The state of the African American community, in the national collective and in every locale in the country, is facing near crisis situations on every front; education, employment, business, health, public safety and I could go on and on. But the greatest crisis facing African Americans is in the area of leadership. The black leadership crisis is so prevalent largely because the art of black advocacy leadership and advocacy leadership training has gone the way of the fight. You can’t lead a fight if you don’t know who you’re fighting or what the fight is about. The advocates and activists of the 20th Century, those who came of age in the 1950s and 1960s, knew their opponent (in most cases), knew what the fight was about, and were prepared in their time to fight the good fight.  The 21st Century advocate/activist/leader, those came of age in the mid-1970s and 1980s, don’t know what this fight is about anymore. They don’t know who their opponent is anymore. And they’re not prepared to fight the fight of their generation. They are still fighting the last generation’s fight—in the same way the last generation fought it, and they’re losing.

It’s time to acknowledge that we are “they” and they are “we” and while every other race is progressing, African Americans are regressing. What is it that we don’t know, that others know. What is it that we’re not doing, that others are doing? Why is it that we cannot stop the retrogression of black equality? A summit is being convened in Los Angeles between leaders of the past twenty-five years and emerging leaders of today to discuss the future of black advocacy and black leadership. In the first summit of its kind (that we’re aware of), ever-evasive topics like that of leadership succession, operational unity and intergenerational conflict will be taken to task.  Why is this necessary? Maybe because more of us, than not, see the trend of regression occurring on our watch and want some definition from those who have lived it. It will take all of us to find who we are now.

Maybe, we are looking for a definition of ourselves in the role of leader, at a time when the term leader is so loosely thrown around. What is a “black leader” in the 21st Century? A politician? A preacher? A rapper? A musician? A civil rights spokesperson? People with opinions? People with newspapers? People with money (and no conscience). Someone who shows up (conveniently) on television when someone sticks a mike in their face? More confusing than understanding what a new (or old) black leader is, is understanding where the battlefield is anymore. A fight for equality and social justice that was once as plain as black and white, is now multi-racial, multi-focal, class based, genderless and widespread against any group you choose to pick. What we do know is that we’re up against something even the previous generation has never seen before. Maybe only one or two generations of African Americans have seen this type of radical social shift like the Redemption Period that ended Reconstruction (1870-1896). We’re witnessing a similar shift over the past twenty-five years (1980-2006). We’re living in the second Redemption Period were the legislatures, the courts and the executive governments (state and federal) are unfriendly and are turning away from racial discourse.

One thing that is still consistent from previous times, however, is black people are still catching the worse of it.  Racial animus is still highest toward African Americans, and such hostility breeds discrimination in the same way that it always has. Only the pathways to resolving discrimination has changed dramatically. The courts are no longer a friend for the legally disenfranchised. Politics no longer produces social policy to remedy social injustice (or political injustice for that matter). The free market competition (capitalism) once thought of as a strategy to cure social ills, now magnifies social ills to the point where it seems unjust to be well to do in the face of so much poverty and despair. Dr. King called it almost 45 years ago “an air-tight box of smoldering poverty in the face of the most affluent nation in the history of the world.” It’s still just as air tight today.

We have to find a way to arrest the suffering of black people, and it can’t be a secular discussion amongst segments or factions in our community. Previous generations of black leaders must tell us what they know before they transition because every time we lose a Rosa Parks, a John Henrik Clarke, an Asa Hillard, it’s like a library of cultural enrichment burning down. The mistakes of the past must be analyzed and discussed, and lessons learnt must be advanced. It is time for generations of black wisdom and cultural knowledge be transferred for the benefit of future generations. The Knowledge Transfer Summit, November 16th at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, is a huge first step step toward figuring out this new Jim Crow, the colorblindness that is taking us backward every day. Click here for more information, or to register for the Knowledge Transfer Summit.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad is a national columnist, managing director of the Urban Issues Forum and author of the new book, Saving The Race: Empowerment Through Wisdom. His Website is AnthonySamad.com. Click here to contact Dr. Samad.