Black Leaders on Leadership

Drawing on a wealth of oral interviews, Conversations on Black Leadership uses the lives of prominent African Americans to trace the contours of Black leadership in America. Included here are fascinating accounts from a wide variety of figures such as John Lewis, Clarence Thomas, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Angela Davis, Amiri Baraka, and many more.

'This book is unique: it reads equally well as a compelling narrative and as an authoritative reference work—a rare feat indeed.' - Michael A. Mallory, Executive Director, Ron Brown Scholar Program

"Leffler and Bond have put together a book of vital importance to the critical work of developing and fostering Black leadership in America—it also happens to be a remarkably comprehensive account of the greatest movement for justice in American history. Like the Federal Writers' Project to compile slave narratives, Black Leaders on Leadership provides first-hand accounts of the valiant struggles of some of the most important activists America has ever produced. It should be required reading in the curriculum of every high school in America." - Wade Henderson, President & CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, The Leadership Conference Education Fund

'Black Leaders on Leadership is indeed a remarkable work. The diverse experiences and perspectives of the men and women chronicled in these pages (and available through digitized videos) make this book essential reading for all who wish to understand the history of the United States in the Twentieth and Twenty-First centuries.' - Annette Gordon-Reed, Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History, Professor of History, and Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, USA

Phyllis Leffler is the Director of the Institute for Public History and Professor at the University of Virginia. She is the co-author of Public and Academic History: A Philosophy and Paradigm (1991) and Public History Readings (1990) and has published award-winning articles in The Public Historian and the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. She is the co-director of the Explorations in Black Leadership project at UVA (www.blackleadership.virginia.edu).

Julian Bond is a prominent African American activist, politician, and teacher who served from 1998 to 2010 as the chairman of the National Association for the Advancement for Colored People and the co-director of the Explorations in Black Leadership project at UVA. He was also the first president of the Southern Poverty Law Center and served a combined twenty terms in both houses of the Georgia Legislature. Among his books are Gonna Sit at the Welcome Table: A Documentary History ofthe Civil Rights Movement (1995) and Lift Every Voice and Sing: A Celebration of the Negro National Anthem, 100 Years, 100 Voices (2000).