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Barack Obama, Condoleezza Rice, General Colin Powell, the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Who speaks for black America? Since the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. nearly 39 years ago, there has been no one leader who has been able to focus national or worldwide attention on the plight of blacks as the southern preacher did.

As the nation observes a federal holiday in King's honor on Monday, several questions remain. Does black America need such a leader to fully realize King's dream of equality? Or is the concept of a national black leader an outdated, old-school concept that's no longer relevant? Here's what some blacks are saying about Dr. King, leadership and African Americans.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

"We have the tendency to look for a single messiah -- the next Martin [Luther King Jr.] and the next Malcolm [X]. We need collective leadership. We need to develop a broad base of political leaders that is able to put together a positive and practical agenda that we can see over a long period of time. Our biggest challenge is to strengthen leadership in different arenas."

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/bawnews/sobapart6

Oprah Winfrey

"I personally believe that I would not be standing here today, with my own television show, if Dr. King had not fought the battles he fought. I am who I am because of the struggles of Dr. King."  

http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/tows_2002/tows_past_20020121.jhtml

For more on the controversy surrounding Oprah's school for girls in South Africa, click here.

Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League. 

"I don't think there is a void of leadership. But I think sometimes there is a void of action. We need to get to know each other better. There is an emerging cadre of fresh faces in the civil-rights community and high-ranking African American leaders in corporate America."

http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/bawnews/sobapart6

Kenneth Chenault, chairman and CEO of American Express, No. 30 on The 2006 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity^® list.

 "It requires courage to offer a different perspective and challenge current or popular views. It requires courage to speak out, especially when one doesn't personally benefit from it. To build 'followship,' one has to be courageous and orient always from the core value of integrity."   

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1179&;CFID=3601422&CFTOKEN=29516188

Juan Williams, author of "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America--and What We Can Do About It."

"That [leadership] tradition has been abandoned by people who say, 'What if we portray people as victims? If we have a larger pool of poor people, then we are eligible for a bigger government grant. [Black leaders] maintain their positions of power by mismanaging people. They say that the way we get power is by pretending to be so weak and impotent that we have to say, 'It's the result of what the government is doing, and we have to wait for the government to help us.' I just think it's criminal to tell people that kind of sad message."

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/7/27/90631.shtml

 Earl Ofari Hutchinson, columnist for BlackNews.com

"[Dr.] King's style of leadership was egalitarian, hands-on, and in the trenches, and he always kept a careful eye on the needs of needs of poor and working class blacks. He was a selfless leader who never made a nickel from his civil rights activism. He would be appalled at the cash, glitter, and bling fetish of prominent blacks. He would have been aghast at the money squabble within his own family over the King Center's fate. King also would have recoiled at the frantic maneuver of some black leaders to command center stage at press conferences, get their pictures and quotes in news stories and features, and put their media spin on racial issues." http://www.blacknews.com/pr/leadership201.html

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