I know. A good number of our political leaders are Black. And a good number of them are prominent. Reasonably well known not only to America’s political class but to Americans generally. Former Democratic nominee for President, Kamala Harris; House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries; Maryland Governor Wes Moore; Georgia’s Senator Raphael Warnock, South Carolina’s longtime House member James Clyburn – they and then some are Black leaders who have made it to the highest rungs of American politics.
But perhaps because they are so firmly entrenched in the political establishment not one among them is known by the wider public as a fighter fighting the good fight with the benefit of widespread support. Fighting the administration of President Donald Trump with millions in tow as it diminishes African Americans, neglects them and tries to hobble them by reversing voting rights secured more than a half century ago during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson.
What Black Americans lack is not so much a political leader as a sociopolitical leader. A leader of a movement that cuts across every dimension: color and gender; state and city; county and class. What Black Americans lack is a leader like the exalted Martin Luther King, Jr. – and like Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, John Lewis and others who were able to cut through the usual divides to form a strong, largely unified and nationally grounded movement on behalf of a cause fervently believed to be worthy. It might be argued that the Reverend Al Sharpton has tried to fill the gap. But whatever his achievements he has not secured the support required to forge a sociopolitical movement that is cross-cutting. That is large, wide, powerful and sustained enough to make a difference.
Among the most massive protests in American history were in 2020, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Under the banner of Black Lives Matter it was estimated that between 15 and 26 million people participated in massive demonstrations not just against police brutality but for equal rights more generally. Interestingly, they were largely spontaneous. Which is to say that they were largely leaderless. No single leader or cluster of leaders was seen then or has been seen since as organizing the protests, as leading or even managing them. Which goes a long way toward explaining why they did not so much fizzle out as simply subside, diminish and then vanish. For all their gargantuan size the palpable anger at Floyd’s murder did not translate into anything further than limited, and all too often short-lived, attempts to curtail police brutality.
So here we are now, one year into Trump’s second term, with evidence mounting that he is out to curb “the other” however “the other” is defined. So far as Black Americans are concerned the greatest impact is likely to be on their right to vote and to have their vote count equally. Here a few lines from a recent piece in The New Yorker by Jelani Cobb: “What seems clear is that striking down Section 2 of [the Voting Rights Act] will almost certainly result in a landscape in which minority voters, particularly African Americans in the South, wield less political power than they have at any point since 1965.”* (Italics mine.)
Trump will not be stopped from shaping the nation as he sees fit either by the Congress or the Courts. It’s possible he will be slowed by the results of the 2026 midterm election. Possible. But meantime it’s probable that to African Americans especially, to their civil rights, to their voting rights, damage will be done. Wherever they have gone then – Black leaders – past time to find them. To identify them – and to call on them to identify themselves – lest we all fall down a rabbit hole from which it will be difficult to climb out.
*Civil Wrongs” in The New Yorker, November 10, 2025.