Muhammad, Benjamin Franklin Chavis definition of Muhammad, Benjamin Franklin Chavis in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Muhammad, Benjamin Franklin Chavis, 1948–, African-American civil-rights and religious leader, b. Oxford, N.C., as Benjamin Franklin Chavis, Jr. An activist from boyhood, he was a youth coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In the late 1970s, Chavis was one of ten men wrongly imprisoned (1976–80) after leading a Wilmington, N.C., demonstration. A minister in the United Church of Christ from 1980, he headed (1985–93) that church's Commission for Racial Justice before his 1993 appointment as director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, an independent legal aid group, argues in court on behalf of the NAACP and other civil-rights groups. Along with the NAACP, it was instrumental in helping to bring about the Supreme Court's ruling (1954) against segregated public education in
..... Click the link for more information. (NAACP). Controversy surrounding his leadership of the NAACP and his handling of sexual harassment and discrimination charges against him led to his dismissal the following year. In 1994–95 he was national director for the Million Man March in Washington (Oct., 1995). In 1997 he announced himself a member of the Nation of Islam (see Black Muslims Black Muslims, African-American religious movement in the United States, split since 1976 into the American Muslim Mission and the Nation of Islam. The original group was founded (1930) in Detroit by Wali Farad (or W. D.
..... Click the link for more information. ) and began to preach as a Muslim minister; he changed his surname from Chavis to Muhammad. In 2001 he became president of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network,