Black Leadership

by Manning Marable

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).

Genres: Leadership, History

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Manning Marable was an American professor of public affairs, history and African-American Studies at Columbia University. He founded and directed the Institute for Research in African-American Studies. He authored several texts and was active in progressive political causes. At the time of his death, he had completed a biography of human rights activist Malcolm X, entitled Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention.

Reviews

[Juan Pablo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A critique on the various forms of black leadership over the last century, "Black Leadership" is a short but thorough examination.

Marable delves into the historic conditions that shaped the leadership at the time. Understanding different times & different stages of capitalism makes it easier to understand some of their immediate goals & why some things may have appeared to make sense before but do not make sense any longer given our current conditions.

First focus is Booker T. & his belief in self-reliance & economic empowerment & accommodation of white supremacy & racism. He believed economic empowerment would make racism irrelevant. Many of his ideals fit well into "bootstrap" rhetoric, so it's not difficult to see why white people liked him. He seemed not to be able to see the big picture of capitalism, which most of us don't ourselves, & could understand it only insofar as that money meant power, not understanding accumulation was easily gained for white capitalists on the backs of black labor.

Next, Marable moves onto W.E.B Du Bois. It seems that in anything involving discussion of leaders, if he or Booker T. is mentioned, the other is sure to follow. They were contemporaries & ideologically opposed. Du Bois, not without his faults, didn't believe in accommodation. He did initially believe in the "talented tenth", a small group of our own that should lead us. Nonetheless, he did believe black people should challenge white supremacy & was consistent in that regard. Various encounters influenced & shaped his political beliefs & leanings throughout his life & some of those are traced here. Although not a believer of the supernatural, there is a chapter dedicated to his "faith" in black people which is written as something similar & seems out of place & unnecessary.

He did recognize the connections of white supremacy in the U.S. & imperialism & colonialism & sought to challenge that. Organized sever Pan-African Congress conventions. Ultimately, these fell short of their goals, to me, mainly because to some degree though not seeking to accommodate oppression, they still to some degree sought to appeal to the oppressors. Most of these conferences were outside of the U.S. & we're not accessible to most working-class black people it seems. He was monitored & they did open themselves up to political opportunism by black people from other places, serving the interests of the colonizers. Blaise Diagne was a glaring example. Ultimately, if a thing is not accessible to the masses of those at the bottom, it's not radical. This doesn't take away from the many contributions Du Bois made, especially with his writings.

The role of intellectuals is analyzed next. Intellectual doesn't necessarily mean that in the traditional academic sense. There have always been & likely always will be those among the oppressed, with no access to bourgeois education, that illuminate the reality of what their community goes through. They may not have access to specific kinds of resources or the latest methods, but they are there on the ground, in the field, typically taking action & that is something that should never be discounted. This role can also be played via art & literature & there was an interesting point about the period of the Harlem Renaissance of the pressures, & the acquiescence of some to it, of appealing strictly to bourgeois culture, essentially being as little Negro as possible & more American & it's arguably something we still struggle with today. From there, Marable traces the brief histories of various Pan-African organizations & their leaders. The foundation these organizations laid down should not be forgotten.

From there, Du Bois' history for world peace as connected to the struggle for black liberation is traced. We get accounts of his efforts as well as criticism & obstacles from his peers as well as the United States. Taken on the surface, the call for world peace can be mistakenly seen as tone deaf & leaving the black struggle behind. That is very far from the truth. He recognized the U.S. as an imperialist power, oppressing black & colored people across the globe & true peace could only include the absence of this oppression. He seems to have been a man with many connections & far reaching influence & his views, particularly as to how U.S. imperialism is related to the black liberation struggle in particular & global oppression in general, were shared by few of his contemporaries regardless of race. He worked & spoked out continuously up until his death. It's clear that to only focus on his work from specific time frames, particularly his early work, as opposed to his entire body of work is a mistake.

Marable then traces the political climate during Harold Washington's campaign & re-election as mayor of Chicago. He breaks down the various ethnic groups, their voting habits as influenced by their status in society, the tensions amongst them all & the tensions they had with black people. It is yet another example of how whiteness always gets chosen over everything, whether it's ethic groups propped up by whiteness due to their proximity to it or even supposed left-wing radicals. It's also an example of where black political action groups & leaders fail in not including any type of class analysis & finding a way for middle-class blacks to become increasingly radical despite their class status & our dependency on personalities that tends to get in the way of effective political action. Human psychology at work I suppose.

