We have seen more leadership for justice in America in the last few months than we have seen since 2008.
Maybe it started with Rev. Barber and the Moral Mondays in North Carolina, then spread to other states.
Maybe it started with the murder of Trayvon Martin–or with the murder of Eric Garner.
Leadership from the street was certainly escalated by the murder of young Brother Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
But the streets of America have overflowed with a very diverse crowd of people who have decided to lead with their feet and their voices against a racism that has come out in the open again, a meanness that is willing to murder young Black men for who they are not what they did.
This is how social movements begin, when we all decide to act with our feet, our bodies, our voices instead of waiting on Jack. As we once said we can’t count on Jack, it’s on us.
Then Elizabeth Warren stood in the well of the Senate and led.
This all happened while Democrats were getting shellacked in the elections.
Maybe it’s one of those times that for a moment we take our problems on ourselves.
One of my best friends, Rev. James Orange, who’s now passed on but who had been one of Dr. King’s closer lieutenants used to call everyone “Leader” because in a movement everyone is equal and all are expected to act as leaders.
There is a great book about the Civil Rights Movement called Origins of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing For Change by Aldon Morris about all the folks who laid the foundations for the city by city struggles. That’s leadership.
As with Dr. King, A. Philip Randolph, and Henry Nicholas this movement must empower us all to fight those who don’t respect any of us, any of our families, any of our children, any of our futures.
Photo source: jeffrey_putney on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)