Cornell William Brooks, former president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), will serve as Visiting Professor of the Practice of Prophetic Religion and Public Leadership at The Harvard Divinity School for the 2019 – 2020 academic year. Prior to leading the NAACP, Brooks was president and CEO of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. He is a civil rights attorney, ordained minister, and Harvard Kennedy School professor, who was most recently a visiting scholar at The Harvard Divinity School during the 2018 – 2019 academic year. At Harvard Kennedy School, Brooks is Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Social Justice, and is also director of the William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice at the school’s Center for Public Leadership. His courses this academic year include “Creating Justice in Real Time: Vision, Strategies, and Campaigns,” and “Morals, Money, and Movements: Criminal Justice Reform as a Case Study.”
Brooks holds a Juris Doctorate from Yale Law School and a Master of Divinity degree from Boston University’s School of Theology with a concentration in Social Ethics and Systematic Theology where he was a Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholar. He was born in El Paso, Texas in 1961. He grew up in Georgetown, South Carolina and is a graduate of Head Start. Brooks attended Jackson State University, where he received the Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science with honors. While studying as a Martin Luther King Scholar, Brooks was awarded both the Oxnam – Leibman Fellowship for outstanding scholarship and promoting racial harmony, and the Jefferson Fellowship for outstanding scholarship and excellence in preaching. He also was a Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal and member of the Yale Law and Policy Review Committee.
Brooks is a fourth generation ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was called to join the ministry while attending Jackson State University where he met his wife, Janice. They have two sons, Cornell Brooks II, and Hamilton Brooks. Brooks is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated.