The Great Leadership Deficit
How America Lost Its Way, and How the Black Community Lost Its Voice.
There's a hollowness at the center of American life right now, a vacuum where leadership ought to be. Recent polling reveals a dispiriting truth: 77% of Americans don't see any public leaders they admire or would want to emulate.¹ Across public service, business, healthcare, and education, we've entered what experts are calling a "leadership crisis," a moment when 85% of citizens believe their leaders care more about power than people, when trust has eroded to its foundations, when the very idea of leadership itself seems corrupted beyond repair.²
This isn't mere partisan disaffection or cyclical dissatisfaction. It represents something deeper; a moral and spiritual crisis that touches the most fundamental questions of how we organize ourselves, how we choose who speaks for us, and what we expect from those entrusted with authority. As Proverbs 29:2 reminds us, "When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan." And America, across every sector and community, is groaning.
But within this broader American crisis lies a particular tragedy that deserves our attention: the leadership deficit in the African-American community. This is not a problem of talent or potential, Black America has never lacked for gifted individuals. Rather, it's a crisis of structure, coherence, and institutional capacity. Where once there stood clear voices entrusted to speak both to and for the community's greater good, today there is fragmentation, celebrity, and a silence where moral authority once rang out.
The Long Tradition of Distinguished Leadership
To understand what's been lost, we must remember what once was. From the earliest days of emancipation through the civil rights movement, the African-American community maintained a remarkable tradition of clear, distinguished leadership. These weren't perfect people, history's great leaders never are, but they were people whose authority was recognized, whose counsel was sought, and whose vision helped shape not just a community but a nation.
Frederick Douglass was born in slavery in 1818 and emerged to become the 19th century's most potent civil rights voice. Through his autobiographies and thunderous oratory, he didn't just expose slavery's brutality, he demonstrated to a skeptical nation that African-Americans possessed the full measure of human intellect and dignity. His leadership extended beyond abolition; he spent decades after emancipation advocating for voting rights, educational opportunity, and political power. As Scripture teaches, "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light" (Isaiah 9:2), and Douglass was among those who carried that light.
The mantle passed to Booker T. Washington, born into slavery in 1856 and freed as the Civil War ended. Washington founded the Tuskegee Institute and became the foremost advocate for Black economic self-sufficiency through education and vocational training. Though his accommodationist approach to segregation would later draw sharp criticism, his impact was undeniable. He raised millions from white philanthropists to fund Black colleges and created pathways to prosperity that had previously been unimaginable.
W.E.B. Du Bois, born free in Massachusetts in 1868, took a different path. A brilliant scholar and sociologist, Du Bois demanded immediate recognition of civil and political rights. He co-founded the NAACP in 1909 and served as editor of The Crisis magazine for 24 years, transforming it into the intellectual heart of the civil rights movement.³ His concept of the "Talented Tenth," the idea that the educated elite had a responsibility to help lift the entire race, shaped generations of Black thought.
These early leaders partnered with institutions that amplified their voices and coordinated their efforts. The NAACP, founded through an interracial coalition including Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, and Ida B. Wells-Barnett, became the nation's premier civil rights organization. Its legal strategy, developed by brilliant minds like Thurgood Marshall, culminated in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954.
The mid-20th century brought new leaders and new organizations, all working in concert. Martin Luther King Jr. founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957 after the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The National Urban League, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) formed what was known as the "Big Five" civil rights organizations.
The power of these organizations wasn't just in their individual strength but in their ability to coordinate. Consider the 1963 March on Washington, a masterpiece of collaborative leadership. The NAACP, SCLC, SNCC, the National Urban League, CORE, and the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters came together to organize a march that brought 250,000 people to the nation's capital and created the political momentum for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
This is what good leadership looks like: people with different approaches and sometimes conflicting philosophies nonetheless finding common ground to pursue shared goals. As Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 teaches, "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up." These leaders understood partnership not as weakness but as strength.
The Unified Voice of Black Media
Undergirding this leadership structure was something equally important: a unified Black media ecosystem that served as both information source and identity-shaper for African Americans across all walks of life. For decades, the African-American community looked to and trusted a constellation of news and media outlets that spoke directly to their experiences and concerns. These outlets were our social media before social media.
