We need to make sure we're creating spaces to create new leaders

Hear the stirring words of Alicia Garza, who declared with vision: “We need to make sure we're creating spaces to create new leaders and new types of leadership.” In this saying shines a timeless truth: that the work of change cannot rest upon a few shoulders alone, nor can leadership remain locked in the forms of the past. Every generation must be given room to rise, and every community must be given the soil in which its own leaders may grow. For leadership is not a fixed inheritance—it is a living flame that must be kindled anew.

From the dawn of civilization, the ancients understood that spaces of growth are sacred. Just as the olive grove nurtures the tree that will one day give fruit, so too must societies nurture the voices that will one day guide them. To create new leaders is to prepare the future, to guard against stagnation, and to recognize that no single leader endures forever. Nations and movements alike fall into ruin when they forget to plant the seeds of tomorrow’s leadership, when they cling only to the old and deny the new.

History bears witness to this wisdom. Consider the rise of Moses and his guidance of Israel through the wilderness. Though he was a mighty leader, even he knew the journey would not be his alone to complete. Before his death, he laid his hands upon Joshua, passing the mantle so that the people would not be left leaderless. This was not merely succession—it was the creation of a space for a new kind of leadership to emerge, one fitted for the next chapter of their struggle. Without this preparation, the people might have been scattered and lost.

So too in modern times we see this truth. The Civil Rights Movement in the United States was not the story of a single voice, but of many—Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Ella Baker, Malcolm X, and countless unnamed others. Each brought a different type of leadership: some spoke with thunder, others with quiet defiance, others still by organizing tirelessly behind the scenes. The strength of the movement came not from uniformity, but from the creation of spaces where many forms of leadership could thrive together.

Garza’s words remind us that leadership must be diverse and evolving. The challenges of today are not the same as those of yesterday, and the leaders who will guide us forward must be shaped by the realities of their own time. If we silence new voices, if we cling only to the old models, we risk leaving our future unguarded. But if we open spaces for all—women, men, the young, the marginalized, the unheard—we enrich the leadership of tomorrow with perspectives as varied as humanity itself.

The meaning of this teaching is thus profound: leadership is not a throne but a field. It must be cultivated, watered, and tended. The leader is not born in isolation, but in community, within spaces that allow courage to take root and wisdom to unfold. To deny these spaces is to starve the future; to create them is to ensure that hope continues unbroken.

The lesson for us is clear. In your homes, your schools, your workplaces, and your communities, ask yourself: are you building spaces for new leaders, or are you only honoring the old? Encourage the young to speak, even when their voices tremble. Share knowledge, rather than hoard it. Celebrate not only the leaders of today, but the leaders of tomorrow whose names are not yet known. In doing so, you become not only a leader yourself but a cultivator of leadership, which is the noblest role of all.

Therefore, let Alicia Garza’s words be carried like a banner into the future: we must create spaces for new leaders and new leadership. For only by doing so shall our communities remain alive, our movements remain strong, and our nations remain just. To pass the torch is not to lose light, but to multiply it, until the whole horizon glows with the fire of countless new flames.