African-American leaders shaping American culture and society

¶ … lives of several critical African-American leaders in history. These leaders have not only revolutionized their own professions, but have rendered it much easier for future black leaders to forge paths in their own fields of interest and specialties.

From King, Jr. To Jay-Z - Black Culture Shaping America

Hook: One never thought one would hear the names Martin Luther King, Jr. And Jay-Z in the same sentence, but the truth of the matter is, both individuals have - in their own disparate ways - created bodies of work that have improve the condition of African-Americans immeasurably.

That said, of course, King's influence on African-Americans, America and the world in general is in a league of its own, but the fact remains that many black leaders have had a monumental influence on culture in America, both for African-Americans and for Americans in general. This paper examines several of those figures, in the fields of music, fashion, politics, business, medicine and the law.

Outline:

Introduction

Thesis

Body:

Music: Duke Ellington

Fashion: Lola Faturoti

Politics: MLK, Jr.

Business: Jay-Z

Medicine: Thomas W. Burton

Part One

Born 29 April 1899 in Washington DC in a historically African-American community, composer, bandleader, and pianist Edward Kennedy ("Duke") Ellington was recognized in his lifetime, and of course after, as one of the greatest jazz composers and performers.

Nicknamed "Duke" by a childhood pal who respected Ellington's regal air, the name just stayed and became irrevocably associated with the most refined compositions in big band and vocal jazz.

As the Schrimer biography of Ellington notes, "A genius for instrumental combinations, improvisation, and jazz arranging brought the world the unique "Ellington" sound that found consummate expression in works like "Mood Indigo," "Sophisticated Lady," and the symphonic suites Black, Brown, and Beige (which he subtitled "a Tone Parallel to the History of the Negro in America") and Harlem ("a Tone Parallel to Harlem").

Beginning keyboard studies at the age of seven, Ellington's earliest influences were the ragtime pianists. He taught himself harmony at the piano and at 17, made his professional debut. Encouraged by Fats Waller, he moved to New York in 1923 and, during the formative Cotton Club years, experimented with and developed the style that would quickly bring him worldwide success and recognition. Ellington would be among the first to focus on musical form and composition in jazz using ternary forms and "call-and-response" techniques in works like Concerto for Cootie (known in its familiar vocal version as Do Nothin' till You Hear from Me) and Cotton Tail and classic symphonic devices in his orchestral suites. In this respect, he would influence the likes of Monk, Mingus, and Evans." (Schirmer, 2005)

And Ellington was also recognized for his efforts during his time. Among Ellington's many honors and awards were honorary doctorates from Howard and Yale Universities, membership in the American Institute of Arts and Letters, election as the first jazz musician member of the Royal Music Academy in Stockholm, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Ellington not only spawned an entire genre of music, he thrust African-Americans into the limelight as a race of people whose music must be contended with - not only that, but his intellectual takes on jazz forced mainstream America to leave what they considered to be their preconceived notions of the types of music enjoyed by African-Americans and broaden their minds.

While many of New York's A-list designers showed their fall collections at Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan in April of 2003, Lola Faturoti, the Seventh Avenue fashion district's newest designing queen, Lola Faturoti, chose to debut her collection downtown. Poetic yet practical, Faturoti's Africanmeets-Victorian floor-length creations -- in tree-bark taupes and muddy-river browns -- seeemed right at home at the Museum for African Art gallery on lower Broadway.

Faturoti most decidedly does not wear pants. "I took nineteenth-century fashion and made it funky," the 28-year-old designer says, describing her fall inspirations. What you won't see in Faturoti's collection, however, is pants. "I only design clothes that I wear, and I don't ever wear pants." (Essence, 1994)

As her Essence write-up reveals, "With only two fashion shows under her belt, the Nigerian-raised designer has nonetheless garnered more favorable nods from fashion critics than any other new designer this season. How'd she do it? Coming to America four years ago, Faturoti landed a job as a sales associate at the trendy New York boutique, Charivari. By the summer of 1992, she was wearing some of her own chiffon creations to work. Given so much "sheer" talent, it was no surprise that customers were soon asking Faturoti if her pieces were available on the store's racks. Pretty soon Charivari's co-owner and vice-president, Barbara Weiser, popped the same question and helped the diligent designer stage her first fashion show at the Holly Solomon Gallery in SoHo last spring." (Essence, 2004)

After Faturoti's show, orders totaling about $60,000 came in from Henri Bendel in Chicago and Fred Segal in Los Angeles as well as from Charivari. After her fall showing, Faturoti added more stores to her growing roster: If and Intermix in New York and Ron Herman/Fred Segal Melrose, Ron Ross and Salon de The in California. As Essence noted, just as most young designers without financial backers, Faturoti is currently working on a shoestring budget -- which means she simply cannot jump on an airplane to visit Lagos, Nigeria, where her mom, who has always been a dressmaker, still lives. (Essence, 2004)

Faturoti demonstrates the best of African-American leadership - not only has she excelled in a field that is not traditionally associated with African-Americans, she stays true to her roots: She debuted her collection in an African-American setting, for instance, rather than at Bryant Park with her white colleagues.

Faturoti demonstrates leadership not only through her work but in her career and personal decisions - an excellent example of a black leader who has a monumental influence on culture.