John H. Johnson's vision truly democratized Black media. In 1945, he founded Ebony magazine, modeled after Life but focused entirely on African-American achievement and culture. "We like to look at the zesty side of life," Johnson wrote. "‘Ebony’ will try to mirror the happier side of Negro life, the positive, everyday achievements from Harlem to Hollywood."⁴ The magazine's first issue sold out its 25,000 print run completely. Six years later, Johnson launched ‘Jet’, a pocket-sized weekly news digest that comedian Redd Foxx called "the Negro Bible."⁵
Available in barbershops, beauty parlors, corner stores, and homes across Black America, Jet reached an average circulation of 900,000 readers. When Emmett Till was murdered in 1955, Jet published the graphic photos of his brutalized body, images that shocked the nation's conscience and helped catalyze the civil rights movement.
The Crisis, founded by Du Bois in 1910 as the NAACP's official publication, combined rigorous reporting with literary excellence and political advocacy. The Amsterdam News, established in New York in 1909, became one of the nation's most influential Black newspapers, chronicling Harlem Renaissance culture while documenting civil rights struggles. The Pittsburgh Courier, the Chicago Defender, the Baltimore Afro-American, these weren't niche publications but essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Black America.
These outlets served both the doctor and the janitor. They shaped African-American identity while galvanizing thought and perspective. They provided a common frame of reference, a shared conversation about what mattered and why. When Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech or when a new segregation ordinance passed, Black Americans across the country learned about it from the same sources, processed it through the same editorial lens, and discussed it in a common language.
By the 1980s, Ebony was reaching 40% of African-American adults according to Google, a level of market penetration unmatched by any other general publication. This wasn't just impressive from a business standpoint; it represented genuine cultural unity. The Black community had media it trusted, media that understood its concerns, media that elevated its achievements and didn't shy away from its struggles.
The Great Unraveling
But something changed. The decline wasn't sudden, these things never are, but its effects have been devastating. Between 2013 and 2014, four of the five largest audited Black newspapers saw circulation declines. Jet ceased print publication in 2014 after 63 years, moving to a digital-only format. Ebony was sold to a private equity firm in 2016, filed for bankruptcy in 2019, and essentially disappeared before being relaunched as a modest digital publication in 2021.
The numbers tell a story of institutional collapse. Weekly Black newspapers, which once numbered in the hundreds with clear influence and authority, now struggle to maintain any audited circulation at all. The digital revolution, which promised to democratize media, instead fragmented it into a thousand competing voices, none with the authority or reach of the old guard.
What filled the vacuum? Social media influencers, each with their own narrow audience. Cable news shouting matches where complexity is sacrificed for conflict. A proliferation of blogs and websites, many excellent but none capable of creating the kind of unified conversation that Ebony or The Crisis* once facilitated. The doctor and the janitor no longer read the same publications, don't share the same frames of reference, and increasingly don't even speak the same political language.
This media fragmentation both reflected and accelerated the leadership crisis. Without trusted media institutions to amplify and legitimize leaders, anyone with a Twitter following could claim to speak for Black America. Without editorial gatekeepers and institutional accountability, demagoguery flourished. Without a common information ecosystem, the very possibility of consensus leadership became questionable.
Several other factors contributed to the decline. The civil rights movement's legal victories created new opportunities but also dispersed potential leaders into corporate America, academia, and politics, where they pursued individual success rather than collective advocacy. The rise of Black elected officials created the appearance of representation without necessarily delivering substantive power. The emergence of "Black Power" movements in the late 1960s fractured the coalition that had achieved such remarkable success.
Perhaps most damagingly, leadership selection increasingly came to depend on external validation rather than community trust. As political scientist Adolph Reed Jr. observed, Black leaders increasingly rose through "white acclamation," selected not by African Americans themselves but by white media, white philanthropists, and white political establishments looking for acceptable spokespeople. The result was leaders skilled at appealing to white audiences but often disconnected from the Black communities they purported to represent.
What Scripture Teaches About Leadership
In this moment of leadership vacuum, it's worth returning to timeless wisdom about what leadership actually requires. The Bible offers a model that stands in stark contrast to our contemporary confusion, a model not of celebrity or charisma but of character and service.
Consider Titus 1:7-9, which outlines the qualifications for spiritual leaders: "An overseer must be blameless, not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it."
Notice what's emphasized: not eloquence or charisma, not credentials or connections, but moral character and commitment to truth. The biblical model of leadership is fundamentally about trustworthiness, self-control, and dedication to something larger than oneself.
This is reinforced throughout Scripture. Matthew 20:26-28 records Jesus's revolutionary teaching: "Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." True leadership, in this model, is fundamentally about service rather than status, about sacrifice rather than self-promotion.
Psalm 78:72 describes David's leadership: "With upright heart he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand." Here we see the combination every good leader needs: moral integrity ("upright heart") and practical competence ("skillful hand"). Character without capability is ineffective; capability without character is dangerous.
