Who is african American greatest leader ever

[IllmaticDelta]

Surprised Nat Turner didn't make the list. Him dying a martyr should at least get him considered. Unless him not technically being American makes his nomination null and void

??

 

[AyBrehHam Linkin]

John Horse should be on this list.

 

[Neuromancer]

John Horse should be on this list.

Shouldn't he?

 

[IllmaticDelta]

from a legalistic POV

The Man Who Killed "Jim Crow"

Charles Hamilton Houston

Charles Hamilton Houston (September 3, 1895 – April 22, 1950) was a prominent African-American lawyer, Dean of Howard University Law School, and NAACP Litigation Director who played a significant role in dismantling the Jim Crow laws, which earned him the title "The Man Who Killed Jim Crow".[2] He is also well known for having trained future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.[3]

Charles Hamilton Houston, a renowned civil rights attorney, was widely recognized as the architect of the civil rights strategy that led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 decision, Brown v. Board of Education. He was also a mentor to Thurgood Marshall who successfully litigated the pivotal Brown case.

Houston was born on September 3, 1895 in Washington, DC to parents William Houston, an attorney, and Mary Houston, a hairdresser and seamstress. He attended M Street High School (later Dunbar High School) in Washington, DC. Following graduation, he enrolled at Amherst College in Massachusetts where he was the only black student in his class. Houston was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, the national honor society there. Upon graduating in 1915, he was selected to deliver that year’s valedictory address.

After graduating from Amherst, Houston returned to Washington. He joined the U.S. Army in 1917 and was trained in the all-black officers training camp in Fort Des Moines, Iowa in 1917. Houston was later deployed to France. While there, Houston and his fellow black soldiers experienced racial discrimination which deepened his resolve to study law.

Following his military discharge in 1919, Houston entered Harvard Law School. He excelled in his studies and became the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review. As a law student, Houston was mentored by future Supreme Court Judge Felix Frankfurter. In 1922 as Houston graduated with high honors, Frankfurter nominated him for the prestigious Frederick Sheldon Fellowship, which allowed him to study law at the University of Madrid.

Upon his return from Spain in 1924 Houston practiced law with his father, William, at Houston & Houston, and began teaching in Howard University Law’s evening program. Eventually he became Dean of the Howard University Law School.

Houston’s legal accomplishments eventually captured the attention of Walter White, the chief executive of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1935 Houston was hired as Special Counsel to the Association. Eventually he brought into the NAACP one of his Howard University law students, Thurgood Marshall. The pair traveled through the South in the early 1930s and noted the inequalities of black school facilities. In response they developed the legal strategy which challenged school segregation, first calling for the equalization of facilities for black students and then eventually calling for full integration.

Houston and Marshall first applied their strategy in 1935 when they took the Pearson v. Murray case, one of the first challenges to racial exclusion in public universities. Donald Gaines Murray, an Amherst graduate, was denied admission to the University of Maryland School of Law on the basis of his race. Houston and Marshall successfully argued that the state had violated Murray’s rights by failing to provide an adequate law school for his studies while denying him admission to the sole state law school on the grounds of race.

Houston continued to work with Marshall for the next fifteen years, laying the groundwork for the eventual Brown decision. Charles Hamilton Houston died on April 22, 1950 in Washington, DC at the age of 54, four years before the Supreme Court handed down the fateful decision that he had spent a lifetime planning and pursuing.

 

[Wear My Dawg's Hat]

In terms of tangible (not emotional) results like legislation and structural reform, the GOAT.

This man was the leader of the movement that ended 100 years of legalized Jim Crow flowing
out of 250 year of legalized slavery.

Prob the greatest overall leader in modern history, with Mandela #2.

 

[Apollo Creed]

How in the Hell do you have MAlcolm on the List and not Elijah Muhammad?

 

[Ya Sinning Mane]

The fbi recordings where they asked Malcom X to give up info on the black community/ and sell out for money.


"Why would I sell my soul for this EVER decreasing dollar."

He put them cacs in place so intelligently.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

I think Garvey and Malcolm emphasize that respect starts internally.
MLK focuses on what need to do in terms of diplomacy and reaching across borders.

Yeah, I named multiple people I think greatly contributed to modern African-American ideology. I could never get behind the "one" great leader approach. I believe that as Af-Am's, we're incredibly diverse, so we should combine bits and pieces from our greatest intellectuals and weave them into cohesive guidelines. Trying to look to a singular leader will always be problematic because we are not a monolith.

 

[Wear My Dawg's Hat]

This still warms my heart the same way it did when it dropped.

 

[Isaiah Bradley]

how many became millionares due to their sacrifices?