Part Two

Does one truly need to gloss Martin Luther King, Jr.'s influence as a leader? Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., graduated from Morehouse College (B.A., 1948), Crozer Theological Seminary (B.D., 1951), and Boston University (Ph.D., 1955). The son of the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, King was ordained in 1947 and became (1954) minister of a Baptist church in Montgomery, Ala. He led the black boycott (1955 -- 56) of segregated city bus lines and in 1956 gained a major victory and prestige as a civil-rights leader when Montgomery buses began to operate on a desegregated basis. (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2003)

According to his biography, "King organized the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which gave him a base to pursue further civil-rights activities, first in the South and later nationwide. His philosophy of nonviolent resistance led to his arrest on numerous occasions in the 1950s and 60s. His campaigns had mixed success, but the protest he led in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963 brought him worldwide attention. He spearheaded the Aug., 1963, March on Washington, which brought together more than 200,000 people. In 1964 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize." (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2003)

However, King's leadership in the civil-rights movement was challenged in the mid-1960s as others such as Malcolm X grew more militant. Indeed, his life paralleled the life of his hero Mahatma Gandhi. The originator of the nonviolent protest, Gandhi too took criticism as more militant colleagues pushed against non-violence in his later years.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s interests, however, broadened from civil rights to subsume criticism of the Vietnam War and a deeper concern over poverty. His plans for a Poor People's March to Washington were interrupted (1968) for a trip to Memphis, Tenn., in support of striking sanitation workers. On Apr. 4, 1968, he was shot and killed as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel (since 1991 a civil-rights museum). (Columbia Encyclopedia, 2003)

Jay-Z is an interesting figure to represent the advancement of black leaders in the American business schema - however, the next few paragraphs will make his selection an obvious one.

Jay-Z began his life, and therefore his career, in the infamous Marcy Projects in Brooklyn in New York City. A poor child of divorced parents, Jay-Z turned to selling drugs to support his love of music - soon, however, his success in the music arena eschewed any need for "hustling."

Jay-Z lives on as one of the pioneers of hip-hop music, but his leadership and influence did not end there. He began his own record label and continually signed cutting edge African-American acts, allowing them to continue in the tradition of pushing forward African-American music.

As the current culmination of his career, Jay-Z is the CEO of Def Jam records, a historic record label that has spawned black music in America for decades. Fortune recognizes him as one of America's most influential businessmen: "Jay-Z's story is more than a rags-to-riches tale of a small-time drug dealer who breaks out of one of the worst housing projects in Brooklyn to amass a fortune of some $320 million. In "getting his executive on," as the kids call it these days, he is not only redirecting the hip-hop culture he helped popularize -- from hooded-sweatshirt thug-chic to button-down-shirt sophistication -- but injecting the music business with a new sensibility. Like fellow hip-hop moguls Russell Simmons and Sean "Diddy" Combs, he is at heart an entrepreneur. Unlike them, he has signed on to go into the belly of a major corporation (Def Jam, which pulled in about $1 billion in revenues last year, is part of Universal Music Group)." (Fortune, 2005)

Jay-Z has taken hip-hop and turned himself into an industry mogul in a way that few African-Americans have - he has led not only by his music but his unorthodox leadership in a generally white corporate world.

Part Three

Thomas William Burton was born on May 4 in 1860. He was an African-American doctor, poet and administrator - one of the first black Americans in all three of these fields.

According to his biography, "From Madison County, Kentucky, he was born near Tates Creek. His father (Edward) and mother (Eliza) were slaves and he was the youngest of fifteen children. His father died when he was five and his mother died in 1869. In 1881, Burton attended Brea College in Kentucky. In 1889 he moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, working with Dr. William Chavis, waiting tables, working in a lumberyard and in private families to pay for school. From 1890 to 1891 he attended the Medical College of Indiana, a year later the Eclectic College of Physicians and Surgeons where he graduated on March 24, 1892." (African-American Desk Reference, 2005)

After becoming a full-fledged doctor, Burton moved to Springfield, Ohio, April 5, 1892, and started his own practice of medicine and surgery. On August 3, 1893, he married Miss Hattie B. Taylor, of Cynthiana, KY. In 1897, after serving as a doctor in the Army he wrote a few articles for the Eclectic Medical Journal, printed monthly at Cincinnati, Ohio. Burton also saw the need of a State medical society composed of Negro physicians.

He and a colleague, Dr. H.R. Hawkins, of Xenia, Ohio, organized the "Ohio Mutual Medical Association." In 1910 he published his first book "What Experience Has Taught Me; An Autobiography of Thomas William Burton."

He writes in this work, "In my opinion a man is at his best at forty; but we, as Negro physicians, dentists, and druggists, will have to outlive a mountain of obstacles and impediments. A third of the patients we chance to get employ us on probation or for convenience, and we are net kept very long before we are discharged and one of the opposite race takes our place and holds the patients, though the time may be long or short. Therefore he gets both money and credit." (Burton, 1910)

Burton surmounted so many obstacles in order to become one of the first leading African-American doctors respected by not only blacks but by white American patients and doctors alike. He forged the path for tens of thousands of African-American doctors who followed him; and also other professionals such as lawyers who also surmounted obstacles to enter fields that were never traditionally open to African-Americans throughout American history.

These figures are singular leaders in African-American history. They have influenced all aspects of culture in America and have forged a path of success for all future African-American and other minority leaders.