Author Description

"Kelley identifies the Head Negro in Charge (HNIC) Syndrome as a response to the failings of the civil rights and black power movements since the 1960s. It is also a symptom that black politics has reached a dead end with regard to ideas, policies, and programs." "Yet HNIC syndrome has its roots in black political culture, specifically the black church's charismatic tradition. But as Kelley reveals, by embedding themselves within the mechanisms of the Democratic Party and moving from "protest to politics," with no relative independent economic strategy, the black political and intellectual elite has failed the majority of African-Americans."--BOOK JACKET.