NAACP CEO surveys oil spill

He is the youngest Chief Executive Officer to ever hold the position in the 100-year history of the National Advancement for the Associate of Colored People, and for the past month has been traveling along the Gulf Coast, surveying the Horizon oil spill.

Benjamin Todd Jealous made his appearance in Houma on Monday, to hold a town hall meeting with Terrebonne NAACP President, and NAACP La. State Vice-President, Jerome Boykin.

“I’ve been in Gulfport listening to people, talking about how the oil spill has already impacted them, even though the oil has not even hit the beach yet. Shrimpers are in a stuck mode. People working in the hotels have already seen a 45 percent dip in tourism,” Jealous said.

“Then I fly over the spill, and land east of Fourchon. I hop out the helicopter, walk down to the beach there, stand still and feel myself sinking. Then, I pick up one of my feet, and watch oil ooze and drip down to my footprint,” he said.

“And I can concur with the Sheriff there. I believe what he told me. This is an environmental apocalypse,” Jealous said.

The 17th NAACP Chief Executive officer said he cut his teeth as a reporter in Jackson Mississippi, and that he learned that before you lead activists, you have to know what’s going on. So, he has taken his staff that includes environmentalists, on a month tour of the Gulf Coast to see the economical and physical effects of the oil spill.

“There is oil you see and then oil you don’t see, and it seems to be everywhere from here, to Gulfport, to Florida,” he said. “And so I come here, to Houma, to Fourchon, to put together a case.”

“We thought the worst thing that could happen would be another Katrina. We thought we should work on climate change. And now, this,” he said.

Jealous said he has the ear of President Obama, the ear of BP officials, and the ear of Admiral Thad Allen, whom he said he had spent time texting back and forth, while he was flying over the spill.

“They listen to the NAACP because we’ve been around for 100 years, and quite frankly, we’re usually right,” he said. “But before we talk to them, we want to listen to you to help you get where you need to be, as quickly as possible.”

Jealous stressed that he was listening to people from all communities. “We simply just don’t advocate for black people, but for all people,” he said. “But history tells us that when things happen such as this, people of color are the first ones affected.”

Boykin said that he has been collecting information from persons who are affected, who want to speak with the NAACP. He has also been working with the United Houma Nation.

“No one can understand what this feels like, until it happens to them,” he said.

Boykin can be reached at the Terrebonne NAACP office at 872-1635.