Amazon.com Book Review

Independent Black Leadership in America, July 20, 2004

·                                 Paperback: 128 pages

·                                 Publisher: Castillo International; Reissue edition (February 1, 1993)

·                                 ISBN: 0962862142

    This is a critical collection of speeches and commentary for anyone interested in the history of independent (neither Democrat or Republican) black leadership in the United States during the late 1980s. It brings together the voices of three controversial figures: Minister Louis Farrakhan, the head of the Nation of Islam; Dr. Lenora Fulani, the first woman and first African American to get on the ballot in all fifty states running as an independent for U.S. President (in 1988); and the ubiquitous Rev. Al Sharpton, protest leader (now turned Democrat). Unlike most mainstream coverage of these three leaders, this collection contains their own words, without editorial or contextual distortion. An important book that will surely become a classic in the study of Ameican history, political science, and sociology as the role of independent black leaders increasingly becomes recognized as having been a fundamental feature in the struggle to expand democracy in the U.S.