Explorations in Black Leadership

Co-Directed by Phyllis Leffler & Julian Bond

Forming Alliances, Crossing Boundaries

BOND: Let me take you back to something you said. People came up to you and said, "You need to go deal with TJ." Now that says to me, that your schoolmates looked to you for leadership. They thought when this incident happened, naturally, I'll go to her. Did you ever think of yourself, maybe not quite in these terms, I am a leader?

HALL: Definitely, definitely. At that point in time I had been class president two or three times, and because of my ability to talk to all different types of people, whether they be poor or middle class or upper-middle class or Mexican or gay or heterosexual, I just had this way of forming alliances with all different kinds of people. I would say that people did definitely, my classmates did definitely look to me as a person to go to who could make decisions for the entire student body, but also, you know, just be a cool chick.