A Time To Change

By Keith Boykin, in pop culture
Wednesday, April 5 2006, 12:14PM

After two and half years as president of the board of the National Black Justice Coalition, I am pleased to announce that my term is coming to an end and new leaders have stepped up to the plate.

For a long time, one of my biggest concerns with our community has been our ability to nurture, develop and support new leaders. As you can tell from my previous comments about Newark Mayor Sharpe James, I've often felt that older leaders stay in their positions way too long without opening the doors for new people to learn the skills they need to take charge. That's why orderly transitions of leadership are so important.

I'm nowhere near as old as Sharpe James, but I've been doing black LGBT activism work for 15 years. Now it's time for me to step aside and allow other voices to be heard in positions of leadership. I will remain active as an NBJC board member and I will remain involved in the community, but I do not plan to run this or any other organization ever again.

Over the years, I've learned that leadership is often demonstrated in quiet ways. It is not only shown in the visible acts that warrant public attention, but also in the invisible acts that go unnoticed. Perhaps one of the most important and yet seemingly invisible acts in leadership is the act of developing new leaders. That's why I'm pleased to welcome the new leadership of NBJC.

The Origin of NBJC

NBJC began in December 2003, when several colleagues and I held a press conference in Washington to challenge a group of black ministers on their homophobia. What began as an ad hoc coalition of leaders evolved into a full-fledged national organization with board members from across the country, a major budget, an office and a staff in Washington.

The Coalition came together only a few months after the demise of the National Black Lesbian and Gay Leadership Forum in August 2003. I had worked for the Forum for two and a half years back in the mid 90s and I saw many of the mistakes that organization made. I was determined not to repeat those mistakes with my involvement in NBJC.

Within a year of founding NBJC, we expanded our mission and hired an executive director, H. Alexander Robinson, who became the new face and voice of the organization. We also realized that we could not run an effective national co-gender organization without staff, and Alexander quickly brought on a new communications director, a religious affairs director and others.

Knowing Your Limitations

One of the most important challenges in leadership is recognizing what you cannot do. As founding board members, we knew we could not run the organization for long without expanding the board and bringing on new people to join us.

I also knew my own limitations. When I became executive director of the Leadership Forum back in 1995, I inherited an organization that was, for better or worse, already very identified with its primary founder, Phill Wilson. That made it difficult for a young executive director to change the culture and perception of the organization.

With NBJC, I was determined not to become the permanent face of the organization. Instead, I wanted the organization to stand on its own. I've never discussed this publicly before, but that's the reason why I refused to submit my name to be a speaker at the Millions More March last October. After a meeting with Minister Louis Farrakhan, in which he ignored our list and asked me to speak at the march anyway, I told my colleagues that I would not speak. I was afraid that I would become the issue instead of focusing attention on the concerns of the movement. Ultimately, I was persuaded to accept the speaking offer in spite of my concerns, and when things fell apart I became the issue after all.

A Personal Note

I learned a lot from the March experience, and one of the things I learned is to be true to your values. I hope to continue doing that in the future. A few years ago I opened a fortune cookie at a Chinese restaurant and liked the fortune so much that I pasted it to the monitor of my computer. It still sits there today. It says, "The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." That's a message that has inspired me for years to take on challenges and accept risks even when no one else seems to understand.

Last night I ordered Chinese for delivery. For some reason, they delivered three fortune cookies but I only opened one. It said, "You have many special gifts, go experiment with them!" In the end, experimenting with life is what brings me joy. That's why I love the work I do. Few people get the opportunity to earn a living doing what they love to do, so I understand how fortunate I am. I also know there's much more to me than any one aspect of my identity.

To some, I'm an activist. To others, I'm an author. To a few, I'm a new television personality. To my wrestling friends, I'm a wrestler. In my grandmother's mind, I think I will always be a lawyer and a former White House aide to President Clinton. She likes those titles. To myself, however, I am all of these things and many other things I've never yet shared with the world.

We all have many special gifts. I am just learning some of mine now, and I can't wait to go and experiment with them.

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