The Next Generation of Black Leaders Is Already Working

Leadership is not one job title. It looks like scientific research, debate, organizing, art, entrepreneurship, mentoring, volunteering and building institutions other people can use.

HBCUs keep producing pipelines

The National Science Foundation notes that 31% of Black students who earned U.S. STEM PhDs between 2010 and 2020 had earned their bachelor's degree at an HBCU. Eleven HBCUs were among the top 20 bachelor's-degree institutions for Black and Hispanic STEM PhD recipients.

NEA research also identified more than 1,100 arts assets across HBCUs, showing leadership pipelines in culture and creative work as well as science.

Civic engagement is bigger than a ballot

CIRCLE research found that 15% of Black youth surveyed had volunteered in the prior year, slightly more than 15% had signed a petition or joined a boycott, and a quarter had donated or helped raise money for a cause, candidate or organization.

The same research also documented barriers to voting. Leadership therefore includes participation while institutions work to remove barriers to participation.

Opportunity turns talent into infrastructure

Programs such as the Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project illustrate what happens when talented students gain coaching, networks and a competitive platform. The point is not to create a few exceptional success stories for adults to applaud.

The bigger win is building repeatable systems that make high-level opportunity normal - so the next generation does not need to be discovered one miracle at a time.