WATERLOO — Wanted: A new kind of African-American leader.

Job description: Must be willing to work exclusively for the betterment of blacks. Must have strategies that deliver results. Must prize community service over lip service.

Freeing blacks from the grips of poverty and prison will require black leaders who possess these qualities, said experts at the second annual Ongoing Covenant with Black Iowa Summit. 

“Quit talking about Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson,” said Claud Anderson, president of PowerNomics Corporation of America and one of three keynote speakers. “Those are not your leaders. They have not developed a plan that takes you anyplace.”

Thought-provoking speeches and rousing choir and dance performances inspired the 150 conference-goers who gathered inside Waterloo’s West High School. Lt. Gov. Patty Judge delivered the opening address on Saturday.

Dem Boyz Step Team from New Jersey, stars of the movie “Stomp The Yard,” performed and conducted an educational workshop with 40 children. The Wartburg College Gospel Choir also performed.

“I thought it was dynamic,” said Doreen Mingo, of Waterloo. “It is our responsibility to change things.”

Abraham Funchess, division administrator of the Iowa Commission on the Status of African-Americans, which hosted the event, said the summit was a success. Blacks in Iowa have troubling problems but can make a positive difference in their communities — and during the January caucuses, he said.

“You are statistically significant,” he said, referring to the small number of blacks in Iowa. 

Anderson, also of the nonprofit Harvest Institute; Manning Marable, professor of public affairs, political science, history and African-American studies at Columbia University; and Willie Legette, a political sciences professor at South Carolina State University, discussed history, politics and leadership, while offering possible solutions to the problems confronting blacks.

“Nobody cares about black folks in politics,” said Anderson, author of the book “PowerNomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America.”

Blacks must elect officials “who speak for you first and foremost,” he said. He told the crowd not to vote for candidates who could not deliver.

“Quid pro quo is politics,” he said. “I vote you into office; you owe me.”

Marable said black leaders who followed the civil rights movement prefer to downplay race, which limits their effectiveness in helping blacks. New black leaders do not “effectively speak to” the problems and concerns of blacks, he said. In the end, blacks get the leaders they “deserve or demand,” he said.

Anderson said it’s more than downplaying race. He said blacks are the only group of people who don’t want to acknowledge their own race. A black gubernatorial candidate will say he doesn’t want to be considered as a “black governor.” The strategies are used to gain favor with whites, he said.

“I’ve never heard a white person say that,” Anderson said. “Only black folk make those kinds of statements.”

Legette said the systemic inequalities affecting blacks go unchallenged by most black politicians. Blacks suffered under the policies of former President Bill Clinton, yet he remains highly regarded by blacks.

During Clinton`s term, “Did we dig in and fight for social justice?” said Legette. “I think we accepted defeat.” 

Legette said blacks must begin a “civil discourse” on the issues affecting the majority of them, such as ineffective public schools, and begin working on those agendas.

Marable said black leadership must change if the “mass unemployment, mass incarceration and mass disenfranchisement” of blacks is to end.

He and Legette criticized a trend in the U.S. toward deregulation and privatization, which they defined as “neoliberalism.”

“That’s the enemy of black folks,” Marable said.

Legette added: “What is troubling is that when government is backing off its responsibility to low- and moderate-income populations . . . the gap between the rich and the rest of us continued to expand . . . that’s precisely what they wanted.”

Anderson said that black people haven`t progressed “one iota” since slavery in terms of employment and creation of wealth and that they are “well underway to becoming a permanent underclass of beggars and criminals.”

Changing things will require blacks to focus on wealth and power, he said, but first, they must build communities.

“All you’ve got is neighborhoods,” Anderson said. “It’s where you eat and sleep. You must have communities where you show your history, culture and businesses.”

He added that blacks must support black-owned businesses — even if it costs them more — and keep the profits circulating within their own communities.

Reshonda Brown, of Waterloo, said Anderson’s speech was motivating and it emphasized “the importance of working together as a community on what we need to do to change things.” she said.

Presenters from Families USA also provided data on prisoner health and the effects of depression on blacks.

Lenore Davis attended the summit with her sons, ages 15 and 18, and a niece, 8. Davis said she is working hard to keep her sons out of the “system” and on the right path.


“It just inspired me to want to do more and find out more,” Davis said. 

Malcolm Doyle, 16, of Des Moines, who traveled to Waterloo with Eric Hall, said he accomplished what he set out to do — learn. 

“I learned that we need to stick together,” Doyle said.