealous's leadership as a continuation of the same old trajectory is dead wrong.

The organization has greatly expanded its membership under Jealous--particularly among young people. The organization has also taken very active political stances, including its all-out effort to free Troy Davis.

It is too bad that the writer relied mostly on a lopsided set of opinions instead of looking at the institution and it programming. If the reporter had done the latter, I think it would have been a different story--and certainly one that was more in line with the kind of journalism I've come to expect from The Nation.

Makani Themba-Nixon

Washington, DC