According to search committee sources, the finalists for NAACP president and CEO are: Benjamin Todd
Jealous, 35, president of the Rosenberg Foundation; the Rev. Frederick D. Haynes III, 47, senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas; and Alvin Brown, 37, a former White House official now working on Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.

Because search committee members were sworn to secrecy, none would speak for attribution. The NAACP board is scheduled to fill the position, which has been vacant for a year, at its next meeting, in May.

Of the three finalists, Benjamin Jealous is said to be the favorite of board chairman Julian Bond. There is some confusion over whether the full board will get an opportunity to vote on all three candidates, or whether a single name will be advanced by a search committee made up of board members and prominent community leaders. At the board meeting in New York two weeks ago, Bond announced that the name of only one candidate will be presented to the board for consideration, according to board sources.

The proposal to present the name of only the top candidate rather than all three finalists to the 64-member board has created deep division within the organization, with some members threatening to vote against the candidate if only one name is presented.

Although the NAACP has had only 16 chief executives in 99 years, it has had three - Benjamin Chavis, Kweisi Mfume and Bruce S. Gordon - in the last 15 years. Gordon abruptly resigned last March after only 19 months on the job. He had complained about what he said was board interference in the daily operations, an allegation Bond denied.

One of those hoping to replace Gordon is Jealous. In the interest of disclosure, I worked with Jealous for about a year when I served as editor-in-chief of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), in Washington.

Though Jealous is smart, very organized, and on the right side of most social-justice issues, I never pictured him as head of a major civil rights organization - and still don't. Jealous is uninspiring, an unimpressive orator, and he would easily be overshadowed by other figures already on the civil rights stage.

If his employment record is any indication, he wouldn't stay in the position longer than three years. Jealous served as executive director of the NNPA for three years, followed by three years as the Washington-based director of Amnesty International's Domestic Human Rights Program, and has now been president of the Rosenberg Foundation for three years.

If the NAACP is looking for a president/CEO familiar with the inner workings of the federal government and has extensive business ties, it would be difficult to find a more experienced person than Alvin Brown. After serving as a member of President-elect Bill Clinton's transition team, he worked as executive director of the Community Empowerment Board, operating out of the office of Vice President Al Gore, and as a White House senior adviser for urban policy.

Brown also served on the staff of HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo as director of the Office of Special Actions; senior adviser to the late Commerce Secretary Ron Brown; and deputy administrator for rural business under Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman. Brown is a former board chairman of the National Black MBA Association, a position that placed him in close contact with several hundred Fortune 500 CEOs.

If the NAACP is interested in turning to a high-energy, intelligent, spellbinding orator in the mold of Benjamin L. Hooks, one of the association's most popular leaders, Rev. Haynes easily fits the bill. Friendship-West Baptist Church has grown from 500 members when he took over in 1983 to more than 8,000 worshipers.

At a conference in Dallas two years ago, he said: "A megachurch should not just be known for the traffic jam it creates on Sunday, but for doing something more in the community."

Haynes is highly visible in the Dallas community. He was among a group of ministers that traveled to New Orleans to offer assistance shortly after Hurricane Katrina. And he cochaired a campaign to pass a $1.3 billion city bond.

The next leader of the NAACP will face a major rebuilding job. Last summer, the Baltimore-based civil rights group cut 40 percent of its national staff and closed its seven regional offices to cover three years of deficits.