Next is the question of race versus ethnicity in America & what that (lack of understanding) means for all groups. How the two are defined & interact, unevenly as they do, affect how people are seen & treated by society in general & the power structures of this country. As far as that fits with politics & access to power, be it political or material via capital, as legal segregation was abolished, the waters were muddied for interactions between black people that crossed class lines.

Whereas before the would be black middle-class was dependent upon the black working-class & lower classes for business or forced to interact with them by sharing communities & institutions like churches, Marable points out specifically how black middle & upper classes sought to transcend their blackness for political gain. This has an even larger impact when one takes into account that as these people moved to the suburbs, they created their own versions of institutions like the church, thus separating themselves from the black working-class & poor. This brings up an issue of culture, which Marable was pointing to white people's lack of it & searching for it via mass media & pop culture, which steaks from everyone, hence the term culture vulture, I would think this also means for black people moving up, there is also some divorcing from the roots of black culture to identify more with mainstream things. All of this & more are easily allowed to happen I'm absence of institutions that would act as checks & balances against black people stepping on their own for material & political gain according to Marable.

I think that is something very important to understand as at best some people will only be culturally black but will ultimately fall in line with their class status in regards to challenging the status quo & ultimately evoking change. They will be necessarily limited & not understanding this will ultimately limit any mass movements that initially unite black people across class lines.

Next, the conservative nature of black nationalism historically & of specific leaders & groups is addressed. If you talk about Booker T. & Du Bois, it seems you must also include Marcus Garvey in your discussion. While he was flawed in his outlook, especially as it pertains to what black capitalism can do for black people, it must be recognized that he had the charisma & power to move the masses. He was taken seriously enough by the U.S. government to be deported. Marable also talks about the Nation of Islam, Elijah Muhammad & Louis Farrakahn. They also had the power to move the masses. What they also ultimately have on common is that they were socially conservative & patriarchal. They all also met with the KKK, Nazis & other conservative & racist people & groups. The reason being that, though this appears odd on the surface to almost anyone, they have much in common in regards to their conservatism, patriarchy & notions of racial separatism. The key difference being that white nationalists & conservatives have a government & society built for them to give them most of what they want. This ties back to what Marable mentioned earlier as the lack of institutions to act as a check & balance against supposed leaders using political means for their own benefit & ultimately betraying the interests of black people collectively. It's an example of political opportunism of the worst kind & it speaks to why a class analysis is necessary in addition to a racial one.

Finally, there is a brief tracing of labor & it's history with black people. It is not a good one, as (white) labor has consistently chosen whiteness over class solidarity something often ignored by leftists who also tend to be class reductionists. The problem isn't a lack of recognition of the need for class solidarity, at least not on the part of black people, but it is this lack of recognition on the part of white labor which has historically forced black people to strive for solely racial progress, which has it's limits. If there is ever to be solidarity & organizing, that organizing must be more than a struggle for better wages. It must be a recognition of the power that people collectively hold & a struggle for fundamentally changing society & our relations to production.

Overall, this book surprised me very much. Exceeded my expectations & only got better as the book went along, save for one chapter about Du Bois & faith. Fortunately it is one of the briefer chapters in the book. It traces the various forms that black leadership has taken & continues to take, analyzes where their strengths were/are & ultimately where their limits are & where they fail. Pretty thorough for a fairly short book & should be read if one wants to understand our successes in the past & our limitations & failures so as to improve in the future.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF BLACK LEADERSHIP IN THE U.S. IN THE 20TH CENTURY

William Manning Marable (1950-2011) was a professor of history and African-American Studies at Columbia University; he also taught at Smith College, Tuskegee Institute, the University of San Francisco, Cornell University, Fisk University, Colgate University, Purdue University, Ohio State Univrsity and the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was also an activist and organizer, who participated in a wide variety of organizations. He also received a Pulitzer Prize in History posthumously in 2012, for his biography of Malcolm X.

