This project examines the public theological, political, and social work of the Revs. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton, in an effort to trace a trajectory of the black clergyman as a primary public spokesperson for black social and political movements. I argue that these figures operate in a long tradition of black clerical-political spokesmanship that becomes reinforced as a dominant narrative of black public leadership during and after the modern Civil Rights Movement. Specifically, I assert that King's body of work during and through the Civil Rights Movement is problematically reinforced as a universal template for the public leadership of black clergymen, in ways that fail to thoroughly acknowledge his work as an historically contingent body of rhetoric and performance also dependent upon his sui generis skill set and social location. Jackson and Sharpton, through their subsequent leveraging of the narrative technologies of black preaching and the public image of the black preacher, embody new iterations of the King template, to varying effects, but significantly toward the end of becoming primary public spokespersons for the social and political interests of black people. What ensues is a model of public leadership firmly ensconced in a black male heterosexual clerical ideal and tethered to charismatic rhetorical performance. I argue that this model reinforces the notion that the most authoritative, authentic representation for black social and political interests is via specific personalities and bodies. Furthermore, this model perpetuates the notion that a central, individual spokesperson is either possible or historically appropriate for such interests, and produces competition for an increasingly narrow niche of visible, public spokesmanship. Ultimately, I assert the need to reimagine black public leadership along axes of rhetoric and performance that account for how social location modulates black social and political interests.