The July 17 announcement of Congressman John Lewis’ death was a surprising one as I read about it at nearly 2 a.m. Saturday morning. I knew he’d been fighting stage four pancreatic cancer since late last year, but still the news put me in awe.

Lewis represented the last of an era, one that was a constant fight for people of color and one heavy with resolve. Lewis fought, was beaten and even arrested to end Jim Crow laws and forge the way alongside numerous others for civil rights.

He is the last surviving speaker from the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and he can’t be replaced. 

As I learned that fact from Katharine Q. Seelye’s New York Times’ piece “John Lewis, Towering Figure of Civil Rights Era, Dies at 80,” I realized something: As we’re still fighting for equality to this day, we have no mainline names — no “towering figures” — speaking up for the fight.

I ask those that read this, who do you turn to in this fight when you need inspiration? Who do you turn to to let you know you’re not alone in this fight? Who do you turn to to let you know this fight can be won — that you’re not crazy for thinking there’s more equality to fight for?

Sure, there are personal people in one’s life that encourage them or show them there’s something to fight for, but as a group, organization, and/or society, I’ve seen none.

In the Civil Rights Era (late 1940 – late ‘60s), and this is just off the top of my head, there was Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, John Lewis (of course), Huey P. Newton, Condoleezza Rice.

Only the latter of those figures are still living. And don’t let me forget Rev. C.T. Vivian, a civil rights figure who worked alongside MLK, also died July 17 of natural causes.

It’s like this: Today’s society finds itself with a collective of voices, but as for a director of that collective — a direct leader — there is none. And that isn’t just my opinion. Others share in that sentiment too.

Jordan Shell, Osayi and Iyare Igodan, Juston Lewis, and Taylor Sutherland either said there are no leaders, that they didn’t know of any leaders or that there’s no one they could think of using their platform justly.

Osayi could give examples of people using their platform (i.e. Brother Polight, an author and celebrity mentor, and Rizza Islam, a humanitarian, researcher and activist), however, his mind was void of a direct leader.

Shell said there are people doing good works in the name of equality (i.e. the people in D.C. protecting a woman and her child whose neighbors were being hostile and racist towards her), however, politicians haven’t been using their platform to the best of their ability and celebrities have been using it to the worst of their ability.

Mind you, the aforementioned people are in my age range, between 21 and 24, but their opinion matters as much as people aged 30 and up. These are the voices of the next generation and they don’t know who to turn to.

If you think about it, people in my age group have grown up idolizing celebrities and their brands. The realization upon that note is that when celebrities try to use their platforms to speak out on issues regarding equality, there is no substance behind their words.

The realization is that all they have is their brand. Take for instance, Kanye West, Beyonce, T.I. When they spoke with their platforms, we did not take them seriously. We could not take them seriously.

When you look at the leaders of the Civil Rights Area, there are trends amongst them. The first is that a good bit of these figures came from a religious background.

MLK and Vivian were both reverends with church upbringings. Malcolm X stood under the banner of the Nation of Islam. Even now, one of the people my father sees as a prominent leader in the fight for equality, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, is of the clergy.

Yet those who were also civil rights leaders did not give up the fight at the drop of a hat. Take for instance John Lewis who led many non-violent demonstrations against racially segregated areas.

He took on those who didn’t listen, those in mobs or law enforcement who beat him, spat on him and/or burned him with cigarettes. A fractured skull did not stop his commitment to the fight.

But I guess that’s the difference between those whose platform was built to honor the phrase “You must do for the least of them,” and those whose platform was built on a brand.

In the words of Sutherland, celebrities only just now started using their platform to speak on inequalities because there’s nothing to do in the house. 

Though they are also victims of cancel culture. As Juston put it, “As soon as they (celebrities) say something people don’t like they (people) try to attack their integrity.”

It’s a negative reaction to a potentially positive message, yet that positivity is hard to gauge because the audience is skeptical about it. They ask themselves, “Is this message rooted in raising their brand?” 

And then it being only a once-off message after the person is “canceled” heightens the skepticism.

Let me say this: The organization Black Lives Matter is working toward the goal of equality heavily, but as of right now, there is no commander of the charge.

I know a totally united front may not be possible and that even in the Civil Rights Era, there were multiple united fronts, but my point is that you knew who the leaders were.

There is no consolidation of moral authority in the fight for equality, simply a collective of voices on different pages.

Bryce Ethridge is a reporter at The Moultrie Observer.