A Crisis Of Leadership And The Role Of Citizens In Black America

A theoretical examination of the concepts of the citizen, citizenship, and leadership, A Crisis of Leadership and the Role of Citizens in Black America: Leaders of the New School proposes to develop a prototype or model of effective Black leadership. Furthermore, it examines “citizenship habits” of the Black community based on their economic standing, educational attainment, participation in the criminal justice system, and health and family structure. It tracks data in these four categories from 1970 to today, measuring effective leadership by the improvement or decline in the majority of African Americans standing in these four categories. This book concludes that African Americans have negative perceptions of themselves as U.S. citizens, which thus produce “bad citizenship habits.” Additionally, ineffective Black leaders since the Civil Rights era have been unwilling to demonstrate the purpose and significance of service, particularly to the poor and disadvantaged members of the Black community. Contemporary Black leaders (post–Civil Rights Era) have focused primarily on self-promotion, careerism, and middle-class interests. A new type of leader is needed, one that stresses unity and reinforces commitment to the group as a whole by establishing new institutions that introduce community-building.

Rethinking How to Build Inclusive Organizations Race, Work, and Leadership is a rare and important compilation of essays that examines how race matters in people's experience of work and leadership. What does it mean to be black in corporate America today? How are racial dynamics in organizations changing? How do we build inclusive organizations? Inspired by and developed in conjunction with the research and programming for Harvard Business School's commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the HBS African American Student Union, this groundbreaking book shines new light on these and other timely questions and illuminates the present-day dynamics of race in the workplace. Contributions from top scholars, researchers, and practitioners in leadership, organizational behavior, psychology, sociology, and education test the relevance of long-held assumptions and reconsider the research approaches and interventions needed to understand and advance African Americans in work settings and leadership roles. At a time when--following a peak in 2002--there are fewer African American men and women in corporate leadership roles, Race, Work, and Leadership will stimulate new scholarship and dialogue on the organizational and leadership challenges of African Americans and become the indispensable reference for anyone committed to understanding, studying, and acting on the challenges facing leaders who are building inclusive organizations.

The history of the black struggle for civil rights and political and economic equality in America is tied to the strategies, agendas, and styles of black leaders. Marable examines different models of black leadership and the figures who embody them: integration (Booker T. Washington, Harold Washington), nationalist separatism (Louis Farrakhan), and democratic transformation (W.E.B. Du Bois).

The world was dealt a blow that included a pandemic and economic crisis as well as racial unrest, initiating an energized charge for social justice advocacy. The United States is currently facing an unprecedented challenge in ensuring that all citizens live in a fair, inclusive, and opportunity-rich society. These issues have heightened questions about racial justice that have been placated but can no longer be ignored. Marginalized communities cannot thrive if they continue to be oppressed, neglected, disinvested, and isolated from economic opportunity. The culture of allyship needs to be enacted thoughtfully and not performatively to create sustainable change through a critical mass of engaged advocates and activists. Many organizations enable the status quo by not confronting issues around race, gender, and equity. Leaders of color want a seat at the table as highly valued contributors for the transformation of a just and equitable America. By listening to the voices of Black and Brown leaders, the promotion of change in an era of social unrest will finally occur. Black and Brown Leadership and the Promotion of Change in an Era of Social Unrest amplifies the voices of leaders who identify as Black, LatinX, Indigenous, or people of color as they navigate leadership during a time of tumultuous change and social unrest. More specifically, it portrays dilemmas that marginalized communities encounter while advocating for justice and social change within whitestream organizational systems. The chapters delve into the definitions, perceptions, and lived experiences of Americanism, identity, otherness, and racism as it relates to leadership and discusses the issues, dilemmas, struggles, and successes that persons of color experience in leadership roles in business and education. This book is valuable for practitioners and researchers working in the field of social justice leadership in various disciplines, social justice activists and advocates, teachers, policymakers, politicians, managers, executives, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in how leaders of color can succeed, navigate hostile spaces, and ultimately create a change in mindsets and practices that will lead to justice.