He wrote in the ‘Acknowledgments’ of this 1998 book, “[This book] is the product of an intellectual and political journey toward and understanding of the political culture of black America. The articles presented here were written over a period of fifteen years. Most of them were originally published in academic journals or edited volumes. Several were prepared specifically for this volume…

“The central concern of this book is an analysis of black leadership in the 20th century. Three topics are of primary interest: ideology, culture, and politics… a central theme that runs throughout the entire fabric of black politics and culture is the thought and leadership of African American women. One cannot and should not ignore or underestimate their powerful and poetic voices or their many contributions to the struggles for black freedom. Any detailed analysis of the Civil Rights Movement … illustrates that the effort was based largely on the work of African American women activists…

“My limited objective here was to profile the ideas and leadership of four significant figures in the social and political history of black America: Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois, Harold Washington, and Louis Farrakhan. These four leaders symbolically represented very distinct approaches to the problem of black empowerment in a predominantly white society.”

He explains in the Introduction, “Simply stated, the central political dilemma that has confronted black America for several centuries now is whether and how the principles and practices of liberal democracy can be extended and guaranteed to black people. This question actually centers around two concepts: freedom and equality… The leaders who have come from a series of black political and social movements in the 20th century represent very different personalities, organizational affiliations, and political ideologies. There is, however, one powerful model of tradition of leadership that has evolved within black political culture… this tradition has been characterized by a charismatic or dominating political style. A number of black personalities have possessed a powerful, magnetic presence and the ability to articulate deeply held grievances and hopes among their people.” (Pg. xii-xiii)

He states, “Booker T. Washington was the most influential black American educator in the early 20th century. Born a slave… he was appointed principal of Tuskegee Institute, an industrial school that had recently been created by the Alabama state legislature. Washington constructed a comprehensive economic and social program for black development within the capitalist system during the period from 1880-1915. His achievements… were substantial. Black schools were largely successful in improving literacy rates and health standards and in promoting black land tenure and capital formation. The limitations and problems inherent in Washington’s political strategy, however, helped establish a rigid system of racial inequality and segregation---termed ‘Jim Crow’---across the U.S. South.” (Pg. 23)

He continues, “The Tuskegee Institute approach to black development rested on four key points. First it took the social and cultural transformation of the black Southern labor force to be a major responsibility of black educational institutions… Tuskegee encouraged black farmers to break away from their dependence on landlords by gradually purchasing their own lands… to provide an alternative credit source, Tuskegee started a savings department, which functioned as a local bank… Tuskegee graduates … purchas[ed] former plantation properties, [then] resold them to black sharecroppers… Second, [they]… tried to make their school a model for all black educational institutions in the South… The third component… was the development of a black middle class… The fourth aspect… was the cultivation of white financial support for Negro education.” (Pg. 27-29)

He adds, “The critical weakness of Washington’s economic strategy was his failure to comprehend the negative effects of rigid segregation on all sectors of the black labor force… First, racial segregation permitted white employers to lower the general rates of wages for all workers… Second, the anti-union philosophy … provided racists … justification for expelling black members… Third, thousands of black artisans and entrepreneurs who depended… primarily upon white clients were displaced with the imposition of Jim Crow.” (Pg. 37)

He asserts, “Du Bois argued that cultural transformation required a special place for children… Perhaps Du Bois’s greatest influence in reshaping African American culture was his writing in the areas of poetry, the novel, and literary criticism… Throughout his professional life, Du Bois expressed his political and social ideals in the form of protest poetry and in a series of novels.” (Pg. 52, 54)

He reports, “The soul-searching experiences in the Tennessee countryside placed Du Bois increasingly at odds with established Christian theology… For the white West… God was dead, Du Bois decided. If racial oppression and segregation had compromised and destroyed the reality of God among most American whites, Du Bois thought, then he would refuse to participate in the charade… He quickly acquired a reputation as a troublemaker, cynic and ‘agnostic’…” (Pg. 64-66)

He notes, “As editor of ‘Crisis’… Du Bois constantly provided his readers with information on African and peoples of African descent outside the United States… he attempted to distinguish his version of Pan-Africanism from the 19th century African emigrationist views… Finally, Du Bois attempted to advance a general thesis linking the continued political and economic exploitation of Africa with the expansion of European imperialism and war.” (Pg. 80-81)

