Dr. Harry L. Williams gives 2025 MLK Lecture: Leadership for the Future—Carrying Forward the Dream

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01/31/2025 Added

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In this culminating lecture, Dr. Williams will connect the legacies of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall to contemporary challenges in equity and access. He will reflect on both men’s legacies and contributions to justice, equality, and social change. He will also discuss the role of universities in continuing the fight for justice and share strategies for building community through education and leadership.

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[00:00:00.000]Good evening, everyone.
[00:00:05.600]I'm Dr. Lawrence Chatters.
[00:00:06.720]I currently serve as the Director for Community Partnerships
[00:00:09.920]and Strategic Initiatives within the Office of the Chancellor.
[00:00:12.660]We are so honored to have you all here with us this evening for
[00:00:16.600]a wonderful presentation from Dr. Harry L. Williams.
[00:00:21.800]We've had a wonderful day today.
[00:00:23.460]I just wanted to give you all a quick recap of the day,
[00:00:26.000]just so you know what he's been doing here on campus and that we've
[00:00:29.120]really rolled out the red carpet for him here on campus today.
[00:00:32.120]We started out this morning at the Sheldon Art Museum,
[00:00:35.200]had a nice meet and greet for him,
[00:00:37.260]and then we took him over to East Campus.
[00:00:39.440]We couldn't leave East Campus out.
[00:00:40.720]We took him over to the law school and had him present on
[00:00:43.740]the intersection of Thurgood Marshall and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
[00:00:48.160]and that was an amazing presentation and now here we are this evening.
[00:00:52.480]It is customary that we thank
[00:00:54.940]the individuals who have helped to make this a possibility,
[00:00:57.260]and so I just wanted to make
[00:00:58.940]sure that I took some time to thank
[00:01:00.440]everyone who has helped us make this a possibility.
[00:01:03.200]I wanted to thank the UNL College of Law.
[00:01:04.820]I wanted to thank the Sheldon Art Museum.
[00:01:07.640]Also wanted to thank Julie Croce and
[00:01:11.440]also Annette Wetzel for helping to make this a possibility.
[00:01:14.040]I wanted to thank Corrie Svehla for making all of this streamable tonight,
[00:01:18.180]so other people can be watching this from afar.
[00:01:20.680]I wanted to end by thanking Chancellor Bennett for
[00:01:23.780]his leadership and vision to make sure that we were able to have this event today,
[00:01:28.760]and really bring to you a unique perspective from an individual who truly
[00:01:33.520]has been in a space where he understands the legacy of Dr. King.
[00:01:38.060]And I hope that you enjoy his remarks this evening,
[00:01:41.800]because throughout the day we've really heard a lot of great history and
[00:01:45.220]a lot of great tidbits about the life and legacy of Dr. King, but
[00:01:48.440]also Thurgood Marshall, which has been very enlightening.
[00:01:51.380]But before all of that, I would like to bring up the man who made all of this
[00:01:54.920]possible, and so would you please help me in welcoming the 21st
[00:01:58.580]Chancellor of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Dr. Rodney Bennett.
[00:02:03.780]Thank you, Lawrence, and we certainly want to thank Lawrence for his leadership and
[00:02:10.220]his coordination of today, and when he said he wanted to thank the man that
[00:02:13.560]made it all possible, I said to Dr. Williams that would be the man upstairs,
[00:02:17.800]not the Chancellor. First, good evening to each of you. We are gathered to
[00:02:24.680]honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
[00:02:28.400]and it is my distinct honor to present the 28th annual Fulfilling the Dream
[00:02:33.260]Award to a remarkable leader, Dr. Harry L. Williams. As president and chief
[00:02:41.340]executive officer of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Dr. Williams has
[00:02:47.120]dedicated his career to transformative power of education. His leadership has
[00:02:54.080]elevated historically black colleges and universities in predominant
[00:02:58.220]predominantly black institutions, ensuring that they remain strong
[00:03:03.120]pathways to personal and professional opportunities. Under his direction, the
[00:03:10.260]Thurgood Marshall College Fund has grown in extraordinary ways, securing vital
[00:03:15.860]resources and forging impactful partnerships with Fortune 500 companies.
