Following the Civil War, the southern region of the U.S. was in shambles. Plantation-owning Whites were now out of a workforce, and Blacks, who'd been hoping for "Forty Acres and a Mule" were sorely disappointed when President Andrew Johnson pulled the kibosh on that idea. The new Federal stance promoted wage labor. So with White landowners needing a workforce and destitute former slaves needing wages to live, the perfect storm was created for a century long episode of Sharecropping (or Slavery 2.0). This contract work system consisted of Black families working fields just as they did when they were slaves, except this time they got to keep a little of what they grew and had more freedom to come and go as they pleased. They essentially worked for sustenance and a roof, and they shared the majority of their harvest with the landowner, hence the name.
My father-in-love, Jim is the eldest son of sharecroppers Essie Mae and James Sr. When James Sr. died, Jim was only 12 years old. He took on the role of provider and did everything he could by way of farming to help put food on the family table. Eventually, Essie Mae remarried and alleviated some of Jim's load allowing him to spend more time in school than in the fields.
When Jim was 18, he managed to graduate high school and enrolled in Palm Beach Junior College. He, of course, was the first member of his family to make it through any sort of formal education, but not without a struggle. While enrolled at PBJC he was barely making it through remedial classes. Mid-way into his second semester, Jim was absolutely spent. He returned home announcing that he'd planned to drop out and go back to a life in the fields, which he felt was more "his league." "I knew I could compete in the fields," he said. But Essie Mae rejected that limitation and intervened. First she tried talking to him about the importance of school, how he'd lead the way for his 5 siblings, and how it was indeed possible for him to finish. Jim wasn't interested. Then she tried to entice him back to school with paying for a dorm. Jim didn't bite. Next, she threw in a car to make his commute simpler. No takers. Finally, she called on every bit of relational equity she had with him...She peered into his eyes and asked a simple yet poignant question: "Would you do it for me?"
Stunning Jim to silence, Essie Mae did what all transformational leaders do; she led Jim to a place where he was forced to act beyond his own self-interests. Transformational leaders are those who see past what's in front of them to a vision of a much greater future. They are able to key in on others' emotions and leverage them for the greater good. They hold themselves and those around them to higher expectations than previously thought possible. They are encouraging, displaying confidence in those they lead, and giving the critical support necessary to accomplish the improbable. They are the alchemists of our modern generation, who believe in taking what others may see as ordinary and turning it in to pure GOLD.
Essie Mae the Alchemist led her children in this very special way. Her transformational leadership at this pivotal moment changed the trajectory of all of her descendants. After Jim finished his Associates degree, he went on to pursue a Bachelor's and eventually two Masters degrees, one, ironically, in Education. He became a teacher and was actually his younger bother, David's, 6th grade teacher. He was able to raise the standard for his siblings, who all later pursued some form of higher education, followed by their children. The sons and daughters of sharecroppers, one of the lowest economic and social standings of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, are now nurses, teachers, pastors, engineers, project managers and bankers....all because of transformational leadership. How extraordinary.
And Essie Mae influenced all of this only having had a 3rd grade education...Is transformational leadership rolling down your hill?
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