The keen interest African American voters—particularly progressives—had in the Dean campaign serves notice that we also are looking for fresh ideas. Dean may be too temperamental to have his finger on any missiles, but he is not a retread of anybody else. Today's black leaders have been living in the shadows of the fallen—visionaries who can't be duplicated. A candidacy propped up—like Sharpton's—by help from folks who prefer to see the Democrats mired in their own contradictions is not a new idea. Black leaders are failing us for the same reason white leaders are failing us: They are not dealing with the problems on the ground. For the past 30 years too many have modeled their ideas of leadership on mythical icons.

Sharpton wanted to be the next Jesse Jackson, and Jesse Jackson wanted to be the next Martin Luther King Jr. Jesse Jackson Jr. probably also wants to be the next Jesse. Carol Moseley Braun was pegged the next Shirley Chisholm, whose chief significance as a black candidate is that she was the first. There are quite a few neo-Malcolms like Cornel West among the over-40 set, and Henry Louis Gates is out to be the new W.E.B. DuBois, but a televised one. Louis Farrakhan wanted to be the new Elijah Muhammad, and Chavis Muhammad looks to be grooming himself to be a new, kinder, gentler Farrakhan with sartorial touches from his hip-hop mogul boss, Russell Simmons.

At the margins we have the "new" Black Panthers and an array of Muslim sects ranging from progressive to regressive. Most of the remaining prominent black (and yes, male) voices out there "representing," such as Kweisi Mfume and Randall Robinson, give you a Malcolm-Martin stylistic mix. (No neo-Baldwins or -Rustins in this crew.)

We are way overdue for a change in black leadership—a few 21st-century originals or, better yet, many of them. We need young people with ideas who aren't just out to dine at Gallagher's with Roger Stone or make headlines by stripping in public. Does one have to say that the answer won't come from the cold warrior Condoleezza Rice or General Colin Powell, now tainted as an apologist for missing weapons of mass destruction?