[00:03:21.020]These efforts have not only sustained institutions, but also empowered countless
[00:03:28.040]students to pursue competitive careers and become leaders. In all its outstanding
[00:03:35.540]work, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund not only invests in a new generation of
[00:03:41.720]leaders, it also honors the legacy of Justice Marshall. Justice Marshall was
[00:03:50.060]appointed by President John F. Kennedy to the United States Court of Appeals for
[00:03:56.000]the Second Circuit
[00:03:57.860]in 1961, and he remained there until 1965. By way of reminder, the Second
[00:04:06.640]Circuit includes the states of Connecticut, New York, and Vermont. In 1965,
[00:04:15.160]President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Justice Marshall Solicitor General. He
[00:04:21.940]was the first African-American to ever hold that office. Then on June 13th,
[00:04:27.680]of 1967, President Johnson nominated him to the United States Supreme Court. He
[00:04:35.900]was confirmed as an Associate Justice by a Senate vote of 69 yea and 11 no on
[00:04:44.120]August 30th of 1967, becoming not only the first African-American to hold the
[00:04:51.440]position, but the 96th person overall to do so.
[00:04:57.500]To date, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund has awarded more than 500 million dollars
[00:05:04.840]in assistance to its students at more than 50 member schools. The Thurgood Marshall
[00:05:13.140]College Fund distributes 98% of its awards exclusively to historical black
[00:05:20.600]colleges and universities, predominantly black institutions, and historically black
[00:05:27.320]and predominantly black community colleges. Through scholarships, capacity building and
[00:05:33.980]research initiatives, innovative programs and strategic partnerships, the Thurgood Marshall
[00:05:40.460]College Fund is a vital resource from kindergarten through higher education.
[00:05:49.060]The organization is also a source for top employers seeking top talent for competitive
[00:05:57.140]internships and jobs. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us that, quote, the function of
[00:06:07.500]education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus
[00:06:15.800]character, that is the goal of true education, end of quote. Dr. Williams exemplifies this principle.
[00:06:26.960]Through his vision, he has created opportunities that reflect Dr. King's dream, a world where
[00:06:34.940]every individual has a chance to succeed no matter their background. I'd like to thank you, Dr.
[00:06:43.060]Williams, for spending the day with us, with our students, our faculty, our staff. I'd like to thank
[00:06:49.660]you for your insights on the legacies of Dr. King and Justice Marshall, and you have left an indelible
[00:06:56.780]mark on our campus community today. The wisdom that you shared in today's sessions has inspired
[00:07:04.220]us to think deeply about our own roles in advancing their legacies. Your work, sir, reminds us that
[00:07:14.120]leadership in its most organic form is about service, resilience, and hope. In recognition of your service
[00:07:26.600]of your resilience and of your leadership, it is my great privilege to present you with the
[00:07:34.880]Chancellor's Fulfill in the Dream Award on behalf of our faculty, our staff, and our students here
[00:07:42.360]at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Congratulations and thank you for being with us today.
[00:07:56.420]A little bit more. Perfect. Thank you Chancellor. Thank you. All yours. Well thank you Chancellor. That was totally unexpected.
[00:08:26.240]I am more than excited to be here with you all today. I was sharing with some
[00:08:33.900]of my colleagues that I've met throughout the day that this has been a
[00:08:39.000]really, really good day. I mean a really good day and to the point I felt like I
[00:08:45.760]was at home and I asked someone, I said, "Is this real?
[00:08:49.320]Do y'all really treat people this way when they come to Lincoln, Nebraska?
[00:08:52.740]Are y'all just putting on your A-game that I'm walking out of here
[00:08:56.060]and everybody's going to go back to where you started?"
[00:08:59.680]Well, keep it up.
[00:09:01.680]I am so happy that I'm in a place that you recognize
[00:09:10.360]the importance of how we learn from each other
[00:09:16.680]and how we learn from each other in a very intentional way.
[00:09:19.380]So Chancellor, thank you for your leadership for taking this moment
[00:09:25.880]for all of us to reflect on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King.
[00:09:32.700]We are living in some really difficult times
[00:09:36.660]where people are afraid to make bold and courageous decisions.
[00:09:44.020]Some of our universities are timid right now
[00:09:47.780]because of what is happening in a place that I live called Washington, DC.
[00:09:53.380]And there's a lot of energy going on in Washington, DC.
