Danny GloverDanny Glover on the need for leadership development:

"Harry Belafonte said to me that in one of his last conversations with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. King wondered whether he was integrating his people into a burning house. So Harry asked him, "What should we do?" Dr. King answered, "We become firemen."

Have we become firemen in this process of integration? Does the mere fact we have more black elected officials, more black mayors, and more black doctors constitute some degree of success? Does the mere presence of us on Wall Street alter the configuration of power, the configuration of policy?

As we look at our inner cities, we could say that despite all these positions, the policies toward our inner cities, our schools, and our children have been a failure.

What has this progress meant for the majority of black people? Since 1957, black people have experienced double-digit unemployment—in good times and bad times. Look at the population of African Americans in prison. They represent more than half the population of prisoners in the country, 55 percent of those on death row.

If African Americans are going to be firemen for the whole house, then why haven't we been more active in fighting for universal health care? Why haven't we been more active on the moral issues? Maybe it's been the level of leadership or the undermining of local leadership."

From the article Danny Glover: The Fire Within from the May/June 2004 issue of AARP Magazine

Paul Robeson, Jr.Paul Robeson Jr. on past and present role models and drawing power from our value system:

"The individuals, some of them just successful and some of them great, who serve as past and present role models are inevitably originals who cannot be imitated. Real achievement and greatness can come only from within--from a positive self-image.

Role models can serve as inspirational examples, but values are the tools with which any ordinary person can succeed and become great.

So it is worthwhile to review the essential values of native-Black culture, values that my father, as the son of a slave, passed on to me, not only by example but as part of my rite of passage to manhood.

First: Strive for excellence; try to be the best that you can possibly be. Aim for perfection instead of merely trying to "beat" others.
Second: Success without advancing the interests of our people as a whole, without helping those who have fallen behind is worthless.
Third: The human race is one family with diverse but equal members having different cultures, and a deeper understanding of one's own culture will inevitably lead to a better understanding of other cultures.
Fourth: Personal growth is the mother of greatness, but its price is pain and perseverence.
Fifth: Temper strength and power with gentleness and compassion; balance courage with wisdom.
Sixth: Don't go along to get along. Be willing to sacrifice to do what you know is right.

Those values are universal values and not merely values for Black people...They form part of our hard-earned national birthright, and those who learn them will serve themselves and our country well.

At a time when so many Americans look back with nostalgia or look forward having forgotten the past, we must, together, face our future with clear vision and firm knowledge of our history. Then remembering that only the crucible of struggle will endow us with the power to reach our goal, we shall march with resolute step to secure a true government "of the people, by the people, and for the people.""

From his book Paul Robeson, Jr. Speaks to America published in 1993 by Rutgers University Press