Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) - Essay Example

Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) affiliation Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) Biography Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) was born in the year 1934 in the city of Newark, New Jersey. After attending Howard University he served in the United States Air Force. In the late 1950s, he settled at Greenwich Village where he became the central figure of the bohemian scene. In the year 1964, he became prominent with the New York production of the award winning play called Dutchman. In the 1970s he was the Third World Marxist-Leninist (Baraka, 1997).

In the year 1999, he retired after teaching in the Department of Africana Studies at SUNY-Stony Brook for twenty years. Even after retirement, he remained active and productive.Why he became a leader The assassination of Malcolm X became the turning point of his life where he changed his name to Amiri Baraka and dissolved his marriage to Hettie Cohen. He became a leader of Newark’s African-American community. Different types of power used by the leader Amiri Baraka was well known for his writing.

He used his popularity as a way of defending the weak from social injustices (Koolish, 2001). Through poems, plays, fiction, and essays, he showed his leadership by condemning oppression and racial injustice of the African American community in the United States (Epstein, 2006). Through his works and words, Baraka was able to he was able to promote drama created by African American playwrights and performed for the African American audience that showed African American issues (Baraka, 1995). For example, his two plays The Toilet and The Slave which were both written in the year 1962 showed his mistrust and hostility towards the white society.

His award winning production, Dutchman, showed the damage that America inflicts on African men (Baraka, 2000). Situation of the time period In 1960s racial discrimination against African Americans was still high. Many black leaders started to rethink their goals, while dome embraced more militant ideologies of self-defense and separatism (Lie, 2006). The struggle for civil rights was high aimed at drawing the attention of the nation to the brutality and injustice that African Americans faced.

Even though the economic situation was good in the country, many blacks lived under poverty which was evident in many black urban neighborhoods.The concept of leadership Leadership is the ability of a person to lead a group of people or a team to achieve specific task (Northouse, 2012). After studying Amiri Baraka, it is clear that leadership is an in built quality. It can also be attained through an individual’s experience which inspires the leader (OSullivan, 2009). Leadership cannot be learnt by simply reading about it but it is something that someone gets naturally through their traits (Marturano, 2008).

For example, Amiri Baraka saw a problem in the society and he took the initiative to solve the issue. The initiative made him a leader. The specific leadership trait that attracts people to this leader is his personal traits. He showed courage and determination to bring change in the society.Conclusion Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) is one of the greatest leaders in the African American history. Through his works, he was able to condemn oppression and racial injustice of the African American community in the United States (Simanga, 2015).

BibliographyBaraka, A. (1997). The autobiography of LeRoi Jones. Chicago, Ill: Lawrence Hill Books.Baraka, I. A., & Harris, W. J. (2000). The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka reader. New York, NY, Thunders Mouth Press.Baraka, I. A., & Vangelisti, P. (1995). Transbluesency: The selected poems of Amiri Baraka LeRoi Jones. New York, NY: Marsilio.Epstein, A. (2006). Beautiful enemies: Friendship and postwar American poetry. Oxford [England: Oxford University Press.Koolish, L. (2001). African American writers: Portraits and visions.

Jackson: University press of Mississippi.Lie, J., & Brym, R. J. (2006). Sociology: Your compass for a new world. New York, N.Y: Wadsworth.Marturano, A., & Gosling, J. (2008). Leadership: The key concepts. London: Routledge.Northouse, P. G. (2012). Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications.OSullivan, J. (2009). Leadership skills in the early years: Making a difference. London: Network Continuum.Simanga, M. (2015). Amiri Baraka and the Congress of African People: History and memory.