 

[IllmaticDelta]

...probably the best combination of militancy + actual political power

Powell served with only one other Black Congressman (William Levi Dawson of Illinois) until 1955 and they were subject to numerous informal barriers within Congressional offices. Powell protested and refused to defer to the bans on the “Whites Only” House restaurant, the Congressional Barber Shop, the House gymnasium and other facilities. He constantly battle segregationist on both policy and decorum and found allies within the Black community and organizations like the NAACP to push for equality for Blacks throughout the United States.

One method he used to attain his goals was referred to as the “Powell Amendments.” On any proposed legislation that would call for federal expenditures, he would offer an amendment that required that federal funds be denied to any jurisdiction that maintained segregation. This grated on both liberal allies and conservative foes but it gradually seeped into the mindsets of the politicians as they realized that Powell was not going to stop and was not going away. Some were not ready to give up their fight, however. During a 1955 meeting of the Education and Labor Committee, Powell was punched in the face by West Virginia Congressman Cleveland Bailey, a segregationist who was so incensed by Powell’s persistent use of the “Powell Amendment” rider.

Some of his greatest triumphs involved passing legislation to protect the rights of Blacks, particularly those affected by Jim Crow laws in the south. He authored bills to criminalize lynching, dismantle public school desegregation and to abolish the Southern practice of charging a Poll Tax to Black voters. This tax was applied to voters in many southern states, but a grandfather clause allowed those adult males whose father or grandfather had voted prior to emancipation to be exempt from the tax. As such, white male voters were allowed to vote while many Black voters who could not afford to pay the tax were prevented from engaging in the electoral process. The Civil Rights Act of 1965 included many of these provisions and called for enforcement of them.

Over the years numerous public schools have been named after him as has an office building in Harlem and Seventh Avenue, north of Central Park in New York City was renamed Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard. His real legacy, though, is as a confident political figure when many Blacks were afraid to speak out against the racism and poverty that they saw. He was a bright and engaging leader who would not back down from his opponents and led the fight to change things in a turbulent society. Most of all, he is seen as a man who opened the doors for a lot of minorities who would follow in his footsteps as politicians in the Untied States Congress.

Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. - Greatest Black Politician of His Time | Great Black Heroes

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Like Public Enemy, Powell “dissed” white America for its racism and hypocrisy, with one of his clearest refrains being akin to “You Can’t Trust ‘Em.” When he demanded changes in society, Powell, as Jackson would years later, commanded so much attention in Washington and with the media that he became known as “Mr. Civil Rights.” And as the first African-American congressman from the northeast, and for decades the only militant African American on the Hill, Powell had the guts to push through laws that forced America to stop locking African Americans out of industries and institutions.

He didn’t behave like most African-American politicians. “I’m the first bad Negro they’ve had in Congress,” he bragged. He made more enemies on Capitol Hill than perhaps any legislator before or since.

Powell perfected a role as agitator. “Whenever a person keeps prodding, keeps them squirming…it serves a purpose. It may not in contemporary history look so good, but…future historians will say, ‘They served a purpose.”‘

He was African-American pride personified. He swaggered into the congressional dining room and barber shop Knowing full well that African Americans were not served there, and demanded service. He won it. He badgered racist congressmen and stopped their habit of saying the word “******” in sessions of Congress.

One of his most dangerous legislative weapons was the “Powell Amendment,” a rider he tried to attach to any proposals for federal funds. The beauty of the Amendment was that, if successfully attached to a bill, it would nullify federal grants to state or local governments if the agencies receiving the money discriminated. This meant, for example, that even school districts in the deepest South had to open their doors to African-American teachers and students or I risk losing funds set aside for them.

Adam Clayton Powell – Modern Muurish Knight | Rasta Livewire

 

[IllmaticDelta]

old thread but

Garvey just took ideas pioneered from Aframs that came before him and tried to fuse them together. A few of the Aframs that directly influenced Garvey are

as I already pointed out:

the ADOSian "Ethiopanist" tradition

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along with black institutions

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A bit more background info on some of the people I previously mentioned:

Benjamin "Pap" Singleton (1809 – February 17, 1900)

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Isaiah T. Montgomery (May 21, 1847 – March 5, 1924)

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^^He learned from Booker

as did Garvey:

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Garvery's saying: "Africa for the Afrcans" came straight from Martin Delany




Martin Robison Delany (May 6, 1812 – January 24, 1885)

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outside of Delany and Booker, Henry Mcneal Turner more than anyone else, laid the blueprint for Garvey

Henry McNeal Turner (February 1, 1834 – May 8, 1915)




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And I believe this thread is about leadership - not ideas.

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All the ideas I highlighted had leaders/organizations behind them as they later, took course