Last week, California Representative Diane Watson announced she would not seek re-election to her 33rd Congressional District seat of California. It was a much anticipated announcement after months of �rumors� that she would. Diane Watson is one of the most respected elected officials in the history of California black politics. She was the first black woman elected to the Los Angeles Unified School District, and the first black woman to the California Senate. She should have been a County Supervisor, losing an upset election to former Congresswoman Yvonne Burke after beating her in the primary by 20 points. Earning her doctorate degree from Claremont while in the State Senate, she went on to be appointed Ambassador of Micronesia before returning to run for Congress. She�s had a distinguished public service career indeed. And she�s doing it right by going out on top. And YES, Assembly Karen Bass should succeed her. Leadership of the past prepares leadership for the future. Their commonality is their both are �champions of the people.� The point here is leadership succession in the black community is an oft avoided topic. Black leaders often have no vision for the future beyond their tenure of service.

This is a touchy subject in black community�s nationwide, and historically prevalent within the civil rights generation. Thurgood Marshall and Roy Wilkins could not see the change that the younger Martin Luther King saw. King could not see the change coming that Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Toure) saw. Joseph Lowery and Andrew Young didn�t embrace Jesse Jackson�s run for President. And Jesse Sr. (and most of the older Congressional Black Caucus) didn�t embrace Obama�s run for President. Nowhere is this issue touchier than in Los Angeles where black elected officials serve so long they die in office, literally. That�s Ms. Watson got her congressional seat. Her predecessor, Julian Dixon, died in office. At one point in the 1990s, L.A. had six black elected officials in their 70s or their 80s. I wrote a commentary about fifteen years ago entitled �Black Leaders Eat Their Young,� after questions arose as to where the next generation of leaders were. It was a period of contemplation (and confliction) after 88 year old City Councilman Gil Lindsey died in office with no apparent successor, and then Mayor Tom Bradley decided not to run for a sixth term and had no apparent successor. Bradley, after 20 years, endorsed no one to succeed him. In Los Angeles, succeeding generations have to attack the very ones who mentored them. One of the saddest cases was last year when one of the most venerable black elected officials in California, former Lt. Governor, former Congressman, former Assemblyman, and former State Senator, Mervyn Dymally, was beat running for a State Senate seat he had held thirty years, after serving in an Assembly he held nearly forty years ago. Dymally, at 82 years of age, refused to retire and refuse to sit down. Whether it�s politics, civil rights, or the church, black leaders don�t retire, and if they do�they�re looking over your shoulder.