How MLK Inspired Me to be a Change Agent

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today is Martin Luther King's birthday, and I share the story of how he influenced my role as a change agent throughout my career:

1. Early years as a student: I spent my elementary and early high school years soaking up knowledge. I was a good kid and excelled at school. Too young to push for change.

2. Disappointed with the slow pace of civil rights progress: I was disappointed in my church, feeling we weren't doing enough. For example, I don't recall us sending buses to the 1963 "March on Washington." I opposed Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali because they weren't Christian, but MLK wasn't militant enough for me. Yeah, I knew nothing!

3. The day everything changed for me: On April 4, 1968, my family was gathered to celebrate my brother's tenth birthday. We never had the party. Instead, we sat transfixed by the images on our television. Martin Luther King was assassinated that night in Memphis, TN. I was a junior in high school and started seeing differently.

4. Starting to lead: I suggested having an assembly program in high school focused on black history and culture. The proposal was accepted, and our faculty advisor gave me a stack of jazz records, telling me we needed a soundtrack. That was my introduction to jazz. When I stood to read a portion of speeches by MLK and Malcolm X, almost all the white students walked out, inevitably leading to fights outside of school that day. That wasn't our intent, of course, but I was accused of making trouble, what Congressman John Lewis later referred to as "good trouble."

5. My First Reorg: A couple of years later, I proposed changing the structure of the Afro American Society at college to make it more inclusive, including renaming it the Black Student Union. My fellow students accepted the idea, and we reorganized. A lot of positive changes after that.

In one of my first jobs, my boss asked me to read through a stack of letters to the Governor and "see what jumps out at you." I picked 3 ideas from the pile, and the Governor signed them into law 6 months later. My work on that project set a pattern I repeated many times during my career, using communication and influence to build support and get things done without having control.

I spent my career visualizing positive change and working to make it happen. It's been rewarding and started with my response to MLK's assassination.