Currently, the #3 New York Times' best selling, non-fiction paperback is The Covenant With Black America, a collection of essays aimed at improving the lives of Black Americans, edited by Tavis Smiley. The book starkly details the disturbing statistics of a faltering community in desperate need of courageous leadership. However, from the best minds this nation has to offer, we also gain the proper tenets to lead African-Americans through the most difficult phase of an uncompleted civil rights movement.

Back before the end of legal segregation and passing of the Voting Rights Act, Black people were wholly responsible for their own. Clergy and Elders of the community were accountable for ensuring future generations would replicate the pivotal family unit, while understanding only a good education would lift their Black youth out of poverty and discrimination. Under the supervision of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, along with financial backing from the Johnson administration, these were the cornerstones of Dr. King's `War On Poverty' initiative launched in the late 1960s'.

Presently, I can envision no better strategy to possible stem the dire spiral currently gripping the Black community in this country.