While many of us are focused on the problem of Black and Hispanic unity as a result of the growth of Hispanics in this country, a more serious crisis is brewing right within the Black community: our inability to handle the change of leadership from one generation to the next.

The Civil Rights Movement was designed to foster progress in all of the possible areas of American life, which included the hope for a new generation of qualified individuals that would take us the rest of the way and over the goal line. What we did not envision was that the generations after the Civil Rights Movement might be more moderate in their politics than their predecessors, even though conditions in the Black community have not improved that dramatically.

A great question is whether the arrival of a new generation of young, moderate Black politicians is premature, whether it has happened in advance of the need to continue a "progressive militant spirit" in our leadership, given that true equality is not yet in sight.

What started me thinking about this lately is the contest for the Democratic nomination for mayor in Newark, N.J., which pits Cory Booker, 32, a one-term member of the city council, against the four-term incumbent mayor, Sharpe James, 66, who also is a state senator. The race has turned particularly nasty, with James referring to Booker as a carpetbagger because he grew up in suburban Bergen County and inferring that Booker is not Black enough, saying, "we don’t have time to teach you [Booker] how to be Black."

Booker fired back at James saying that his political support also comes from outside of Newark, from heavy hitters such as Jesse Jackson Sr., the New Jersey Democratic political establishment and from the national Democratic Party.

Beneath this conflict is the perceptible hand of the media producers and editors, at-tempting to shape the landscape of Black politics by choosing who is credible and who is not, whose time has come and whose has gone. The drift to Booker and other such young politicians appears to have occurred because his background contains a Rhodes Scholarship, a Yale law school degree and sports a more conservative brand of politics. In other words, he is someone with the kind of credentials that the majority media believes fits its standard for political viability. Therefore, he has drawn national attention, including articles in the New York Times and other major outlets.

But wait a minute. Isn’t this what we wanted? Didn’t we fight for Black kids to have the best of educational opportunities so that they could take over and carry us over the goal line? Yes, but what happens when they are not just youthful, but also appear to hold values that are perceived by the older leadership to be detrimental to the continued forward progress of the Black community? The issue then is not only how do you achieve amicable political succession, but how to do it in a manner consistent with the consensus values within the Black community around what will bring progress.

Culturally, this Booker-James contest should be offensive to Black American values because it divides the community using name-calling and intimidation. It also fosters disrespect for our elders and opens the door to decision-making by those outside of the Black community, such as Barbara Streisand, Bill Bradley, Jack Kemp and others who have provided Booker with the means to launch a credible challenge to James.

The struggle between Booker and James is about what constitutes progress in Newark and as such, is a potent and important debate that should occur in every Black community, whether the issue is succession or any other concern. In fact, I would suggest that if the only reason James is viewed as viable for re-election is the strength of the "machine" that is poised to re-elect him, he should not be re-elected. However, James claims to have made progress in Newark: multiplex theaters, performing arts center, minor league stadium, new office buildings, Starbucks cafes, etc. But community developers claim that the much-touted renaissance has not reached beyond downtown. Although this tough challenge to James will be about the perception of progress that he has made in his 16 years in office, there should be a better way—other than pure conflict—to decide whether either man should lead.

(Ronald Walters is a Distinguished Leadership Scholar, director of the African American Leadership Institute, professor of government at the University of Maryland and co-author of "African American Leadership.’’)