Martin, Malcolm, Medgar
Chisholm, Davis, Height
Parks, Bethune, Wright
Parks, Sleet, Allen
Four little Girls, Merchandise in the bellies of boats, Hospitalized patients not treated properly
Owens, Jordan, Ali,
Montgomery, Harlem, Washington
Belafonte, Bea, Baker
Lee, Perry, Poitier
Marshall, Powell, Obama
I wonder if all of them asked themselves where is Black leadership at their crucial hour
Did Martin Luther King look for Black Leadership when it was time for the March on Washington?
Or Malcolm X when he preached radically in Harlem?
Did Medgar Evers look for Black Leadership when he walked 12 miles to and fro to earn his high school diploma?
Perhaps Shirley Chisholm, Angela Davids and Dorothy Height looked for Black Leadership when they tried to help their struggling sisters find jobs?
Did Rosa Parks look for Black Leadership when she was fired from her job for not giving up her seat?
Did Mary McLeod Bethune pray for Black Leadership when she prayed with her staff, (mostly women who she believed were the key to change for no one knew the problems, the pain and the cost better than they)? *
Did Marian Wright look for Black Leadership when she became the first African-American women lawyer in Mississippi during the Civil Rights movement?
Or Gordon Parks, Moneta Sleet, Jr. and Jules Allen look for Black leadership when their cameras snapped to the turmoil in black cities across America?
Oh I know, maybe the Four little girls in Birmingham, Alabama, the human begins who were sold as merchandise straight from the belly of a boat and all the hospitalized war patients who were not treated properly all because they were shades of brown with kinky hair asked their dying souls Where the heck is Black Leadership!
Did Jesse Owens look for Black leadership when he was allowed to sleep in any hotel of his choice in Germany but not in his home country?
Did Michael Jordan look in the stands for black leadership when making a jump shot or proving to the world that not all African-American children come from broken homes?
Did Mohammad Ali look for black leadership in the boxing ring?
I wonder what goes through the minds of such great athletes when they are playing their sport. Perhaps the question, Where is Black Leadership?
From slavery to current times do the residents in Montgomery, Harlem, and Washington look for Black Leadership?
Did Marian Anderson, Mahalia Jackson and Otis Redding look for Black Leadership when they closed their eyes and made the audience cry from the words and meanings of their songs?
Maybe Harry Belafonte, Bea Richards and Josephine Baker would have done a little better with their acting careers had they sat around all day looking for Black Leadership.
Humm…I wonder, Is Spike Lee, Tyler Perry and Sidney Poitier regretting their wise decisions in film directing, wishing they would have looked for Black Leadership instead?
Surly, Thurgood Marshall, Colin Powell and President Barack Obama do not regret their decisions in becoming leaders.
Now Ebony Magazine wants us to ask ourselves if Black Leadership is Dead.
Black People will never die. Black Leadership will never die. You will never die, if you be a leader.
* Height, Dorothy. Open Wide the Freedom Gates: A Memoir. Public Affairs. New York. 2003. Pp. 84-85