by Jason Ponterotto, Amsterdam News 

 (New York Amsterdam News/Trice Edney News Wire) – The Sierra Club board of directors voted unanimously to fire its first Black and overall person of color executive director, Benjamin (Ben) Jealous, after he was placed on leave in July. 
Club Board Chair Patrick Murphy announced the August 11 decision to terminate the employment of Jealous with cause in an email to staff. It comes after public disagreements between Jealous and staff members from local chapters.
The Sierra Club has operated as one of the largest and oldest environmental justice organizations in the United States since its founding in 1892. Jealous took on the role in 2023. Jealous wrote a weekly column on environmental issues of concern to Black and other people of color. The Greene County Democrat regularly  published his column.
Representatives from the group have not provided details about why Jealous was terminated. However, Jealous released a statement pushing back. He highlighted his record in his short tenure, including bolstering membership and staff positions in several red states where there had been none.
“It is disheartening, unfortunate, but perhaps not surprising that the board has chosen an adversarial course that the facts so clearly cannot support. I have begun the process under my contract to fight this decision. I am confident that we will prevail,” Jealous said. He has also retained legal representation in the case.
Jealous, 52,  has a prominent career in civil rights and activism, having served as president of the NAACP from 2008 to 2013 and People for the American Way from 2020 to 2022. He also had an unsuccessful bid in the Maryland gubernatorial race in 2018. In environmental justice, he began as a forest protection activist in high school. There are no previous scandals of note regarding his leadership. 
Former Club board members Aaron Mair and Chad Hanson released a statement in support of Jealous, calling the decision wrongful and discriminatory, and citing a smear campaign from specific union groups. 
“Where past white executive directors followed particular procedures and practices that were treated as sound, acceptable, and wise, Ben has been severely criticized for following the very same fiscally prudent and professional practices,” the statement in defense of Jealous reads. 
“Instead of recognizing and appreciating the fact that Ben is both a civil rights leader fighting for racial justice and a longtime defender of wild places and lover of Nature, Ben’s vision was met with a troubling resistance from some who made the racist assumption that he would shift the organization away from environmental work, simply because he is Black and was a former NAACP executive.”
Mair and Hanson discussed a “Phantom Staff Letter,” used to oust Jealous, that was allegedly signed by 117 club staff members, to which they point out there is no way of verifying any signature, because no names were included. They also called out the Progressive Workers Union (PWU), a separate group that says it represents around 200 national and state chapter employees and volunteers, although there has not been verification.
“The Sierra Club’s first Black Executive Director is being treated like a fall guy, unfairly blamed for Board and past management decisions made before he began his job,” the statement reads. 
Some of the issues of contention that PWU has highlighted with Jealous’s leadership include the multiple rounds of layoffs at the organization, supposed mismanagement of the budget, dismantling the Equity Department, halting the work of the Restorative Accountability Recommendations Tracking & Implementation Team, and “gutting” the Healthy Communities program, which provided funds for much of the chapters’ work on the ground. 
In a letter released on August 12, the PWU BIPOC Caucus responded to the allegations of racism against Jealous. “BIPOC staff and allies alike have been voicing our concerns about Mr. Jealous’s leadership and actions, not because of his identity, but because of the impacts of his choices. We believe the former Board Members making these accusations are weaponizing racial justice in an attempt to silence those raising concerns, including BIPOC staff,” the statement read. 
The caucus claims, based on their independent analysis, that nearly half of the firings under Jealous involved BIPOC staff. 
Jealous’s claims of racism corroborate other claims of similar treatment in the organization by former employees. 
Montravius King, who served as South Carolina chapter director from 2023 to 2025, told the AmNews he experienced several hurdles, including racial discrimination, in attempting to lead his chapter, and that the local board of the Sierra Club in South Carolina was never responsive. 
Virginia Sanders, 82, who has worked with the Sierra Club in volunteer and staff roles on and off since 1981 in South Carolina, said she saw firsthand how racism affected both Jealous and King’s tenures. She cited an instance where news of Jealous’s appointment in 2023 was intentionally kept silent from South Carolina members and another where he was not invited to a Freedom Fund Banquet. 
“The welcome mat was not laid out for Ben Jealous,” Sanders told the AmNews. According to Sanders, she has long been pro-union but that her experience with PWU was that they were inexperienced and focused on complaining instead of using resources.
Other officials, including Dr. Angelle Bradford Rosenberg, chair and manager of the Delta Chapter, have expressed frustration with the decision.
“Honestly, this process has been cloaked in such silence and lack of transparency and communication and empty platitudes,” Bradford said. “Patrick’s announcement email appears to reflect very little understanding of the gravity, impact, grief, and humiliation tied up in the vastness of this decision to fire the Club’s first Black ED. This is tragic. Not a ‘moment of renewal.’’’
Others, including Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network, have reacted to the firing, releasing a statement calling for an independent party to mediate a resolution between both sides. 
“There are serious racial implications in firing a Black man of Ben’s caliber, in this fashion, at a time when diversity is under attack,” Sharpton said.