In this article the author examines the historical significance of the cultural aspect of race on African American females' leadership values and styles that encourage caring in schools. The author focuses her study by asking: What aspects of their (African American female leaders) cultural backgrounds as Africans and as African Americans contribute to their perceptions and enactments of leadership? In particular, the author examines African American female leadership using the frameworks of Racial Uplift and Oneness of Being, both concentrated in spirituality and discussed from the perspectives of African worldview and American female slavery. Finally, the author probes the importance of those aspects in describing qualities of leadership necessary to effect schools in which caring occurs. The author poses connections between the cultural attributes of African American women who lead, and the leadership qualities that are needed to establish schools in which caring flourishes. (Contains 5 notes.)