Crisis of Leadership and the Role of Citizens in Black America - by Stephen C W Graves (Paperback)

About the Book

This book investigates the role, duties, and obligations of leaders and citizens through examining post-Civil Rights Black leaders and the patterns of behavior within the African American community. The major themes of this book include the significance of service, sacrifice...

Book Synopsis

This book investigates the role, duties, and obligations of leaders and citizens through examining post-Civil Rights Black leaders and the patterns of behavior within the African American community. The major themes of this book include the significance of service, sacrifice, and commitment to the common good.

Review Quotes

Drawing on classical and modern theories of leadership and citizenship, Stephen Graves has produced a clear-eyed and hard-driving analysis of the relationship between black American leaders and black community citizens. Examining the failure of contemporary black leadership, the author exposes the resulting contradictions and dilemmas of black community social and economic development, which have produced 'bad habits' of black citizenship. Whether or not one agrees with Graves, A Crisis of Leadership and the Role of Citizens in Black America should be required reading for anyone interested in the future of black leadership and citizenship development.

In this normative approach to inequality in America, Graves looks at the roles of leaders and citizens in seeking change. Because the American dream promotes self-interest over group interest, successful blacks focus more on assimilation than on solving the problems that beset the black community. These problems require leaders who, like Malcolm X, build unity, virtue, and determination within the community. Graves calls on black leaders to become invested in teaching community members the good citizenship habits that can solve the economic, educational, crime, and family problems that perpetuate the second-class status of blacks in America. In his perspective, black leaders need to set the example of living within the black community and investing in it. As leaders work with a view to the group interest, they can inspire group members to do the same, thus building the foundation necessary for group success. The ... strength [of this work] is in its generative nature: it encourages readers to look at an old problem from a new perspective. Summing Up: ... Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

This engaging study of Black leadership wrestles with age-old questions about the pursuit of justice and equality for Black people in the United States. Graves issues a strong call to action: Black leaders must recommit to the most disadvantaged Blacks and work to inspire all Blacks to renew their commitments to each other. A Crisis of Leadership sheds new light on old questions about how to improve the standing and conditions of the Black community looking forward.

About the Author

Stephen C.W. Graves is instructor specializing in political theory, Black politics, and American government in the Department of Social Science at Mt. Hood Community College.