Chapter 10: Rekindling the Legacy of Civil Rights: Leadership for an Inclusive, Just, and Compassionate Society

Over 45 years ago, Robert Greenleaf in the Servant as Leader noted that leaders must be very right for the times in which they live. He urged Servant Leaders to address the critical issues of their day, which he described as: “an immoral and senseless war, destruction of the environment, poverty, alienation, overpopulation.” Issues which are even more paramount for leaders today! Greenleaf defined leaders as affirmative builders of a better society (Greenleaf, 1970).

When I first started studying leadership, I found resonance with Greenleaf’s writings. As a Latina who went to college during the civil rights movement, I have worked to promote social change and to creating a more diverse and equal society. I was in disbelief, then, when my publisher told me that my book on leadership in communities of color — a community-based, people-center, social activist form of leadership — was listed under business. I had been involved in leadership organizations, ran a woman’s leadership institute, taught at the Center for Creative Leadership, and never knew there was no genre for community, multicultural, inclusive, or activist leadership. Well, I began to broadcast, “Leadership has been high jacked by corporations.” Much of the leadership theory and concepts today have a predominately business orientation.