Columnist
The Rev. Henry Highland Garnet knew how to move a crowd. Way back in 1843, his golden throat helped establish a model of black leadership that continues to influence African-American society to this very day.
In his “Address to the Slaves of the United States of America,” delivered at the National Convention of Colored Citizens, he raised the roof with his passionate call to rebellion. Calling on his fellow freemen to dedicate themselves to eliminating slavery, he set the standard for generations of black orators to follow.
“Awake,” he demanded. “Awake; millions of voices are calling you! Your dead fathers speak to you from their graves. Heaven, as with a voice of thunder, calls on you to arise from the dust.”
Garnet wasn’t the only eloquent activist working on behalf of African Americans during his time. Sojourner Truth began her public speaking career the same year that Garnet gave his address, and the leader of the convention was a fellow named Frederick Douglass.
Nor was he necessarily the most effective or hardest-working of the activists. Someone else, for example, reserved the hall in Buffalo, N.Y., where the convention was held. Someone else made sure there were enough chairs and arranged accommodations for out-of-town visitors. Someone else counted the receipts and printed the pamphlets. Yet the folks in attendance who are still talked about today are the ones who gave the most memorable speeches.
The charismatic model of black leadership embodied by orators such as Garnet and Douglass has often been most attractive to those who aspire to such positions. Perhaps that’s why so many leaders have come from the clergy. Think of the influential spokesmen who first rose to prominence in churches or mosques: Adam Clayton Powell, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X. But such men have always depended on shrewd, mostly anonymous aides and staffers to carry out the necessary behind-the-scenes tasks.
The NAACP has often flourished without the benefit of a rousing orator at the helm. It has at times turned to eloquent clergymen such as Benjamin Hooks and Ben Chavis. But some of its most effective leaders, including James Weldon Johnson, Walter White and Roy Wilkins, were all gifted men known today for their organizational abilities and not their speechmaking. While Kweisi Mfume was an effective, forceful speaker, his public addresses are not likely to go down in history.
Because the NAACP has not been tethered solely to the charismatic model, its new choice of president is not entirely surprising. Bruce Gordon, former president of retail markets for Verizon, seems eminently qualified to tackle the issues on the group’s internal agenda, many of which involve financial difficulties. Unlike past NAACP presidents, he has no background in politics or civil rights activism.
This has caused some observers to raise questions. Ron Walters, who heads the African American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland, published a thorough analysis in the Chicago Defender citing the need for the NAACP to choose “a warrior who could help the organization battle more effectively.”
Gordon says he is undeterred by second-guessers who would prefer a bona fide hell-raiser in the post. He told PBS’ Gwen Ifill that his partnership with NAACP chairman Julian Bond – a veteran of the civil rights struggle – should allay such fears. “I think that we will collaborate, we will be consistent and we will make progress,” he said.
Like most folks, I tend to be moved by orators, roof-raisers with silver tongues and leather lungs. I get goose bumps reading Garnet’s speech, imagining the scene as he urged his listeners to let their motto be “resistance! Resistance! RESISTANCE!”
I still remember a Jesse Jackson speech I attended when I was a junior in high school. It was about the value of (you guessed it) raising hell. Jackson put it in less crude terms. He compared his activities with the agitator in a washing machine, ‘getting the dirt out.” Whatever his shortcomings, and there are many, Jackson’s oratorical skills are beyond dispute.
Like Walters, I find it fair to question Gordon’s ability to confront authority and move audiences. On the other hand, it’s also fair to wonder how effective the hell-raising model has been of late. African-American influence on national affairs continues to wane, and self-appointed hell-raisers are more likely to get an audience with the president of Mexico than set foot in the White House.
Gordon predicts that will change. “It’s a new day,” he says. Only time will tell if he’s right.
A former reporter for the American, Jabari Asim is a columnist for the Washington Post.