Towards a New Generation of African American Leaders

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Towards a New Generation of African American Leaders TOWARDS A NEW GENERATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN LEADERS By Marqueece Harris-Dawson IN LOS ANGELES President & CEO, Community Coalition 2015 | TTHIS PROJECTPROJECT WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY THETHE DURFEE FOUNDATIONOUNDATION STANTONTANTON FELLOWSHIP 30031_03 1 6/19/15 1:36 PM Community Coalition leaders celebrate the Coalition’s 25th Anniversary and show solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Kingdom Day Parade in South Los Angeles. #BlackLivesMatter was created by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi. CONTENTS Executive Summary 1 Introduction: African American 5 Leadership at a Crossroads in Los Angeles My History 9 Twelve Lessons for 15 Cultivating Leadership Stories of Leadership Transitions 25 Summary of Six Lessons 31 for Leadership Transitions Concept for the Future: 37 A Systematic Pipeline Program for African American Leaders in Los Angeles Conclusion 40 Acknowledgments 42 Resources 43 Community Coalition youth leader Tanness Walker advocates for equitable investment in Los Angeles schools outside of LAUSD headquarters. Towards a New Generation of African American Leaders in Los Angeles EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In 2012, I set out on a journey of research and won by the Civil Rights movement, and the drug personal reflection to better understand African trade and gang organizations have siphoned off American leadership transitions in Los Angeles and much of the talent from the working class and to offer some ideas on how we—African American poor that formerly might have produced Black leaders and our multiracial allies—can more effectively movement leaders. More generally although cultivate African American social justice leadership Black people have surged to the polls over and support successful leadership transitions in Black the last decade, the grassroots motion among organizations in Los Angeles. In order to do so, my African Americans has been fairly muted. research led me to think more deeply about the state of African American leadership in general. This challenge of leadership and leadership transitions is taking place in the context of significant demographic changes in which African Americans African American leadership are increasingly less concentrated in South Los in Los Angeles and Angeles. There are many reasons for this, including the disinvestment in Black communities, the flight California matters to all of jobs and manufacturers, mass incarceration communities and is essential and gentrification. Communities that have been historically majority-African American are to a vibrant future for the seeing an influx of new groups, particularly city, state and country. Latino immigrant families. The socio-economic conditions of too many African American families are dire, yet funders have been hesitating to fund African American leadership was and is at Black-specific initiatives for many years, most a crossroads on many fronts. Organizations notably since around the 1992 LA Uprisings. historically led by African Americans have been unprepared for leadership transitions and have There are numerous reasons why the cultivation struggled in many cases. African American of African American leadership in Los Angeles and multiracial social justice organizations are and California matters to all communities and is seeking African American leaders to lead and essential to a vibrant future for the city, state and co-lead their organizations but they do not have country. We need strong Black leaders leading Black large, qualified African American candidate and multiracial institutions because 1) we believe pools. There are many reasons for this. Many in self-determination and in supporting leaders potential social justice leaders have found who are connected to community organizations and openings in the corporate and professional world social movements; 2) we are committed to equity that did not exist before the partial victories and changing the distribution of power in this country; 1 Towards a New Generation of African American Leaders in Los Angeles Marqueece Harris-Dawson, U.S. Congressmember Karen Bass, and María Elena Durazo, Executive Secretary-Treasurer Emeritus, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, are among many committed to investing in the next generation of social justice leadership in Los Angeles. 3) we understand that those impacted by the pressing read and re-read writings that offer context for African issues of the day are best positioned to offer the American leadership today. I took time to reflect on solutions to these problems; 4) we residents and my own experiences of leadership development and voters are critical to achieving our shared goals of what they can offer to solving this puzzle. shifting power relations and changing public policy; and 5) we offer a tremendous talent pool with This research project began as an inquiry about unique understandings of the struggle for full civil African American leadership transitions and ends and human rights, structural racism, building and with a vision of a systematic and high quality exercising power and what is needed for a just and African American Leadership Pipeline Program. It vibrant multiracial democracy. became clear to me that the stories and insights of the interviewees and my own experience were not In my year of research, I had the chance to interview just about transitions, but offered a broader story a tremendous group of leaders and thinkers about leadership that included both leadership including: Dr. Melina Abdullah, Dr. Lula Ballton, development and leadership transitions. Reverend Calvin O. Butts III, Dr. Walter E. Fluker, Dr. Melvina T. King, John W. Mack, Dr. Bryant In the paper, I share my personal history. I have Marks, Reverend Otis Moss III, Reverend Cecil participated in at least three highly intentional and L. “Chip” Murray, Tunua Thrash, Gloria Walton, systematic leadership pipelines: the Black Church, Bob Wing, Reverend Jeremiah Wright and U.S. Morehouse College and Community Coalition. I share Congressmember Karen Bass.1 The conversations twelve lessons for cultivating leadership that come brought out key themes that I share in this paper from those experiences and that of others that I offer and helped me look at this challenge of leadership as potential content for the curriculum of this future in new ways. Their ideas and insights also led me to Los Angeles African American Pipeline Program: 2 Towards a New Generation of African American Leaders in Los Angeles TWELVE LESSONS FOR CULTIVATING 4. Organizational boards and management LEADERSHIP teams have more to do with the success of a leadership transition than the 1. Remove the mystery. actual new leader. 2. Start with context and history. 5. The role of an outgoing leader should be 3. Deliver people. clear, planned and formal. 4. Stay close to your base. 6. There is not a natural leadership 2 5. Have a clear program and analysis. pipeline for Black social change leaders Put it in writing. in Southern California and we need one. 6. Engage thoughtfully on the great I conclude that there is a pressing need for an struggles of our time—peace, race, African American Leadership Pipeline Program class, gender and power. in Los Angeles. I present an outline of a one- to 7. Learn through doing. Test growth. two-year intensive program available to established 8. Understand organizational development. and emerging leaders that would accommodate 9. Teach relationship-building. both leaders who can take off work to participate 10. Build capacity for collective leadership. in the program and leaders who need to schedule their participation around ongoing full- or part-time 11. Emphasize ethics and integrity. employment. The program would include academic 12. Lead with love and spirit, personal study and writing, intensive training and application transformation. and testing of the program lessons in social I share in greater depth four stories of leadership movement organizations. transitions that become the basis of six lessons This African American Leadership Pipeline Program for leadership transitions. could be an important first step in developing a deeper bench of African American Los Angeles- SUMMARY OF THE LESSONS FOR based social movement leaders and in supporting LEADERSHIP TRANSITIONS individuals and organizations with leadership 1. Historically, women have been significant transitions. builders of organizations and nurturers of leadership and leadership transitions. I invite my African American social justice 2. Leadership transitions are much more colleagues and our allies in Los Angeles, successful when an organization values California and the country to be a part of this cooperation, community and nurture. next exciting chapter in developing African 3. Leadership transitions are more American leadership and nurturing the leadership successful when they are mission-driven. transitions of the new millennium. 1 Please see the Appendix for the titles and affiliations of these leaders. 2 Pipeline programs are systematic programs to inspire and prepare people to enter a given field or career path. 3 Image: National ArchiveImage: Members of the United Civil Rights Committee take action in Los Angeles in 1963. Youth leaders Jozik Benitez and Takoura Henderson speak out for equity and justice in education. Community Coalition’s youth leadership development program, South Central Youth Empowered Through Action (SCYEA), trains high school students to break the school to prison pipeline and prepares them to be leaders
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