Talk about belaboring the obvious. Why not headlines that read "The Sun Rises in the East" or "Summer Is Hot Down South"?

It would have taken at least an act of Congress to keep Al Sharpton away from the march in the Louisiana town that attracted several thousand sympathizers.

Was Sharpton's presence a foregone conclusion because six young kids were apparently being subjected to unequal treatment under the law?

Nope. It was a foregone conclusion because you couldn't turn around down there without being poked by a television camera. Anyone familiar with the Pompadoured One's M.O. knows he'd never miss an event on which the eyes of the world were focused, with such ample opportunity for primo face time.

Do I sound like one of Sharpton's myriad detractors?

Perhaps, but I'm not. At least not all of the time. His presence often focuses attention on issues that otherwise would go unnoticed, as when he ran a quixotic campaign for president in 2000 and was, along with John Edwards, just about the only candidate to dare utter the word "poverty."

Jena, La., however, was not one of those places where his presence accomplished anything.

Thanks to Internet bloggers and radio talk-show hosts, the case of the Jena 6 was brought to the forefront of the nation's consciousness before Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson jumped onboard.

Leaders are supposed to lead, not wait to see which issue will generate the most publicity before breezing in for a photo-op.

To those of us who have already lived through marches and sit-ins -- and who have vowed to never, ever sing another verse of "We Shall Overcome" -- the decision to converge on Jena to protest the harsh penalties faced by the high school students might have seemed like a waste of energy that could have been better spent elsewhere.

We were wrong. Although the tactics seemed outdated -- fighting a new millennium war with 1960s strategies -- the march on the town was a good thing.

Blacks from my generation and before have done a sinfully poor job of imparting to young people what their predecessors went through to get the rights we now enjoy. Thus the thousands of young people who endured 20 hours-plus bus rides to show their support for the Jena 6 received a firsthand history lesson that surpassed anything they could learn from a book.

Just because you employ old tactics, though, doesn't mean your army has to be led by old leaders.

Let me be the first to thank the Rev. Jackson and, to a lesser extent, Sharpton for their efforts on countless civil rights front lines.

Both need to face the fact, though, that through circumstance, the passage of time and their own missteps, their time has passed. Listening to speakers at the march via the Internet and radio left no doubt that there are young people with passion and courage willing to speak out on issues facing those in trouble.

Neither Al nor Jesse, unfortunately, seems to be content to sit back and play the role of wizened elder statesman -- tutoring future leaders while they assume a background role.

How embarrassing it was to read a story in a South Carolina newspaper recently that Jackson was sniping at Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama for "acting like he's white" for not responding as forcefully as Jackson would have had him respond on the Jena 6 issue.

Jackson said he doesn't recall making the statement, and I hope he neither made it nor held Obama to a standard different from other Democratic or Republican candidates.

Those candidates who refused to show up or speak out on such a galvanizing issue were not acting white, Rev. Jackson. They were acting yellow.

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