(Brookline, MA) - Professor and Reverend Cornell William Brooks, Former President and CEO of the NAACP, and Director of The William Monroe Trotter Collaborative for Social Justice at the Harvard Kennedy School is endorsing Alan Khazei for Congress in Massachusetts’ 4th Congressional District. Brooks is the latest Civil Rights Leader to back Khazei’s campaign, joining a broad coalition of leaders on issues of racial justice and social equality, including Civil Rights Activist Hubie Jones, LGBTQ+ Activist, Newton City Councilor Holly Ryan and Get Konnected Founder, Colette Phillips.

In endorsing Khazei, Brooks cites Khazei’s lifelong activism for racial justice and his plan for the creation of an American Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission, a centerpiece of Khazei’s agenda. Brooks and Khazei co-authored an Op-Ed in June advocating for the creation of the Commission, which would be chartered by Congress, led by leaders with moral authority from all backgrounds and funded with $50 million. It’s mission would be to take the extraordinary protest energy across America to confront systemic racism and channel it into major national legal, policy and cultural change. A cause that both Brooks and Khazei are deeply committed to.

“I’m proud to endorse Alan Khazei to represent the Massachusetts 4th District in Congress. Alan’s strong leadership of the national community service movement and his extensive experience advancing the cause of racial justice and working with communities that have been overlooked, undervalued, and unappreciated, show me that Alan listens to and understands the voice of the people. He will fight for them every day in Congress and work to ensure that the extraordinary protest energy we are seeing across America gets translated into major federal legal, policy and cultural change. After 400 years of racism and oppression, we are still a long ways away from finally achieving the dream of equality for all. I feel confident placing my complete trust in Alan to bring racial equity out of the shadows and to the forefront of the national conversation.”

In addition to the American Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission, included in Khazei’s Fix Our Democracy plan is a 21st Century Voting Rights Act, automatic voter registration, public financing of campaigns, strengthening campaign ethics regulations, term limits for Supreme Court Justices, a ban on lobbying by former Members of Congress, ranked choice voting, abolishing the Electoral College, statehood for Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico and ending partisan gerrymandering.

Alan also put out a plan for extensive criminal justice reform in March calling for ending the school to prison pipeline, ending mandatory minimum sentencing, abolishing private prisons, restoring Pell Grant access to prisoners, restoring voting rights to formerly incarcerated people, and ending qualified immunity for law enforcement.

“I worked with Alan on the proposal for an American Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission, because I know how passionate he is in his commitment for racial justice,” Brooks said. “He also has an extensive plan for Criminal Justice Reform and to Fix our Democracy, both of which are essential to fighting systemic racism and ensuring that America becomes more fair, intersectional and just for all of our people, especially black and brown people. We cannot afford to wait any longer. The citizens of the Fourth District, like Americans across our country, want a Representative with local authenticity and national credibility. Based on civic imagination, a relentless commitment to give back, and a sterling public service record, Alan has demonstrated that credibility and authenticity to his district and his country. We need to create the change we wish to see and having Alan in Congress will help bring about that change.”

“I’m deeply honored to have the support of Professor and Reverend Cornell William Brooks in my campaign for Congress,” Khazei said. “Cornell is an important, prominent and nationally recognized champion for Civil Rights and the fight for racial justice in our country. During his time as President and CEO of the NAACP, he led innovative efforts to fight our history of systemic racism. The NAACP Legal Defense department won nearly a dozen major victories against voter suppression including successfully protecting more than 600,000 voters in Texas and 300,000 voters in North Carolina from voter suppression. Cornell also led the New Jersey Institute’s successful efforts in 2010 to win the passage of three landmark criminal justice reform bills, hailed by The New York Times as, “a model for the rest of the nation,” added Khazei. “Now at Harvard, Cornell has a powerful vision for the Trotter Institute to tap the energy and idealism of students and others to develop innovative campaigns that change policy. This campaign isn’t built on any one person, and I won’t be going to Congress alone. When we break open the doors of Congress, we’re going to be bringing in a broad coalition of diverse leaders in the fight for racial, social and economic equality.”

Brooks has been a strong advocate for civil rights long before he served as the President and CEO of the NAACP. He had previously served as President of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, Executive Director of the Fair Housing Council of Greater Washington, and a trial attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee For Civil Rights Under Law.

During his time as President of the NAACP, Brooks led a justice tour to encourage people to vote and discuss social justice issues in their communities. A leader in the fight against voter suppression and criminal justice reform, Brooks’ justice tour was instrumental in helping the Department of Justice hold the Ferguson Police Department accountable for institutional racial profiling. Under Brooks’ leadership, the NAACP Legal department won nearly a dozen major victories against voter suppression.