Our Path Forward

The Voices

45 Original Interviews

Drawn from conversations with governors, attorneys general, mayors, and the strategists and commentators who shape the terrain. These are the men who built Black political power and are now being asked to defend it.

David Paterson

Former Governor of New York

Deval Patrick

Former Governor of Massachusetts

Attorneys General · Lieutenant Governors · Mayors · Legislators · Strategists

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Aaron Ford

Attorney General, Nevada

Kwame Raoul

Attorney General, Illinois

Mandela Barnes

Former Lieutenant Governor, Wisconsin

Garlin Gilchrist

Lieutenant Governor, Michigan

Austin Davis

Lieutenant Governor, Pennsylvania

Brandon Johnson

Mayor, Chicago

Ras Baraka

Mayor, Newark

Andre Dickens

Mayor, Atlanta

Randall Woodfin

Mayor, Birmingham

Brandon Scott

Mayor, Baltimore

Quinton Lucas

Mayor, Kansas City

Steven Reed

Mayor, Montgomery

Steve Benjamin

Former Mayor, Columbia, SC

Jaime Harrison

Former Chair, Democratic National Committee

Derrick Johnson

President & CEO, NAACP

Wesley Bell

U.S. Congressman, Missouri

Gabe Amo

U.S. Congressman, Rhode Island

Roland Martin

Political Commentator & Host

Bakari Sellers

Political Commentator & Author

Cliff Albright

Co-Founder, Black Voters Matter

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And more than 25 additional leaders, strategists, and organizers.

The Book

Why This Story Has Never Been Told

The rise of Black male political leadership in America is one of the defining stories of the past two decades. No one has told it.

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Black men now hold executive office in cities from Newark to Chicago to Atlanta. They sit as attorneys general, lieutenant governors, and party chairs. They built the infrastructure that delivered elections — and are still waiting for the Democratic Party to invest in them like it means it.

Our Path Forward goes inside the rooms where the decisions get made. Quentin James spent two decades in those rooms. He knows where the power is, how it was built, and what it cost.

This is not a book about potential. It is a book about what Black men have already done — and what they're demanding next.

Original interviews with Black male political leaders

500+

Black candidates elected with Collective PAC support since 2016

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Inside the Book

Five Parts. Eighteen Chapters.

Origins: where these men came from, what brought them to public life, and what they inherited when they arrived.
The Work: what governing actually looks like from the inside.
The Cost: what this life takes from you personally, from your family, and from your sense of self.
The Future: where Black political power goes next, what the next generation is building, and what accountability looks like when it cuts in every direction.
The Charge: a call to Black men.

The Author

Quentin James

Quentin James is the founder and president of The Collective PAC, the nation's leading organization dedicated to electing Black candidates and mobilizing Black voters. Since 2016, The Collective PAC has helped elect more than 500 Black candidates to office at every level of government, with a 78% win rate — more than 100 of them the first African Americans ever to hold their positions.

A Howard University graduate, James began his political career at 19 as a field organizer for Obama for America in South Carolina, later serving as Deputy Youth Vote Director in Ohio, where he increased voter turnout at Ohio State University by 94 percent. He has since raised and deployed more than $50 million in campaign resources, registered more than 250,000 voters, and trained over 2,000 candidates and campaign operatives through Collective PAC's leadership programs.

He is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., a board member of Common Cause, and a life member of the NAACP. He has been named to The Root 100 Most Influential African Americans and Campaigns & Elections Magazine's Top 50 Political Influencers. Our Path Forward is his first book.

45 Original Interviews

Why This Story Has Never Been Told

Five Parts. Eighteen Chapters.

Pre-Order Your Copy

Quentin James

Our
Path
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