He states, “European leaders and colonial officials confused Du Bois’s Pan-Africanist movement with the alarming growth of the militant black nationalist organization, the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), led by the charismatic Jamaican Marcus Garvey… from Du Bois’s perspective, any perceived connection with the threat of Garvey’s militant nationalism compromised his Pan-African objectives. On the other side… Garvey … denounced the Pan-Africanism of Du Bois as early as 1918… the famous Du Bois-Garvey debate that characterized so much of the black world during the 1920s began in … the first Pan-African congress…” (Pg. 86-87)

He summarizes, “It seems apparent… that no significant reform movement can succeed in this nation without the participation and the decisive leadership of people of color, as well as of the working class… Many white peace advocates are completely ignorant of the contributions that blacks have made to white movements.” (Pg. 112-113)

He recounts, “Du Bois’s final years were spent largely outside the United States… On October 1, 1961, he applied for admission to the Communist Party of the United States… His decision to join the Communist Party and, even earlier, his work for peace brought ridicule from historians and other academic detractors… To this day, Du Bois suffers from a host of detractors and ‘defenders,’ both those who vigorously dissent from certain aspects of his later life and work and those who applaud only his earlier contributions… But the full measure of the man is to be found in … his constant care for the fine details and practical experience of human societies and cultures, and their relationship to the broader processes of economic and material life.” (Pg. 124-125)

He says of Chicago mayor Harold Washington (who served from 1983 until his death in 1987), “The lesson of Harold Washington is that black leadership in the civil rights and Black Power periods depended too heavily upon personalities. The charisma of a Harold Washington was no substitute for an effective political organization, which could have kept together the various class and ethnic forces that had challenged the Democratic machine during the 1980s. Black leadership must go beyond the model of personal political activism…” (Pg. 146)

He acknowledges, “In terms of race relations, America’s society is more thoroughly integrated today than at any point in its history. The number of black elected officials increased… The number of African Americans enrolled in colleges… has quadrupled… the percentage of African Americans in the middle class and professions has significantly expanded. Perhaps the most striking changes … have occurred in popular culture… and the media… Blacks remain underrepresented in the ownership and management of cultural and social institutions, but as employees and prominent public representatives, they are nearly everywhere. Despite these symbols… however, incidents of racist harassment, vigilante violence, and social disruption have escalated in recent years.” (Pg. 149)

He notes, “With the death of Elijah Muhammed in 1975, the Nation of Islam was thrown into organizational chaos. One of Muhammad’s sons had sided with Malcolm X during the schism with his father. This was Wallace Muhammad, who, surprisingly, emerged as the new leader. He rapidly transformed the Nation; renouncing the group’s separatist ideology, he brought it into compliance with …. orthodox Islam. During these years [Louis] Farrakhan withdrew from the reformed Islamic organization and ‘reestablished’ the old Nation of Islam---going back to the fundamentalist precepts and practices of its former patriarch… Although the majority of former Nation members remained loyal to Wallace Muhammed… Farrakhan carved out his own public image as a militant spokesperson for contemporary black nationalism… Farrakhan tried to ‘repackage’ himself as a mainstream leader of the African American community.” (Pg. 175-176) However, his actions such as inviting Lyndon LaRouche to address a national African American political convention (Pg. 164-165) raise questions, as did Elijah Muhammad’s earlier discussions with the KKK and the American Nazi Party (Pg. 173).

This is a bold and penetrating study of these Black leaders, that will interest anyone studying the subject.

[Arielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

2018 Reading Challenge - A book by a local author

This book focuses on Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois and the legacy they fostered in the politics of Black America. The section of W.E.B. Dubois was incredibly informative and comprehensive. I appreciated the exploration of Marcus Garvey's movement, while having Pan African elements a la Dubois, but was economically rooted in the conservative politics/economics of Washington. There were also sections on the former Chicago mayor, Harold Washington, and Louis Farrakhan. While the actually writing of the book could be a bit dry at times, it was packed full of information.

[EuGene Byrd · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is okay. Not a easy read, and not written to well.