When we talk about courageous, effective and visionary African-American leadership--nationally or locally – the same names, regrettably, always come up. At the national level, we trot out Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan, and so on, and so on, and so on.
Even when the recent incident between the Cambridge, Massachusetts police department and Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. came to light, most black folks had to go all the way back to the early 60’s and Malcolm X to come up with a quote by a black leader that appropriately described the situation.
In Philadelphia, no list of outspoken, effective black leaders is ever complete unless it includes names like Cecil B. Moore, David P. Richardson, Sam Evans, Hardy Williams, Wilson Goode, Sr. and Charlie Bowser.
Notwithstanding contributions to black advancement made by black female “giants” at the national level, people such as Sojourner Truth, Harriett Tubman, Rosa Parks, or our own local, female “giant,” the late C. Delores Tucker, it just seems that we don’t hear much about outspoken, black female community leadership, anymore – not in the media, not at the gym, not in the barber shop or in the beauty parlor.
Black women have certainly made great strides in business and in the professions, locally and nationally, over the past 50 years or so.
For example, no black man in America has more money, or more assets of any kind than Oprah Winfrey. Name the African-American man who cuts a higher profile in media property ownership, in this post-black-owned-BET era, than Radio One’s Cathy Hughes. And, locally, how do you ignore what Evelyn Smalls is doing in her role as President/CEO of black-owned United Bank?
But where have the black women gone who used to “speak truth to power,” in a clear, urgent and persuasive way, here in this city?
What happened to the black, female thought leaders, who caused us to understand “when enough really was enough," who directed the plan that led to real improvements in our community, whether the “entrenched powerful” – black or white – liked it or not.
I don’t worry about that issue as much, anymore, though, not since the recent emergence of two of my new heroes--strong, capable, black women at the top of their professions, who are not intimidated, at all, about speaking the truth or acting upon it.
I’m talking, of course, about School Superintendent Dr. Arlene Ackerman and Guardian Civic League President Rochelle Bilal.
I begin with this premise:Simply having the title of president, chairman, superintendent, executive director, CEO, state representative, councilperson, state senator, mayor or, even, Governor, does not automatically make the incumbent a leader.
Too often, the person in the seat is simply a “manager,” rather than a “leader.” It's not necessarily within a manager’s authority to make fundamental changes in an organization or system. A manager is a caretaker, an administrator, a person who is compensated to achieve precisely what the owners, or true leaders, of an institution, business, or bureaucracy want them to achieve. A leader, on the other hand, is a person who is committed to changing the "status quo." And, quite frankly, there are few places on earth that need a decisive break with the “status quo” more than black communities across this country.
To remind ourselves of just how true “leaders” function, let’s start with Dr. Ackerman.
The Superintendent, whom I thought, early on, was entirely too “laid back” to jump in and actively lead the "good fight" on behalf of Philadelphia’s long-suffering public school children, has quickly proved me absolutely wrong.
Working with the School Reform Commission, and its new chairman, Robert Archie, Ackerman, in a recent agreement resolved in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, brought closure to a 39-year-long desegregation case that had effectively allowed the district to “manage” a system wherein 85 of its lowest-performing schools had student bodies that were at least 90 percent comprised of black and minority children. The new agreement should produce substantive changes in the way that black and minority students are educated in the school district.
In her testimony, before Commonwealth Court Judge Doris A. Smith-Ribner, Ackerman said that, immediately upon assuming her new role a year ago, she realized that the School District of Philadelphia suffered from “glaring racial disparities.”
Those kinds of forthright and accurate assessments have not won Dr. Ackerman many friends among members of a large segment of public school teachers and principals, who have survived, prospered and received regularly scheduled promotions, even while the district has "enjoyed" a 49 percent graduation rate.
In addition, Dr. Ackerman has not been reluctant to strongly point out that the district’s student body is 68 percent African-American, while its teacher population is 70 percent white. There's certainly nothing inherently wrong with competent white teachers, but teachers also have to be culturally sensitive role models for their students, and having just 24 percent of the district's teachers African-American, makes that extraordinarily difficult. Unlike her predecessors, who also knew that the problem existed, Ackerman won SRC approval to recruit 50, new, qualified, black teachers into the district for the 2010 academic year.
She has also spoken emphatically about the need to tie principals' job security and compensation to the academic achievement of students in their schools…a touchy subject, one that “changes the status quo” for the teachers' union and for school principals, but something a leader, such as Ackerman, will do, after clearly identifying the need for a different and better approach.
Then, there’s my other hero, Rochelle Bilal.
In conversations, recently, with people who have been close to the Philadelphia Police Department, I was advised that the issue of the racially abusive, sexist web site, DomeLights.com, maintained by an active, Philadelphia police sergeant, Fred McQuiggan (Mc Q), has been around for a long time, at least as long as the year 2000, when the site was first posted. My friend told me that, since the site was not a new issue and had always been abusive to black officers and to the black community, in general, it really wasn't necessary for Ms. Bilal to make such a big deal about it, at this late date.
Sometimes, I guess, people don’t fully understand that they, too, have the power to change things that have always offended them.
Ms. Bilal and the Guardian Civic League have, in short order, taken steps to shut down DomeLights.com, once and for all. She led the organization in filing a lawsuit against the police department, the web site and McQuiggan. Three weeks ago, the Philadelphia Police Department restricted access to the site on its computers. Shortly thereafter, access was blocked to all Philadelphia-based computers, and the formerly belligerent and uncooperative McQuiggan, having been targeted by the law suit, took the reluctant step of restricting access only to registered users and decided not to accept any new members. Next comes an August hearing before a federal judge.
As a direct consequence of her leadership on this issue and the vile threats made against her on Domelights, Bilal now has a contingent of uniformed police officers who guard her, as she moves around the City. Doesn’t seem to faze her one bit.
Arlene Ackerman and Rochelle Bilal – two great ladies and two real leaders in the ongoing struggle for professional, economic, and social equity in our city. If you get a minute, let them know how much you appreciate their leadership and their courage. You’ve got e-mail, don’t you? Please, use it..
Hey, I no longer worry about the lack of black, female leadership in our city. I do, however, have a great deal of continuing concern about when the next group of black, male leaders--not administrators--will show up.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
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