Emerging Leaders in the Black Community

Whether it is the local network news or your favorite cable news network, almost every time you see news relating to the Black community it is in some sort of negative report. However, in reality change was being effected in the Black communities throughout the United States long before the word took center stage in the last presidential election. Across the country, countless people have worked tirelessly in their neighborhoods, churches, schools and communities to improve the lives of those around them. The election of President Obama has not only galvanized those already in the trenches but it energized many to get involved. Grassroots workers all around the U.S. have been validated.

In Chicago, nonprofit organizations like Graffiti and Grub, a grocery store supplying healthy, unprocessed foods by growing it themselves. They converted vacant lots into urban farmland, distributed food at farmer’s markets and co-founded the Chicago Food Systems Collaboration, which examines food access in the city.

Leadership is a vital concept in the Black community and has shaped its history. Taking a leadership role is a personal responsibility. Leadership is being developed by groups like the Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce Foundation's Chamber Connect program, which began two years ago, "to identify, harvest and grow future leadership." Black businesspeople in Denver can plug in so they can not only help each other, but also give back. Leadership comes about when desire meets hard work and a determination to succeed. People can not wait to be anointed or wait for someone to empower them. If you see a problem and feel impassioned and believe you can contribute an answer, then you need to step up.

Yes, Black political leaders have a responsibility, but they are not messianic and can not deliver and solve all of the community's problems. It is too large a mantle to try and thrust upon the shoulders of any one person. They are elected officials sent to work the process on our behalf, but not in our absence. We need to support them and be involved. Become involved in something you believe in. Leaders can not be painted with a broad brush. When we look at everyone’s thumb print you will see that everyone is different. Leaders are made, not born.

Walter Earl Fluker, Ph.D, executive director of The Leadership Center at Morehouse College in Atlanta recently traveled to South Africa with a group of Morehouse students who have been studying ethical leadership within the context of developing democracies with a special emphasis on HIV/AIDS and poverty.
The author of "Ethical Leadership: The Quest for Character, Civility and Community," Fluker said he believes the president has set a "sterling example of what's possible" for the youth.

Morehouse alumnus Calvin Mackie, Ph.D. can relate. After entering the historically Black college as a remedial reading student with a thick Louisiana accent, Mackie is today a successful businessman, author and lecturer. He also chairs the Louisiana Council on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys, a statewide commission formed to aid the development of policy to better the lives of Black males and families. They believe you have to dream, you have to study, you have to be a doer, and you have to want to become more.

Our youth need to see leaders who look like them – someone they can touch and know that they can do whatever they want to do in life.