Today's black Americans grapple with political apathy, limited business strength, and a lack of motivation, a panel of black leaders said yesterday.
"We need a big idea that unifies us all," said Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the nation's first Muslim member of Congress. Ellison was on the panel that included the Rev. Al Sharpton and a former Virginia governor, L. Douglas Wilder, the nation's first elected black governor.
They spoke of a black America adrift. Black males are more common in prisons than on college campuses, they said. Black children, meanwhile, are increasingly born into single-parent homes.
"A lot of us have lost the dignity that our community has shown from Jamestown to now," Sharpton said.
Others pointed to a lack of personal responsibility among blacks who, they said, were too busy waiting for leadership to make change.
"I didn't have to wait for people to tell me it was my time to run for governor -- it was my time," Wilder said, encouraging other blacks to take similar personal initiative.
Meanwhile yesterday, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois announced his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The announcement drew mixed reactions from the panelists, with some questioning why Obama has drawn such strong support from whites. Others said it was irrelevant to the conference's goals.
"Quite frankly it's too early to talk about a presidential campaign," Wilder said. "What we should be doing is talking about what we do in our own home."
Some people at the forum, such as Renita Seabrook, a professor at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore campus, said issues such as education have to be addressed.
"So many of our black boys have been expelled" from schools, she said. "We've got to get a handle on the reason why."