The iconoclastic Black Republican strategist calls out leaders who fan the flames of racial rhetoric and sabotage a post-racial America The euphoria surrounding Barack Obama's historic election had commentators naïvely trumpeting the beginning of a "post-racial America." In Blackwards, Ron Christie shows that not only is the opposite true, but black leadership today is effectively working against this goal by advancing an extremist agenda of separatism and special rights that threatens to point us backward to the days before Brown v. Board of Education. The motto E pluribus unum ("Out of one, many") speaks to the idea of a melting pot in which Americans of all backgrounds come together to form a strong, unified nation. But in the race politics of today, Christie argues the American melting pot is threatened by what Pulitzer Prize-winning liberal historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. warned was the "cult of ethnicity," in which social divisions are deepened rather than transcended. Christie takes on such sacred cows as affirmative action and other race-based educational policies and campus programs that, in the words of former NAACP officer Michael Meyers, place "figurative black-only signs over certain doorways at America's colleges [while] only confirming and reinforcing pernicious racial stereotypes." Meanwhile, the author argues any open debate about such issues has been hijacked by such self-appointed spokesmen for black America as Al Sharpton, who co-opt the public narrative merely by being outspoken and charging racism against anyone who would speak against their political agendas and public grandstanding. Tellingly, it is within this context that then–presidential candidate Obama famously declared he could not disown Reverend Jeremiah Wright for his racist and anti-American sermons any more "than I can disown the black community." Perhaps most important, Christie reveals how a separatist mind-set has led to a form of selective, skin-based jurisprudence in the federal government, including: • Attempts by the Congressional Black Caucus to shield black members found to have committed ethics violations • The Justice Department's sudden dropping of charges against New Black Panther Party members for voter intimidation during the 2008 presidential election • A former trial attorney's admission that Americans "would be shocked to learn about the open and pervasive hostility within the Justice Department to bringing civil rights cases against non-white defendants on behalf of white victims" As African Americans face skyrocketing rates of single-parent families and high-school dropouts, the author urges black American communities to shun the limits of the monolithic politics of victimhood and embrace an open debate of many voices en route to the goal not of a separate "Black America" but of constructive inclusion in the American melting pot.

The Rise and Fall of Modern Black Leadership is designed to show how black leaders responded to the omnipresent racism of twentieth century America. Although the efforts of black leadership eventually succeeded in eradicating de jure discrimination and brought the nation closer to realizing the idealized tenets of American democracy, their achievements occurred at a cost to their influence as leaders of the entire race. Synopses appear on the lives of the influential men and women who comprised the leadership cadre so that readers can understand the motives underlying leadership goals, and comprehend why the lofty objectives of the Civil Rights Movement remain unfulfilled.

The story of black emancipation is one of the most dramatic themes of American history, covering racism, murder, poverty and extreme heroism. Figures such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King are the demigods of the freedom movements, both film and household figures. This major text explores the African-American experience of the twentieth century with particular reference to six outstanding race leaders. Their philosophies and strategies for racial advancement are compared and set against the historical framework and constraints within which they functioned. The book also examines the 'grass roots' of black protest movements in America, paying particular attention to the major civil rights organizations as well as black separatist groups such as the Nation of Islam.

Compiled in this volume is the most significant accumulation of works on the subject of African American leadership to date. As the field of leadership studies continues to grow, this timely work contributes to an understanding of the activities of those people and organizations that have been leaders of people of African descent and have contributed to the cultural and political affairs of the black community, as well as the representation of the black community in mainstream American life. The annotated entries cover a variety of works on subjects such as dedicated black leadership studies, local descriptions and analyses, biographies, leadership organizations, and audio-visual materials. This reference is an important contribution to the field of leadership studies in general, and African American leadership in particular, and will serve as a valuable research tool for educators and practitioners alike. The entries are organized into six sections, which offer a broad overview of the various aspects of African American leadership. Part I, Critical Studies and Appraisals, focuses on the history of works dedicated to both national and local leaders and their politically relevant activities. The next section, Local Leadership Studies, is organized around black leaders who served local communities and the various issues they addressed. Part III looks at relevant social movements and ideologies that have highlighted the activities of black leaders. Individual leaders who have made contributions to the political life of the black community are included in Part IV, while leadership organizations are highlighted in Part V. The concluding section of the volume looks at available audio-visual materials. A thorough index rounds out the bibliography.