Answering the question about Black leadership

In light of many discussions taking place by us, especially since the last presidential election, I feel compelled to submit a perspective that I have subscribed to regarding the ever-pressing question on Black leadership. I am not the originator of this perspective, but I have witnessed that others who have also subscribed to it are some of the most highly productive, respected treasures in our community.

What follows, are the words of the great Carter Goodwin Woodson. One can find his opinion on the issue of Black leadership in Chapter XI, entitled, "The Need for Service Rather Than Leadership" in his perennial work, The Mis-Education of the Negro:

"In spite of the meager rewards, however, the idea of leadership looms high in the Negro mind. It always develops thus among oppressed people. The term itself connotes a backward condition."

In describing what happens in our zeal to become recognized as leaders, he further writes, "This racial racketeer might be a politician, minister, teacher, director of a community center or head of a social uplift agency. He becomes equal to any task the oppressor may impose upon him and at the same time be artful enough to press his case convincingly before the thoughtless multitude."

He went to great effort in attempting to clearly illustrate the debilitating affects of our preoccupation with the idea of who should lead Black people by stating, "Although there are thousands of Negroes living together in one quarter, they have no business enterprises of worth. The selfish struggle for personal aggrandizement, which has not yet brought either faction more than an appointment on the police force or a clerkship in one of the city offices, thus blocks the social and economic progress of thousands of unoffending people. Sometimes, it grips a community for a whole generation, vitiating the entire life of the people".

Mr. Woodson does not only offer criticism of our behavior, he also presents a very rudimentary blueprint for our liberation - if we have the courage and conviction to implement it.

Finally, this is the legacy he has left for us:

"The race must plan and do for itself. If the Negro could abandon the idea of leadership and instead stimulate a larger number of the race to take up definite tasks and sacrifice their time and energy in doing these things efficiently, the race might accomplish something. If we can finally succeed in translating the idea of leadership into that of service, we may soon find it possible to lift the Negro to a higher level. Under leadership, we have come into the ghetto; by service within the ranks, we may work our way out of it. Under leadership, we have been constrained to do the biddings of others; by service, we may work out a program in the light of our own circumstances. Under leadership, we have become poverty stricken; by service, we may teach the masses how to earn a living honestly. Under leadership, we have been made to despise our own possibilities and to develop into parasites; by service, we may prove sufficient unto the task of self-development and contribute our part to modern culture" (First published, January, 1933.)

Patricia L. Hill is executive director of the African American Police League.

Article copyright REAL TIMES Inc.