These are our heroes: Black leaders for the future

"Tavis Smiley, Michael Eric Dyson/
Stokely Carmichael, let's try to be like them/
Nicky Giovanni poetical black female/
Jim Brown to the people who sing well from/
Fela to Miriam Makeba/
The mirror says you are the next American leader/"

-- Nas, These Are Our Heroes


I've had conversations with people over and over about who will be the next African-American leaders that my generation (I think I'm actually a generation-Y member rather than X since I was born in 1980) will follow.

I know in generations past it was people like Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesse Jackson, and perhaps Al Sharpton. But now we've got a new generation of young people who have different issues that need to be uncovered, discussed, and addressed. In having a conversation with a co-worker the other day, I found out that 76% of black males in Baltimore DO NOT graduate from high school. That was pretty staggering. I am not sure what the numbers are in other urban areas, but I can't say that after hearing that I'd be surprised if other cities have similar numbers (though I hope not).

So this would lead me to believe that education should be one of the top priorities our next Black leaders address.

Another issue that I ALWAYS end up discussing is what I would term White Flight and Black Follow...In what seems to be a lot of urban areas in this country the city starts off being inhabited by white people and black folks try to squeeze their way into the same areas even though it may be more expensive and less financially feasible. Then, the white people move out to the suburbs. A lot of people say this is because they want to get away from black folks but I don't think that's 100% the case. Once they move back out to the suburbs, what do black folks do? Move out to the 'burbs too! We seem to always be a step behind. But part of the issue here is being educated about real estate and building wealth. This is something alot of blacks (including myself) don't readily have access to when they're growing up. Some people seem to be brought up in an environment of good money-management, spending habits, and financial planning. But others can only dream of that.

So another issue that needs to be addressed is economic empowerment. This comes through educating people about their finances and the power of the dollar. I'm still learning (trying to catch up) just like a lot of people I know.

So who do I think can possibly be the leaders to pull this off?

1. Barack Obama



Seems like he's the "trendy" guy to pick as far as who will be the next solid black leader. But we shall see. He's a Congressman from Illinois who has been garnering support from both blacks and whites and has a lot of positive momentum.

2. Kweisi Mfume



Kweisi's my pick for the best black leader out there. I would say I think he's going to be the first black president, but he might have to change his name from Kweisi to Marcus to pull that one off.

3. Russell Simmons



A lot of you may chuckle at this one, but you have to think about him this way. He's a man who has tons of respect throughout the hip-hop and social activist community. His hip-hop summit action network does a lot of good for the hip-hop generation. And my belief is that the next great black leader will HAVE TO HAVE full support from the hip-hop generation/culture or he'll have NO CHANCE of really getting anywhere. Russell Simmons is probably the one man out of these 3 that has that. Whether or not he really decides to "go long" politically remains to be seen though.

Unfortunately, I only have 3 guys to nominate because I am just not as informed as I should be. If you guys have any knowledge of great leaders I should know about, please share.