This study investigates the role of spirituality in the leadership and social justice practices of Black men. Utilizing critical transformational leadership - a theoretical framework grounded on the insights of Burns' (1978) transformational leadership and Dantley's (2003) critical spirituality - this narrative inquiry explores the stories of five Black male leaders residing in Central Ohio.

Scholars have suggested that the ineffectiveness of Black leadership against the threat of nihilism, a pervasive feeling of hopelessness in the Black community, yields a need for new models of leadership. West (1994) suggested that leaders who are race-transcending prophets can fulfill the need for new Black leadership, but this post-modern generation has yet to put forth such a figure. Race-transcending prophets are leaders who are uniquely positioned to critique social and political elites (including the Black component of the political and economic establishment) and who are able to put forth visions of fundamental social change for all who suffer from socially induced misery. This study argues that Black male leaders, who effectively apply critical transformational leadership to their respective contexts, emulate race-transcending prophetic behavior.

This research serves, in part, as one answer to the call by some scholars for new models of leadership in the Black community. It also adds to the limited body of research regarding Black men and their roles in leadership.

Findings suggested that participants defined their spirituality in terms of their relationships with a higher power, through which they filter their leadership practices.