S Walter E. Fluker, executive director of Vision Quest International, leads L.A. community organizers through an ethical leadership workshop.
through trust. There were exercises exploring the basic tenants of community, civility and character. Their days ended around 11 p.m. with journaling and reflection. “I fully expected to get state-of-the-art methodology and technology around leadership…but I had no idea of the power of ritual,” said Charles Boyd of the Los Angeles Urban League. “Something is calling me forward and it has something to do with the daily opportunity to be meditative, to be quiet and still, and be reflective and then hear the hearts and souls around me.”
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O IT IS THAT RESPONSE that goes to the heart of the ethical leadership model, said Walter Fluker, executive director of Vision Quest International, which led the training. Fluker is a professor of ethical leadership at Boston University. He spent 12 years as the executive director of the Leadership Center at Morehouse College. Fluker said the model could address some of the needs of young black men and help create an environment that produces leaders. “The essence of the model is how we do address their needs and how we do cultivate certain habits and practices first in these individuals that conspire towards civility, community, character and the attendant values we teach – justice, compassion, empathy, integrity, hope and courage,” he said. “It’s a model we plan to replicate, as we’ve done here at Morehouse for 12 years,” Fluker said. “We want to replicate that in local communities. I think the brand itself will inspire individuals to reach their highest.” Cooper said that’s what she looked for from the intense days at Morehouse.
“Dr. Fluker talks about the image of the spiral, and that’s been impactful for me because I feel like sometimes we are operating more in a circle instead of spiraling down and getting deeper,” she said. “I feel like there’s not a strategic transfer of knowledge from the older generation to the younger.” She looked around the room at the other participants, many of whom worked just a few miles from each other in L.A., but never really got to know one another until coming to Morehouse. “It’s interesting that there are a lot more women here than men,” Cooper said. “Black men aren’t represented in certain areas as they should be and that’s because the way they have been oppressed and attacked. I think that definitely speaks to the larger context we are trying to address.”
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MBOLDENED BY their Morehouse experience, each group headed back to California ready to form its own plans with the ethical leadership model as a base. King, along with Morehouse Male Initiative director Bryant Marks ’94, will continue to work with them. Sears hopes the Los Angeles Urban League can teach 25 freshmen boys at Crenshaw the Five Wells and ultimately produce an annual pipeline of students to Morehouse. More importantly, she was glad Morehouse brought the organizations together. “I have thoroughly enjoyed this experience,” Sears said. “It’s been like none other in the sense that we have a built a community. We’ve built some momentum. The challenge is building on this momentum and creating something. In other words, come up with a common goal and to work towards that goal together.” n Christopher Ifekwungwe , director of Clinical Support Services for T.H.E. Clinic, shows off the mask he made during a training seminar.
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