A Letter to the Left, From a Young Organizer by Karume James

Dear Leaders of the Left,
My name is Karume James and I am a 25-year-old community organizer in South Los Angeles. I’m writing you this letter to talk about the importance of leadership development in our movement, and how both you, as leaders and us, as young activists, have a responsibility to facilitate a process of leadership transition. I also want to clarify some misperceptions of Generation Y, and provide examples of how we, as the youth of the social justice movement, can step up as leaders as well. Ultimately, I want to begin a dialogue between our respective generations that will allow us to establish the mechanisms to develop the next generation of progressive leaders. One of the most important lessons that I learned early in my political training was the significance of historical context – if you don’t where you’ve been, you don’t know where you’re going. With that consideration in mind, I had the opportunity to hear Rev. James Lawson (the legendary activist who trained Dr. Martin Luther King on the methods of non-violent resistance), speak on the 43rd anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination, on April 4th 2011 at First A.M.E. church in Los Angeles. Rev. discussed his journey with the iconic Civil Rights leader and shared the lessons he acquired from the Civil Rights movement, and how they can apply to the fight for social and economic justice today. His powerful words provided a great historical example of the practice of inter-generational mentorship and serve as an inspiration to the reality that we face in the present. The first lesson that Rev. Lawson articulated to the packed crowd was about the role of humility in leadership. Rev. Lawson shared this lesson through the story of the first time that he met Dr. King. By the late 1950s, Rev. Lawson was a seasoned veteran of the social justice movement. An advocate of non-violent resistance, he had studied the tactic in India as a missionary in 1955. Rev. Lawson, then a graduate student in seminary school, met Dr. King in 1959 when the younger King had gained notoriety as the leader of the successful Montgomery bus boycott. Although contemporaries in age, Rev. Lawson was a prominent activist with an established track record, and could have viewed Dr. King’s rapid rise in popularity as a threat to his own legacy. However, Rev. Lawson refused to allow pride and egotism to cloud his judgment, and instead embraced Dr. King as a colleague. The two leaders discovered that they shared many of the same views on justice and equality and started a friendship that would continue until Dr. King’s death nine years later. Rev. Lawson’s display of humility and openness serves as a model for our elders in the movement. You can appreciate the succession of leadership and not sacrifice the dignity of your contribution to the struggle. The next lesson that Rev. Lawson shared with us was on the role of young activists in the movement. Rev. Lawson took the crowd back in time to his first campaign with Dr. King. By 1960, the Civil Rights movement had begun to spread his organizing throughout the South. At the time, Dr. King called on his experienced colleague to lead civil disobedience trainings for college students in North Carolina, and inform the organizing strategy for a series of upcoming protests at lunch counters in the state to challenge segregation. The now famous sit-in movement swept across the country, as thousands of college students staged protests at restaurants, and paved the way for the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. Rev. Lawson’s connection to the legions of students who emerged as activists at that time represents two critical points for our movement today: the need for tangible investment to produce new leadership and the role of the younger generation. Rev. Lawson’s trainings demonstrate what authentic leadership development looks like, and is reminiscent of the support that I received from a number of mentors when I graduated from college. When I graduated, I had the remarkable privilege to begin my professional career as an organizer. As a former student activist, I had the passion for social justice but lacked the tools and experience to be an effective organizer. Fortunately, several senior organizers stepped up and served as mentors. My experienced colleagues walked me through the fundamentals organizing, gave me the space to make mistakes, and helped me mature as an agent of social change. The instruction from my mentors stands in the same historical tradition as Rev. Lawson and the sit-in protestors. Both Rev. Lawson and my mentors facilitated effective pathways for leadership development which required them to 1) initiate clear and systemic processes for their trainees to follow, 2) engage their younger counterparts as active participants in the process who brought unique sets of skills and knowledge to the table, and 3) to treat the students as colleagues and not as subordinates. Leadership transitions are no easy task (just ask Ben Ali, Mubarak and Qaddafi), but they are essential for any movement, and the above examples are templates that can be implemented by the leadership of the Left today. Rev. Lawson’s message to young progressives is that we are key to the social justice movement, and that it is our responsibility to step up as leaders to continue the work of our predecessors. However, my generation faces the challenge of being subjected to a variety of negative stereotypes, from being a group of apolitical passive-aggressives, to AD/HD techno-philes. While I have met other young progressives across the country who defy these mischaracterizations, we must assert a clear challenge to the dominant perceptions of our generation. We can do this by taking up the mantle of leadership in the progressive movement and continue to fight diligently against the repressive attacks of our opposition. I walked away from the powerful event inspired by Rev. Lawson’s words and filled with renewed energy to continue the fight for our values. I learned many valuable lessons that night and came to realize that although leadership development is a tough road to travel, that it’s a two-way street. You as the leaders of the Left and us as younger activists have inter-dependent roles to play. We need an open dialogue on both sides about how we can ensure the sustainability of our movement and engage in a sincere process to develop pipelines to develop the next generation of leadership. Anything less than that will be a disservice the legacies of Rev. Lawson, Dr. King and the untold numbers of young activists that came before us.   In Solidarity, Karume James