Help Wanted: A New Malcolm and Martin

Feb. 22, 2006 — -- As I ride the New York City subways every day and observe some teenagers playing their Gameboys, listening to their iPods -- or using the N-word with each other -- I often wonder whether they'll say they grew up in a Malcolm household or a Martin household.

Malcolm X has been dead almost 41 years, and Martin Luther King Jr. almost 38. Since King's assassination in 1968, these questions have surfaced repeatedly: Who are the Malcolms and Martins of the world and where are they? Will any current black leader -- like the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, just to name a few -- be remembered with the same reverence given to King and Malcolm X?

According to a recent Associated Press-AOL Black Voices poll, blacks consider Jackson, Rice, Powell and Obama the "most important black leaders" today. But only 18 percent polled believed current black leadership was doing a "very effective job" of representing African-Americans.

Malcolm X and Martin Luther King may have been two once-in-a-lifetime figures for a unique time in American history.

"It's hard to say," said William Jelani Cobb, professor of history at Spelman College in Atlanta. "Black people have become so diverse and the issues and concerns facing black people are so much more complicated than during Malcolm and Martin's time that it's almost impossible for one person to emerge as a voice of a people."

The Teen vs. the 'Couch-Martins'

Like the teens I see every day, I never saw these civil rights icons alive. I have only read about them in history books and seen them on video. But I can tell you that I grew up in a Martin-Malcolm integrated household that featured a clash of generations and ideologies among my two grandmothers and my mother.

My parents divorced when I was very young, so I grew up in a household of three mothers -- my mother, my maternal grandmother and my maternal great-grandmother. Growing up, I remember that Grandma and Nana seemed to respect King fondly but sucked their teeth at the memory of Malcolm X and had no kind words for him.

"They practically vilified him when he was killed, especially when it came out that people within his own organization were involved [in his slaying]," my mother said. "I remember I had to sneak 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X' into the house so I could read it."

As a teenager growing up in New York in the 1960s, my mother respected King's accomplishments and work, but she also sympathized with Malcolm's views and later the arguments of Stokely Carmichael, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the black power movement. She remembers how my grandmother and great-grandmother feared that both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were "troublemakers" and that, ultimately, the two leaders would pay because they loved "rocking the boat." But they seemed to jump aboard the King train -- in private in the comfort of their home -- when they watched him win the heart of a nation when he delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington.

"Your grandmother and Nana were like 'couch-Martins,' " my mother said. "During the speech, they were like, 'Yeah, this is great.' But it's easy to support something from your couch. But some of the things they did were done purely out of survival."

Stirring Trouble

The clash between the "couch-Martins" and the Malcolm-Stokely-Carmichael-Black Power sympathizer reared once for me during an incident in high school when I was not accepted into an honors English class at the beginning of my sophomore year.

My mother couldn't understand it -- English had been my best subject. I had finished my freshman year with an A+ average and had won a gold medal for excellence in English literature. My grandmother urged her not to visit my school and "cause trouble." But my mother -- who thought there was some latent racism on the part of a teacher who determined who belonged in the honors class -- had other ideas.

"Your grandmother kept telling me, 'Don't cause trouble,' but please," my mother said. "I wasn't having it. That's the type of thing that changes people's lives."

My mother went to my high school and complained to the dean of students. The teacher was confronted, and it was later explained to me that my application for the honors class somehow had been "misplaced." No alleged racism was ever proved, but I was admitted to the class, and the teacher left the school the following year.

Martin Made Real, Courtesy of a Soft-Spoken Militant

My paternal grandfather didn't express strong political views. According to my father, Grandpa was suspicious of King because he saw him as a "troublemaker" and did not want anyone potentially making life difficult for his children. Still, members of my father's family weren't couch-Martins, either.

My father had a great respect for King, was sympathetic to Malcolm X and supported the black power movement. But perhaps the most activist member of my father's family was his uncle, my late great-uncle Manuel Romero.

Uncle Mannie spent his entire career helping people, first as a New York social worker and then as a director of various training seminar programs for the National Urban League. He attended the March on Washington and heard King speak. His stories about the times and that historic day made King more real to me.

"It was a sermon. He could really speak and rally the people," Uncle Mannie told me once. "He could really get the people going. … They were especially boisterous toward the end [of the speech]. It just made me that much angrier when he [King] was killed because here was a man who preached peace and his life ended with violence."

Uncle Mannie never yelled or screamed but was a soft-spoken militant. He once told others that he would never let anyone tell him that he couldn't do something -- and he passed that on to his children. Mannie believed that education was always the key to advancement. His trademark advice to his children and my father when they started college --and later to me -- was "Never fall behind."

The Search for the New Malcolms and Martins ... and History

Every time a new, seemingly dynamic African-American leader emerges, there is talk of potential campaigns for the presidency and chances of becoming the first African-American president.

After Obama spoke at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, he seemingly became a national darling and sparked almost instant speculation about a future run for the White House. Jackson has long been a charismatic leader but has never come close to being elected president, despite two campaigns. Before leaving the Bush administration, former Secretary of State Colin Powell was the frequent subject of presidential candidacy rumors, and Rice continues to ward off questions about her own political ambitions.

But is there too much emphasis on finding a great black hope, a successor to Martin or Malcolm who could be the first president?

"I don't think, the way our system is, you're able to get much done without that spokesperson, the figurehead," said damali ayo, a conceptual artist and author of "How to Rent a Negro." [Ayo prefers to spell her name in lower case letters.] "The bottom line is that they want to talk to a guy in a suit."

A long-running debate since before the time of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X that continues today is whether a black leader with a more diplomatic, managerial style is more effective than a more militant, bullhorn-waving activist. Different situations may call for different kinds of leaders and neither should be discounted.

"When an unarmed civilian is killed by a policeman, a leader who calls for civil efficiency may not be the kind of person you need to generate outrage and bring action," said William Jelani Cobb. "When the shooting with Amadou Diallo happened, Al Sharpton -- and I do believe Al Sharpton is a person of questionable character -- was the right leader for the time and may have been the only one in New York for that kind of situation."

Black Leadership: Alive and Well

Still, some bristle at the question of where are the Malcolms and Martins of today because it infers that African-Americans are leaderless and not helping their communities.

"It implies a myth that the black leadership is dead and that's just not true," said Larry Watson, who teaches music and sociology at three colleges in Boston. "The black leadership in this country is alive and well. There are a lot of leaders in the community on a local level who are doing a lot of good things every day, and we just don't hear about them. Instead, we hear about the 'wisdom' of 50 Cent and the latest ridiculousness of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown."

So, maybe we should also stop our obsession with the Whitneys, Bobbys, Wacko Jackos and 50 Cents of the world and encourage teens to ask their parents or grandparents about Martin and Malcolm. And maybe we can encourage them to look within their community for the unsung heroes. If not, our future leaders may fall behind, and one day say they grew up in a Nelly or 50 Cent household.

Bryan Robinson is an African-American senior producer at ABCNEWS.com, who was born and is based in New York City. He has covered law and justice and race for ABCNEWS.com since 2000.