One of Silicon Valley’s biggest civil rights groups is changing leadership.
The Rev. Jethroe Moore II has made his second and likely final exit from the NAACP San Jose/Silicon Valley after buying a home in Douglasville, Georgia six months ago. It’s opened the door for someone new to take the reins — a former county correctional officer.
Sean Allen, a retired sergeant with the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, is running unopposed in the group’s election to replace Moore as president on Saturday, and will take over the 82-year-old organization with roughly 260 members early next year. The former sheriff training officer has in many ways been prepped for the job and not just under Moore’s tutelage.
Before joining the NAACP in 2021, Allen was for years a rare dissenting voice against sheriff leadership from within the county jail. When reporters in 2017 investigated abuse after the jail beating of Michael Tyree that led to his death, Allen was the only one out of eight correctional officers who talked on record. When a violent training accident killed a cadet in 2020, he publicly deemed it a long-running issue. After suing the sheriff’s office twice for workplace discrimination and joining the NAACP, Allen also helped lead protests against the use of police dogs and Tasers.
His rise through the group first met hesitation in civil rights circles. Allen recalls some community leaders telling him they hated cops and refused to interact with him. He said things have changed over time, partly thanks to Moore’s extensive relationships.
Yet Allen said the hesitation resurfaced in his bid for president.
“People questioned: ‘Hey, is this guy gonna be more loyal to law enforcement?’” Allen told San Jose Spotlight. “And I’ve never represented that.”
Asian Law Alliance Executive Director Richard Konda, whose group has challenged police misconduct alongside the NAACP for years, doesn’t have any reservations.
“Sean Allen has been a strong advocate for civil rights and his leadership will as the new president of the local NAACP chapter ensure that the visionary leadership of (the) Rev. Moore will continue,” Konda told San José Spotlight. “Sean has been an active member of the Coalition for Justice and Accountability and has been very involved in CJA’s advocacy against Tasers and police attack dogs. We look forward to continuing to work with him on these and other civil rights issues.
Moore, who often stayed with Allen and his family while traveling back and forth from Georgia over the past half-year, has come to know him as a close personal friend. He said he trusts Allen to “show up for the people.”
“I want Sean to keep us down — to cobble together all the different ethnic groups — and ensure that when we say we’re speaking with the community, we really mean it,” Moore told San José Spotlight.
The incoming president said he’s grappling with the idea of filling his mentor’s shoes. Moore spent decades building connections with local leaders and trust with other community organizations. When San Jose’s Black community spoke out against racist election attack ads published by the San Jose Chamber of Commerce, then known as the Silicon Valley Organization, Moore organized a diverse list of leaders to push back. It prompted the chamber to dismantle its political action committee behind the ads. Moore also created the African American Flag-raising event and was a co-founder of the Black Leadership Kitchen Cabinet in 2008.
“I wanted to poise the organization to be on the sphere of what was happening — we wanted to be the first to weigh in on a critical issue and make sure we had a presence on that situation,” Moore told San José Spotlight. “I got in trouble a lot of times because it would go against the state’s position. But our goal was to protect the citizens of Santa Clara County.”
In 2021, Moore announced he was moving to Atlanta, Georgia in search of better opportunities. But just one year after leaving San Jose, the beloved civil rights leader was back — separated from family, ousted from a job where he reported inappropriate conduct and struggling to find work. This time, he said he’s got more reasons to be hopeful about his latest move back east.
“We’ve been fortunate enough to buy a home in Georgia on a quarter acre,” he told San José Spotlight. “I always promised my wife and kids a home.”
Changing of the guard
Allen said it will take time to get to Moore’s level. But he’s already looking ahead. He said he plans to continue the chapter’s government watchdogging and accountability efforts — a pursuit he said distinguishes his NAACP chapter from others in the state.
“We just had a state convention and I learned about how some of the other branches are going down the same path — but it sounds to me, from the interactions we had, that we are in a different space. Particularly because we have a lot of insiders in the government informing us,” Allen told San José Spotlight.
While all 57 NAACP branches in California and Hawaii are governed by the same policy principles, Silicon Valley has “one of the best branches in ensuring government accountability and fair and equal treatment of African Americans and people of color,” Rick Callender, a high-ranking leader of the NAACP’s statewide chapter and CEO of Valley Water, told San José Spotlight.
“Allen has been a long fighter for equity and justice,” Callender said. “He came from the trenches doing battle, and he has fought not only for himself, but others. I fully support him as the incoming president for the San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP.”
Former Milpitas Vice Mayor and San José Spotlight board President Bob Nuñez briefly helmed the NAACP during Moore’s first move to Georgia. He said his hope is the community will rally around Allen.
“Somebody has to be the watchdog. But I also think you need the ability to bring people together. Somebody has to point out what we did wrong, but it shouldn’t be the only thing we do,” Nuñez told San José Spotlight.
Allen agrees. He said he also wants to put more energy toward college education access. He said he’s courting local academics to join the NAACP’s executive board, in an effort to coax local community colleges into covering tuition and other expenses for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students.
He also said he intends to enhance awareness of the NAACP as an advocate for all marginalized communities.
“Most people think of the NAACP and think it’s Black only. That’s not the case,” Allen told San José Spotlight. “We’re fighting for the rights of everyone. That is the mission of the organization. That will be broadcast and represented publicly everywhere. (The) Rev. Moore has expressed the same thing. I think that we have to make changes about how we’re bringing it to other people.”
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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