AOL Black Voices: No Individual Emerges As Clear Leader; Jesse Jackson, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and Barack Obama Mentioned Most Often
NEW YORK – (BLACK PR WIRE) – According to the AP-AOL Black Voices poll*, no single individual emerges as the clear leader of the African-American community today.
Asked in an open-ended question who the most important black leader in America today, the four mentioned most often were Jesse Jackson (15%); Condoleezza Rice (11%); Colin Powell (8%); and Barack Obama (6%). Of note, two of these four leaders are Republicans, despite the fact that only 11% of blacks say they are Republicans or lean towards the Republican Party.
Regardless of the absence of a dominant leader, two-thirds of blacks feel that the leadership of the black community is effective in representing black people like them. However, married men and those making more than $75,000 per year were more likely to say that black leadership is not effective, with approximately 40% of both groups noting their dissatisfaction.
AOL Black Voices Offer a Black Perspective to U.S. and World Events through Video, Blogs and Social Networking
“While examining our own social network of more than 2.4 million unique visitors each month, we have also seen a disparity among the community to pronounce one leading voice for black Americans,” said Nick Charles, AOL Black Voices Editor in Chief. “That’s why we offer a variety of perspectives about black leaders through video segments, special commentary and the latest headlines from around the world. Our goal is for the community to discover its own voice through the information we provide each day.”
AOL Black Voices is celebrating Black History Month with video profiles of universally adored black Americans in both politics and entertainment including Gordon Parks, Venus and Serena Williams, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis. A “Did you Know?” feature includes daily historical facts about the impact of blacks in politics, business, entertainment, music and spirituality.
AOL Black Voices is also looking at the impact of black women in business and politics including Oprah Winfrey, Madame CJ Walker, Cathy Hughes, Tracey Reese and many others, and is featuring Barbara Jordan’s entire keynote speech from the 1976 Democratic convention. In addition, the service is hosting a community area where users can post stories, comment on important historical moments, take quizzes,vote on polls and more.
Methodology
The Associated Press/AOL Black Voices Poll was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs. Between January 9 and February 2, 2006, Ipsos interviewed a representative sample of 600 black adults by telephone. The margin of sampling error for all black adults is +/- 4 percentage points; sampling error for subgroups may be higher.
