Shifting Leadership in Black Communities: A Needed Change

Over two decades of community engaged programs, research and publications precedes the work in this chapter. Much of the community engagement processes, activities, and research is grounded in years of work in small and rural southern cities and counties. This work has been measured and documented through findings from dissertations, published articles, and feedback of community needs assessments distributed and discussed with local communities throughout North Carolina. It includes partners such as the NC Division of Public Health, Chronic Disease and Injury, the NC Black Alliance, and the NC Caucus of Black School Board Members (NCCBSBM). The following are a few selected community engagement works central to this article: Pilgrimage to Wellness: An exploratory report of rural African American clergy perceptions of church health promotion capacity (Carter-Edwards et al., Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community 40;194–207, 2012), Communities in transition: Challenges and opportunities of community building (Toms, Challenges and opportunities of communities in transition. In F. D. Toms & A. D. Hobbs (Eds.), Who are we? Building a knowledge base of ethnic, racial, and cultural groups in America. (Diverse Books, 1997), Black elected officials and community/civic engagement (Toms, 2010), Spiritual capital and community engagement (Burgess et al., Spiritual capital and community engagement. In F. Toms & S. W. Burgess (Eds.), Lead the way: Principles and practices for community and civic engagement (pp. 113–124). Cognella Publishing, 2014, 2021), Indicators of community-land grant university readiness for engagement from the community (Lloyd, Indicators of community-land grant university readiness for engagement from the community perspective. North Carolina A&T State University), Improving health and health care advocacy through engagement (Toms et al., Practical Matters, Spring 2011(4);1–13, 2011), and Lead the way (Toms & Burgess, 2014, 2021).