Posted on 11/9/2005, 5:03:32 PM by Oynx
GUEST COLUMN
Next Rosa Parks may live next door
By BENIN DAKAR Published on: 11/09/05 With the passing of civil rights heroine Rosa Parks, many in the black community can be heard wondering, "Who will be the next Rosa Parks?"
Beyond the fact that Parks with her quiet unshakable courage is irreplaceable, it is disquieting to me that many black people have a mind-set that the fate our race and well-being in America is tied to one or two iconic men or women.
For four long decades, African-Americans have been stuck in a leadership vacuum. Too many blacks who were either children or yet unborn at the time of the assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are still mourning the loss of these distinguished men and hoping that their heir apparent will soon make an appearance.
For certain, Parks, King and Malcolm X were all products of their time. The circumstances that they confronted and the type of leadership required during the 1950s and 1960s are different from the leadership necessary to enable African-Americans to better navigate our 21st century American experience.
Racism has not gone away, but the "in-your-face" apartheid of Jim Crow racism of the period has by and large faded away into the history books.
The new challenge for black Americans is for us to master ourselves and learn to identify and exploit the opportunity that surrounds us.
No longer are outstanding poetical and metaphoric oratory, massive marches or sheer defiance of unjust laws and rules the best way to make strides toward full inclusion in American society. The challenges today call for multiple grass-roots leaders who can build organizations across race and class in their communities that produce measurable ongoing results.
Moreover, black leadership today must begin to think in terms of legacy and how it will replicate itself. That means focusing on making an investment in our youth.
The kind of relevant and progressive modern-day black leadership that I am talking about is personified by chessmaster Orrin C. Hudson, who lives in DeKalb County.
Hudson is an Air Force veteran and former Alabama state trooper who for a decade owned a thriving automobile business. With his own money and resources, he founded the nonprofit "Be Someone," which teaches at-risk youth, most of whom are black, how to play and win at chess and in life.
In 2000, upon hearing about the execution of seven Wendy's employees in New York City by a misguided youth for a bounty of $2,000, Hudson became angry.
More than a century ago, educator Booker T. Washington called for blacks to "cast down your buckets where you are." That is what Hudson did.
Without fanfare, Hudson began going into local schools to teach the most problematic boys and girls, who had been all but abandoned, the urbane skills of concentration, logic, pattern recognition, long-term planning, delayed gratification and effective use of one's resources.
The cognitive skills and confidence that Hudson's kids develop enables them to win chess matches and in day-to-day life.
Among Hudson's noteworthy accomplishments was coaching the team from low-ranking Benteen Elementary School to the Atlanta Public Schools chess championship in 2001.
Hudson has found support for his mission from people and organizations as diverse as actress Jane Fonda and the NAACP.
There can never be another Rosa Parks. But thanks to the efforts of Hudson and other new styled grass-roots black leaders like him, the future of black America is brighter with more possibilities than previously imagined.
— Benin Dakar of Duluth is a writer and owner of a property management company.
Ben Carson?
"For four long decades, African-Americans have been stuck in a leadership vacuum"
Sharpton and Jackson are going to be angry with that one.
Course they have made a lot of money not being leaders.
Huh? There's nothing diverse about Jane Fonda and the NAACP.
Am I just weird to think that the idea that they NEED a leader is racist?
I've been all around the world, met a lot of people. I've met people as diverse as Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson.
Not really
Nope. It's 2000-freakin'-5 get off race already!
"I've met people as diverse as Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson."
im sorry to hear that.
Welcome to FR.
The freak on the right has rather scrawny legs...I guess that is what they call macho;)
She's over in France spreading her love.
Next question, please.
Isn't this a family forum?
My point exactly.
I vote for Jesse Peterson.
This is the most revealing line in the op-ed. The writer actually seems to have some sense--at least in comparison with Cynthia Tucker and her editorial staff--but she cannot seem to imagine that anyone other than the self-styled "progressives" could address the problems of the contemporary black community. Not surprisingly, the best such forward-thinkers can come up is chess lessons for kids who live in radically dysfunctional homes and communities. The next step, I expect, is getting the government to subsidize these lessons.
Sorry,but this is one of the silliest things I have ever read.
I really don't get the guy's point.
Except she will be white - and will finally call attention to affirmative action, minority set asides, minority only scholarships, minority only interns, civil exam minority bonuses as for what they are - Pure Racism - just like sitting at the back of the bus...
Well, it's hard to find leadership in a community that so prizes its victimhood.
You can't be a victim and a leader at the same time; people are not inspired to follow victims.
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