Book description
Barack Obama's presidential victory demonstrated unprecedented racial
progress on a national level. Not since the civil rights legislation
of the 1960s has the United States seen such remarkable advances.
During Obama's historic campaign, however, prominent African Americans
voiced concern about his candidacy, demonstrating a divided agenda
among black political leaders. The assassination of Martin Luther King
Jr. changed perceptions about the nature of African American
leadership. In Yes We Did?, Cynthia Fleming examines the expansion of
black leadership from grassroots to the national arena, beginning with
Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois and progressing through
contemporary leaders including Harold Ford Jr., Louis Farrakhan, Jesse
Jackson Jr., and Barack Obama. She emphasizes socioeconomic status,
female black leadership, media influence, black conservatism, and
generational conflict. Fleming had unprecedented access to a wide
range of activists, including Carol Mosley Braun, Al Sharpton, and
John Hope Franklin. She deftly maps the history of black leadership in
America, illuminating both lingering disadvantages and obstacles that
developed after the civil rights movement. Among those interviewed
were community activists and scholars, as well as former freedom
riders, sit-in activists, and others who were intimately involved in
the civil rights struggle and close to Dr. King. Their personal
accounts reflect the diverse viewpoints of the black community and
offer a new understanding of the history of African American
leadership, its current status, and its uncertain future.
""A must-read for anyone who has even the slightest
interest in the black leadership of America. Rich in summary and
insight, this book presents the thoughts, desires, and hopes of a
cross section of black male and female leaders from King to Obama. In
addition to offering a new understanding of the history of African
American leadership, it will produce stimulating intellectual
debate."" -- Merline Pitre
Cynthia Griggs Fleming, professor of history at the University of
Tennessee, Knoxville, is the author of Soon We Will Not Cry: The
Liberation of Ruby Doris Smith Robinson and In the Shadow of Selma:
The Continuing Struggle for Civil Rights in the Rural South.
