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NORTHCENTRAL UNIVERSITY
ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

Student: Jermaine Johnson

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BTM7303

May Shaw

Research Methods

Week 6 Assignment: Build a Qualitative

Proposal

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Leadership in the Black community: Past, Present, Future!

Positive Leadership in the black community has been on the decline since the
assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X. Before diving any further into the
research it should be addressed the reasoning why it is being referred to as Black Leadership
rather than African American leadership. This reason stems from the fact that most blacks in
America are not Africans at all and because of the days of slavery, majority of blacks cannot
speculate on what part of Africa their ancestors originated from. It is most of the time forgotten
that Africa is in fact a continent and within that continent there are numerous countries therefore
one cannot place all black people into the categorical box of African American.
According to Newsom, Establishing and nurturing the leadership qualities of an
individual is the cornerstone of any successful endeavor. The importance of nurturing leadership
in children is paramount, in practice it often takes a back burner to other educational issues. If
indeed, the gifted learning children in today's schools are pre-destined to be the leaders of our
country in the years to come, then it is a necessity to implement leadership training as a
significant portion of a program directed at the gifted students on these honor programs. The
decline in positive black leaders has led to mass incarcerations for criminal activity, an
educational problem, economical down falls, and has led to the black youth becoming more
careless about life, as well as the losing the idea of the Black American dream. For the African
American community, it is of great importance to implement this training immediately (Newsom,
2010, p. 18).
On April 5, 1968, I sat in my mother's kitchen reading the newspaper and was
mesmerized by the numerous articles that gave accounts of the life and tragic assassination of Dr.

Martin Luther King, Jr... I had never heard much about him until that fateful day when I pored
over that newspaper, trying to take in every word and its meaning. A few days later, I remember
watching his funeral procession on TV and wishing I could have been a part of this historic time
when African Americans, guided by the gifted leadership of Dr. King, brought the plight of
African Americans to the forefront of American consciousness. I learned more about gifted
leadership over the years by reading the biographies of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass,
Sojoumer Truth, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, and more recently, President Barack Obama. These are
just a few African Americans who have used their leadership skills while taking action to
improve the lives of others during difficult times in American history (Newsom, 2010).
The new age generation has been nicknamed the entitlement generation and after the
assassination of our great Black Leaders, it is evident that the black community has felt the perks
of everything our great leaders have died for. Their deaths were not in vain but there is still a
significant amount of work to be done and the entitlement generation must stand up to the plate
to counteract the decline of positive black leadership. Nowadays, for blacks, the definition of
achieving the American dream is to be accepted by the Caucasian community and be able to
escape the harsh realities of predominantly black neighborhoods. For blacks to measure their
success through the eyes of the oppressor are a clear sign that the black community has been in
digress for decades.
According to (Hotchkins, 2014), pertaining to college and higher learning African
American students have also experienced racial hostility, hiding cultural identity, a pressure to
assimilate and leadership alienation in predominantly White organizations which must not be
trivialized. Could this be one of the defining factors in the decline of positive black leadership?

This situation has led to a rise in leadership from the entertainment industry including athletes
and music artists which goes without saying that this leadership is not always positive and not
always the best advice. Furthermore, a number of these leaders, by default, want to do anything
about the system that has oppressed black growth for decades. With success during the 1920s, in
regards to Black Wall Street, allows one to really analyze where the black community was and
where they currently are and with speculation and trend, it can be theorized where they are
headed if these issues are not addressed immediately.
During this study one would like to discover potential leads into why there seems to be a
shortage of positive black leadership or if it is simply the media exercising transparency.
Speculation into the causes of the decline of this leadership needs to be analyzed and well as the
potential replications of this speculated decline. The last and potentially most important studied
question is to speculate on what the future may hold for the black community if this trend
continues down the same path.
According to the article Developing African-American Leaders in Today's Schools,
Gifted Leadership, and the Unfamiliar Dimension in Gifted Education. Gifted children, with an
emphasis on black children, need to be placed in gifted programs that focus on leadership
abilities. It was made noted that if the children are going to be the leaders of tomorrow, then
there needs to be an investment in them today. The population and sample were school age
children who would be studied in order to see how they would turn out in the future.
According to Chaos Theory: Towards an Alternative Perspective of African American
Leadership, Organization, and Community Systems Normal researchers have contended that
bedlam may well be the normal request of things. Some social researchers concur, contending

that the characteristic researchers' discoveries are relevant to society. Yet the expression
"turmoil" is utilized freely as a part of some scholarly and media circles to talk about the state of
issues in African American authority, associations, and group frameworks. It is seen as
undesirable. It might be unwelcomed, yes, by those who wants existing conditions security and
social response, or by other people who have not yet come to comprehend that disordered
conditions in the group's frameworks are indications of rising change. A hypothetical hole in the
Africana institute, and in addition in customary hypotheses utilized as a part of initiative,
association, and group studies may be a component adding to portrayal of "disarray" as an
emergency and in this way a negative conduct (McCarty, 2014).
Based on the analysis presented, the study that is to be conducted, it would be most
necessary if a qualitative study was used in order to take full advantage of all potential
information that could be gathered. Surveys, interviews, observation and personal stories would
be utilized in order to gather required information. A location that historically has a lot of elder
black individuals would mostly be churches because it is a cultural tradition for blacks in the
southern part of the United States. Because of the information that is to be gathered, there would
be no need for any of the individuals to provide false testimony or to exaggerate information
asked of them, therefore trustworthiness should not be an issue.
The strengths of the hypothetical study include the fact that the author of the study is a
black American, therefore entering into the field with other black Americans to gather
information should not be a problem. These black subjects shall be able to speak freely with the
author without feeling subjected to unethical treatment. In addition to this strength, America has
moved into a racially charged state and now the black community is willing to talk and listen for

any signs and or information on how to make their situations better. On the contrary, dealing with
certain black individuals can prove difficult because of their way of thinking in terms of who is
right or wrong.
Conclusion
In conclusion,

Bibliography
Hotchkins, B. K. (2014). GUESS WHO'S COMING TO THE MEETING? African American
Student Leadership Experiences Unpacked. College Student Affairs Journal
32(1), 171-188.
McCarty, L. D. (2014). Chaos Theory: Towards an Alternative Perspective of African
American Leadership, Organization, and Community Systems. Journal of
Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences 6(2), 122-155.
Newsom, T. (2010). Developing African-American Leaders in Todays Schools: Gifted
Leadership, the Unfamiliar Dimension in Gifted Education. Black History
Bulletin 73(1), 18.