Regarding Cliff Franklin’s “St. Louis leaders have been inept” column: If I were his momma, I would wash his mouth out with soap! Our black leaders quite often get 5,000 folks out for public meetings or have 10,000 sign petitions on specific issues. A great black leader, former Alderwoman Sharon Tyus, was so successful she was gerrymandered out of her ward.
Carter G. Woodson’s The Mis-Education of the Negro says, “Often the Negro businessman lacks common sense. The Negro in business, for example too easily becomes a social ‘lion.’ He sometimes plunges into the leadership in local matters. He becomes popular in restricted circles, and men of less magnetism grow jealous of his inroads. He learns how richer men of other races waste money. He builds a finer home than anybody else in the community, and in his social program he does not provide for much contact with the very people upon whom he must depend for patronage. He has the finest car, the most expensive dress, the best summer home, and so far outdistances his competitors in society that they often set to work in child-like fashion to bring him down to their level.”
In a democracy, leaders do not decide what the future should be. They listen to their constituents and speak on their behalf.
Joseph J. Kuciejczyk
St. Louis