ABSTRACT
Since the mid-1980s, political cohesiveness among blacks has been increasingly threatened by changes in the community’s social and economic structure. Blacks are no longer a segregated self-contained community driven to work toward the same political goals. The black population is increasingly becoming a collection of sub-communities that are often divided by factors tied to socioeconomic status, with differing social, political, and economic agendas that are connected by the continuing significance of race in society. These factors alone make effective black political leadership necessary, yet it also makes it difficult for such leadership to emerge in an environment where interests and values are changing. Effective leadership is extremely important in black politics because it is essential for blacks (as the political minority) to be able to influence the conduct of the majority. In post-civil rights black America, black political leaders are the community’s face and voice, and it is they who are expected to vigorously champion the causes of the black community and effectively present the demands and desires of the community to the outside world.
