"African Americans know oppression and have a natural empathy for others who are oppressed," Bruce Friedrich, director of vegan outreach for PETA, said in an interview. "And the fact is that what happens to chickens for KFC is the worst cruelty that anybody can possibly imagine."

Other prominent African Americans including Russell Simmons, founder of hip-hop label Def Jam, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume and Princeton University professor Cornel West will offer their support for PETA's campaign.

Print ads will also run in newspapers like New York's West African News and Houston's African American News & Issues, PETA said.

Friedrich said PETA hopes to counter efforts by KFC parent company Yum Brands Inc. to ramp up its marketing in African American communities.

KFC spokeswoman Bonnie Warschauer declined to comment on the latest PETA campaign, but said KFC's chickens come from the same companies that supply chickens to local grocery stores.

"KFC uses only highest quality ingredients in all the meals we freshly prepare in our restaurant kitchens," Warschauer said. "We buy our quality chickens from the same trusted brands that consumers buy in their supermarkets, like Purdue, Tyson and Pilgrim's Pride."

PETA contends that chickens supplied to KFC are sometimes scalded to death while still conscious and are bred and drugged until they are crippled under their own weight. PETA said it considers such methods inhumane.

PETA is often criticized for heavy-handed tactics like throwing fake blood at fur-clad celebrities and others. A controversial PETA campaign recently compared animals being prepared for slaughter to concentration camp victims, which infuriated Jewish groups, among others.

But despite criticism it has had an impact on businesses. It wrung significant changes out of McDonald's Corp. three years ago after a bruising publicity offensive concerning how animals were treated by the fast food chain's suppliers.

And last year, PETA dropped a lawsuit against KFC after the chain said it would change information provided about the treatment of chicken served in its restaurants. At the time, PETA said KFC had stopped giving out what PETA called false information about how the chickens served in its restaurants are raised and killed.