The Bible also emphasizes humility. Proverbs 11:2 warns, "When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." And Philippians 2:3 instructs, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves."
Perhaps most importantly, Scripture teaches that leaders are accountable, not ultimately to polls or popularity but to a higher standard. Hebrews 13:17 reminds us that leaders "keep watch over you as those who must give an account." This is a sobering responsibility, and one that should chasten anyone seeking leadership for its own sake.
The biblical model also emphasizes partnership and collective wisdom. Proverbs 15:22 teaches, "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed." Ecclesiastes 4:12 observes, "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." The great leaders of the civil rights movement understood this. They didn't try to do everything alone; they built coalitions, created institutions, and recognized that enduring change requires collective effort.
Why Leadership Matters
Some might argue that we've moved beyond the need for leaders, that in our democratic, individualistic age, we should be suspicious of anyone claiming to speak for an entire community. There's something to this skepticism, history is littered with leaders who betrayed the trust placed in them.
But the alternative, leadership by algorithm, by social media mob, by whoever can shout loudest or craft the most viral tweet, has proven worse. Without trusted leaders, communities cannot organize effectively. Without institutional structures, achievements cannot be sustained. Without voices of moral authority, it becomes impossible to distinguish wisdom from demagoguery.
As Proverbs 29:18 warns, "Where there is no vision, the people perish" (KJV). This isn't about charismatic personalities or cult of personality, it's about the need for people who can articulate shared values, coordinate collective action, and hold institutions accountable. It's about the difference between a community and a collection of individuals.
The African-American community faces challenges today that require exactly the kind of coordinated, principled leadership that once addressed Jim Crow and segregation. The wealth gap, educational disparities, criminal justice reform, political representation, these issues won't solve themselves. They require organization, strategy, and sustained effort. They require leaders. Because, in the case of King Solomon solving a dispute, good leaders save lives.
But they also require the media infrastructure that made leaders possible and the institutional frameworks that made their leadership effective. They require communities willing to trust, institutions worth trusting, and leaders deserving of trust. As 1 Corinthians 4:2 reminds us, "Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful."
A Path Forward
There are no easy solutions to a crisis decades in the making. But there are principles worth recovering.
First, we must rebuild institutions worthy of trust, and the church must be at the forefront of this rebranding. This means media outlets that prioritize truth over clicks, organizations that prioritize mission over self-preservation, and leaders who prioritize service over celebrity.
Second, we must recover the art of partnership. The most effective moments in African-American history came when different organizations with different approaches nonetheless found common cause. That spirit of coalition-building has been lost in an age of ideological purity tests and social media call-out culture. As Romans 12:4-5 teaches, "For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."
Third, we must distinguish between leadership and celebrity. The qualifications for leadership outlined in Scripture—integrity, humility, self-control, commitment to truth—stand in stark contrast to what often passes for leadership today. We need less charisma and more character, fewer soundbites and more substance.
Fourth, we must invest in the long game. The great leaders of the civil rights movement didn't achieve their victories overnight. They built organizations, developed strategies, and sustained efforts over years and decades. They understood what Galatians 6:9 teaches: "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Finally, we must remember that leadership isn't about individual achievement but collective liberation. As 1 Peter 4:10 instructs, "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms." The purpose of leadership isn't to elevate the leader but to elevate the community.
America's leadership crisis won't be solved quickly, and the African-American community's particular challenges won't disappear without intentional effort. But history shows us what's possible when people of integrity, guided by principle rather than poll numbers, commit themselves to service rather than status. The question is whether we still have the moral imagination to demand it, and the moral courage to build it.
As we face the future, we would do well to remember the words of 2 Timothy 1:7: "For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." These are the qualities we need in our leaders, and these are the qualities we must cultivate in ourselves. The great leader deficit isn't just about finding better leaders, it's about becoming a better people, worthy of the leadership we claim to want. Because, in Jesus Christ, we have the ultimate leader, and he not only saves lives, he changes them.
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Sources
¹ The U.S. is in a Leadership Crisis, New Survey Reveals | Press Room | U.S. News https://share.google/iMlp5ei0D0L1cjkGh
² Ibid.
³ A brief general summarization based on David Levering Lewis's book, W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1993.
⁴ Johnson, John H., with Lerone Bennett Jr. Succeeding Against the Odds. New York: Warner Books, 1989, p. 167.
⁵ Burns, Ben. Nitty Gritty: A White Editor in Black Journalism. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1996, p. 142. The characterization of Jet as "the Negro Bible" became widespread in popular culture and was frequently attributed to Foxx among other entertainers.