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Black Leadership Wanted

By Laura S. Washington

Historic events have a way of burning off the mists. Coretta Scott King’s Feb. 7 funeral surfaced age-old political rip tides. The Republican establishment ignored Martin Luther King, Jr.’s funeral. This time around, they tried to make political amends by showing up at his wife’s ceremony.

They brought along their characteristic hypocrisy. In his tribute, George H.W. Bush waxed, “I respected Coretta, like her husband, because they rejected race-baiting by those who opposed, as well as those who supported, the civil rights movement.” Some chutzpah from the man who made Willie Horton a household name.

A chorus of right wingers has since railed at the “politicization” of Mrs. King’s last rites. “Political grandstanding at a funeral erodes the dignity of the occasion,” sniffed Fox-TV talk king Bill O’Reilly. Those, however, who carp about the political hijacking of King’s homecoming should rewind to the 2004 canonization—er, funeral—of Ronald Reagan. The political pageantry of that event left Democrats gasping for oxygen.

Listen up, girls and boys: The civil rights movement boasts a long and esteemed history of using assassinations, murders and funerals toward political ends. Mrs. King was a singularly fervent anti-war crusader who abhorred W’s war.

The funeral also showed that the South can rise again. The civil rights movement of the ’60s was born in the South, and dominated by southerners like the Kings, but 50 years later its best-known stalwarts are based in the North. Today’s posse is led by Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., Rev. Al Sharpton, Minister Louis Farrakhan and Sen. Barack Obama.

It was no accident at this Georgia funeral that among three dozen speakers, not one was a black civil rights activist from the upside of the Mason-Dixon line.

Rarely at a major civil rights event does one find Jesse Jackson, Sr. sitting on his hands in the front row. Movement insiders know that bad blood has long boiled between Jackson and the Kings. Yet even the veterans were agape when “Rev” was muzzled at the funeral.

Another northerner, entertainer Harry Belafonte, wasn’t even at the service. He was close to the Kings, and was at Coretta’s side at her husband’s funeral. King watchers opine that Belafonte was “disinvited” from her ceremony for fear that he would antagonize President George W. Bush, a charge the family denies. Belafonte had delivered a scorching critique of the Bush presidency days before the funeral, calling Bush “the greatest terrorist in the world.”

This North/South leadership divide remains both a source of tension and weakness. African Americans need to get it together. After all, what kind of black leadership allows a white man to scold the African-American elite about its obligation to black history? When former President Bill Clinton took his turn at the funeral dais, he was greeted with roaring applause from the audience, then proceeded to admonish the crowd: “What’s your responsibility for the future of the King Center?” Clinton noted, and rightly so, that “there’s more rich black folks in this county than anyone in America except Montgomery County, Maryland.”

It’s about more than money. The recent deaths of Mrs. King, Ossie Davis, Constance Baker Motley, C. Delores Tucker and Rosa Parks have left a yawning void. A new poll from the Associated Press and AOL Black Voices asked African Americans to name the nation’s “most important black leader.” Jackson led the field with 15 percent of those surveyed, followed by Republicans Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell. Only 18 percent of those polled said that African-American leaders were doing a “very effective job.”

Most intriguing, however, was the silence. About one-third of respondents declined to offer up a name.

The mists may have cleared, but a gloomy picture emerges. Black political leadership is faltering.

Laura S. Washington, an In These Times senior editor, teaches journalism at DePaul University and is a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times.

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  • Reader Comments

    I saw Michael Dyson last night at Reed College. He also mentioned the poll about current Black Leaders. He was a great speaker.

    Posted by CHPZ on Feb 18, 2006 at 2:47 PM

    well laura,
    the door is open...step up, or in, or out is it?

    Posted by jeffmc on Feb 21, 2006 at 11:54 AM

    A very sad commentary on the Black community. It tells you something when it seems the only ones ready to really confront and combat inequality are the old folks who by all rights should be getting a breather about now.

    When I heard Obama speak at the convention for the first time, I felt something I think is called “hope.” That quickly ebbed as I saw him support hideous legislation and sign on to whatever war was next on the agenda. I keep a tiny corner of my mind open, however, that he will find his voice and his courage. A very tiny corner.

    But in reality, we are all suffering from a lack of leadership, not just racial minorites. As a white liberal, I certainly feel underrepresented. Who speaks for me? Hillary? Biden? Thank God Jimmy Carter is still alive, but here again is an old man doing a young man’s job. He won’t be here forever.

    The white faces that appear on TV and the white voices that fill the airwaves are for the most part warmongers, racists and corporate whores. They don’t speak for me, or the majority of Americans.

    We are all leaderless.

    But there is one good hope, and it lies in Black Americans realizing how powerful they truly are. If this large segment of our population can align itself with the legions of disenchanted and unrepresented white voters, we can take this country back. And if we do that, there will not be a need for “Black leaders” as such. Just Americans who share a common cause and believe in justice, tolerance, equality and most of all peace as the ultimate goal of humanity. It’s doable, and I’m a pessimist.

    Posted by opeluboy on Feb 21, 2006 at 6:17 PM

    Not being of African ancestry, the AP/AOL poll would not have included me. If it had, though, I also would have been at a loss to name anyone I considered worthy of the name “leader”, regardless of race or ethnicity.

    There is not one single public figure that I can name who I consider worthy of my outright loyalty.

    It’s obvious that individualists like me have muted voices in the public sphere; it’s parties, movements, organizations, and their front-men who have the influence, short of some billionaire maverick who gets the spotlight just for her uniqueness. Still, who out there is really worth following? Is there anyone worth joining my efforts to? Who would that be? If the respondents to the Black Voices poll were largely silent as to “important leaders”, maybe it’s because of the broad dearth of leaders in the entire country, across all communities, who inspire anything more than tepid, wary support, mainly as a gesture of opposition to other front-men who are perceived to be worse.

    No one inspires confidence. No one inspires, period. And if they do, their image soon tarnishes as details emerge.

    Is it any wonder that young people choose pro wrestlers, singers and film actors when asked who their heroes are? Who the hell else is worth paying attention to?

    Posted by Kuya on Feb 22, 2006 at 2:26 AM

    After the abolition of slavery, American Blacks had to closely identify with and help each other because of racist attitudes and racist laws.  This kinship was essential to their survival because no white face could be trusted completely.

    This close group identification continued into the 20th century, through the civil rights movement, and even hrough to today.

    However, each generation steps a bit further away from the past - whether black or white - and the old ways become diluted.  If you look at young people today, there is less distance between the races - just look at interracial dating.  What was despised at worst and certainly commented on at least during my grandparents’ time (1940’s), is now almost not even worthy of noticing to a 20 year old in 2006.

    Which brings me to the response to this article.  Unprecedented numbers of African Americans attend colleges and trade schools, own or head corporations, and own their own homes.  It’s quite possible and desirable that the outcome of all this civil strife over the past 140+ years is that people are essentially happy and don’t need someone to “lead” them anymore.

    Posted by oleofritter on Feb 23, 2006 at 2:28 PM

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Appeared in the March 2006 Issue
Also by Laura S. Washington
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