Researching Benjamin Chavis

In his youth, Chavis was an assistant to Martin Luther King Jr., who inspired him to work in the civil rights movement. At the age of 23, Chavis rose to international prominence in 1971 as the leader of the Wilmington Ten, civil rights activists who were convicted of committing arson. As the oldest of the ten, Chavis received the longest sentence. Their convictions and sentences were appealed, and in 1980 all ten were freed due to "prosecutorial misconduct." Chavis returned to graduate school and the field of civil rights, and he became a Vice President of the National Council of Churches.

The board of the NAACP elected Chavis as the Executive Director and CEO of America's oldest civil rights organization. He was later fired over a legal indiscretion.

Chavis later served as the National Director of the Million Man March, and the Founder and CEO of the National African American Leadership Summit (NAALS). Since 2001, Chavis has been CEO and Co-Chairman of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, in New York City which he co-founded with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. In 2009, Chavis joined with Ezell Brown and established Education Online Services Corporation headquartered in Coral Springs, Florida. In 2011, Chavis collaborated with multi-platinum music producer and author Sahpreem A. King on "Surviving the Game: How to Succeed in the Music Business" where Chavis is credited as author of the foreword and technical advisor.

On June 24, 2014, Chavis became the president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association, an African-American organization which focuses on supporting and advocating for publishers of the nation's more than 200 black newspapers. In 2015, he helped organize the 20th Anniversary of the Million Man March: Justice or Else.