Kweisi Mfume (October 24, 1948) is the former CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as a former United States Congressman.
Mfume was born Frizzell Gray in Baltimore, Maryland, where he was a street hustler and high school drop-out prior to age 23. Gray had an epiphany and dedicated to remake his life. He legally changed his name to Kweisi Mfume, a name from Ghana meaning "Conquering son of Kings." Mfume went back to school and earned a bachelor’s degree from Morgan State University, and a master’s degree in Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University. He had his start in politics in 1979 by being elected to the Baltimore City Council . He served on the council untill 1986, when he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, representing the 7th district of Maryland. While in Congress, Mfume served as the leader of the Congressional Black Caucus from 1992 to 1994. In 1996 Mfume stepped down from his seat in Congress to take up the position as CEO of the NAACP, a capacity that he served until he stepped down on December 31 2004.
On March 14, 2005, Mfume announced that he will seek the U.S. Senate seat of current long-standing senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), following the announcement by Sarbanes that he will not be running for re-election in 2006. [1]
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