100+ Most Influential Black Americans

Ebony, May, 2004

A new generation of power is taking command in Black America. In historic and almost simultaneous shifts of leadership, major African-American organizations have announced immediate and pending replacements for retiring CEOs. Many of the new and emerging power brokers are post-Movement personalities who bring new technological and communications skills to the tables.

Among the new names and new faces on the 100+ Most Influential Black Americans list are Marc Morial, 46, the former mayor of New Orleans, who was named president of the National Urban League last year.

Another new name in a front-burner position is Theodore (Ted) Shaw, who succeeds retiring Elaine Jones as director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund on the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board decision that the Legal Defense Fund and the NAACP did so much to bring about. Shaw, a lawyer and a native New Yorker, has served as associate director since 1993. He was born, interestingly enough, in November 1954, in the year Thurgood Marshall engineered the Brown decision.

NAACP President Kweisi Mfume remains on the list and in his present position, but UNCF President William H. Gray III, who also remains on the list, will retire in June, and there will be major changes this year at the Joint Center For Political and Economic Studies.

The 2004 list presents new and old faces in one of the biggest leadership turnovers in recent years, and highlights also the slow but steady climb of African-American entrepreneurs in the American corporate world. Ann Fudge, the new CEO of Young & Rubicam Inc., returns to the list, joining Kenneth Chenault, Stanley O'Neal, John H. Johnson, Richard Parsons and other business leaders.

The 2004 list focuses new light on a perennial power broker, Chicagoan John Stroger, who is president of the Cook County Commission, which has a bigger budget and a longer reach than most American cities and several states.

On this level, as on every other level, there are generational changes. Sean (P. Diddy) Combs, the multimedia star who presides over a multifaceted business empire of fashion, music and media magic, joins the list for the first time. So does Magic Johnson, the basketball great, who is the new star of Black economic development, with a string of theaters and real estate and banking investments.

Another new entry is Gen. Larry Ellis, the highest-ranking Black in the army and in charge of the U.S. Army Forces Command. There was also forward movement at the top level of the American organizational structure. Dennis Archer, the former mayor of Detroit, became president of the American Bar Association, and Marie F. Smith of Kakahuloa, Hawaii, became president of the powerful American Association of Retired Persons. She is the second African-American woman to head the organization. Reginald (Reg) Weaver, a middle-school science teacher from Harvey, Ill., has headed the nation's largest professional employee organization, the National Education Association, since Sept. 2002.

BISHOP CECIL BISHOP

Senior Bishop

AME Zion Church

DONNA CHRISTIAN-CHRISTENSEN

Congressional Delegate

Virgin Islands

ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS

U.S. Representative

7th District, Md.

CHAKA FATTAH

U.S. Representative

2nd District, Pa.

SANFORD D. BISHOP JR.

U.S. Representative

2nd District, Ga.

WILLIAM L. CLAY JR.

U.S. Representative

1st District, Mo.

ARTUR DAVIS

U.S. Representative

7th District, Ala.

HAROLD FORD JR.

U.S. Representative

9th District, Tenn.

MAYA ANGELOU

Poet and Lecturer

CORRINE BROWN

U.S. Representative

3rd District, Fla.

JAMES E. CLYBURN

U.S. Representative

6th District, S.C.

DANNY DAVIS

U.S. Representative

7th District, Ill.

JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN

Historian

FRANK BALLANCE

U.S. Representative

1st District, N.C.

JULIA CARSON

U.S. Representative

7th District, Ind.

JOHNNIE L. COCHRAN JR.

Attorney and Chairman of the Upper Manhattan

Empowerment Zone

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN

President

Children's Defense Fund

SHIRLEY FRANKLIN

Mayor

Atlanta

BISHOP JOHN R. BRYANT

President, General Board

AME Church

KENNETH CHENAULT

CEO

American Express Corp.

JOHN CONYERS JR.

U.S. Representative

14th District, Mich.

MINISTER LOUIS FARRAKHAN

National Representative of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad

Nation of Islam

WILLIE GARY

Attorney and Founder of MTBC

TV Network

WILLIAM H. GRAY III

Minister and Education

Leader

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

Congressional Delegate

District of Columbia

WILLIAM J. JEFFERSON

U.S. Representative

2nd District, La.

EMIL JONES

President

Illinois Senate

BISHOP WILTON GREGORY

President, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

CATHY HUGHES

Founder and Chair

Radio One

DR. MAJOR L. JEMISON

President

Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.

QUINCY JONES

Musician, Entertainment

Executive

BISHOP MARSHALL GILMORE

Senior Bishop

CME Church

ALCEE L. HASTINGS

U.S. Representative

23rd District, Fla.

THE REV. JESSE L. JACKSON SR.

President

Rainbow/PUSH Coalition