[00:09:55.700]Right now, and it's creating a lot of anxiety.
[00:09:59.660]But I'm here to share with y'all, I'm optimistic about the future.
[00:10:04.480]I'm optimistic about where we're going ahead as an institution, as a nation.
[00:10:10.600]I'm optimistic because I've dedicated my life to studying
[00:10:17.940]and also trying to live a life of purpose, of a life
[00:10:25.520]of when you leave here, things are going to be better off than when you started.
[00:10:31.940]So the title of my talk tonight, and I just want you to think about it.
[00:10:40.780]We're going to spend some time reminiscing about a man,
[00:10:48.640]about a man who changed not America, but the world, who changed
[00:10:55.340]the way we think about how we treat each other.
[00:11:01.260]How we care about each other unconditionally.
[00:11:07.880]He used the term agape love, where there are no strings attached to my love for you.
[00:11:16.020]A man who cared about everyone and was very clear in laying that out to the world.
[00:11:25.160]A man who knew that he only had a short time to do it.
[00:11:33.920]So, for a thought tonight that I want you all to reflect on, if you had 39 years to
[00:11:46.840]live on this earth, what would you do with those 39 years?
[00:11:53.540]How would you use those 39 years?
[00:11:54.980]What would you do with that?
[00:11:59.160]And while you are thinking about that, I'm going to tell you a story about a man who
[00:12:06.360]was here only 39 years, and what he did with those 39 years, and how those 39 years are
[00:12:16.620]still moving on and people are still reflecting.
[00:12:20.080]Dr. Martin Luther King was born January 15th, 1939.
[00:12:24.800]Michael Luther King, that was his first name, Michael, first name wasn't Martin.
[00:12:34.020]His dad legally changed his name to Martin Luther King.
[00:12:39.420]And when his dad changed his name, he had a purpose of doing that because he was calling
[00:12:43.560]him something that is bigger than him.
[00:12:46.920]When he changed his name to Martin Luther King, Jr.
[00:12:51.440]He was a brilliant young man.
[00:12:54.620]And at the age of 15, he was ready to start college.
[00:12:59.540]He knew he had a lot to do.
[00:13:01.940]And at the age of 15, he started college at an institution in Atlanta, Georgia called
[00:13:08.520]Morehouse College, a college for African American young men.
[00:13:15.160]And at that college, when he started there at 15, that college was having some really
[00:13:21.120]difficult times when it comes to enrollment.
[00:13:24.440]So they started a program there called early admissions, where you identify someone early
[00:13:30.860]on and you let those start college.
[00:13:34.360]And he was part of this early admissions program at Morehouse.
[00:13:38.700]And he graduated from that school in four years.
[00:13:43.260]People say you can't graduate in four years from college, but you can if you're focused
[00:13:47.660]and you know what you want to do.
[00:13:49.720]He graduated in four years at 19.
[00:13:54.260]Then he went on to a place against his father's wishes, to a place in Pennsylvania called
[00:14:02.200]Crozer Theological Seminary.
[00:14:05.160]Crozer at the time, and when he enrolled there, there were only 40 students in the class at
[00:14:13.400]Crozer.
[00:14:14.400]And while he was there, it was there when he started studying and learning about the
[00:14:19.660]nonviolent movement of Mahatma Gandhi and the resistance.
[00:14:24.080]He was deeply getting into that.
[00:14:26.340]He got a BA degree in divinity from Crozer.
[00:14:30.400]He left there and took his PhD at Boston University Theological Institution.
[00:14:38.760]He really didn't want to move back to the South, to be honest with you.
[00:14:42.800]The dad was concerned about him moving to the North because things were a little bit
[00:14:46.800]different in the North.
[00:14:50.240]But he knew his father was named...
[00:14:53.900]Martin Luther King, Sr., and he was a very powerful man in Atlanta, Georgia.
[00:15:01.280]Very domineering figure, and he knew he wanted his son back, and he was a pastor of a major
[00:15:06.960]church in Atlanta.
[00:15:09.520]And Dr. King made a decision to come back to Georgia, but before he did that, he got
[00:15:16.660]married to a young lady, Coretta Scott King, and they got married at 24.
[00:15:23.720]You guys remember when you were 24 and getting married at 24?
[00:15:28.620]That's a big deal at 24.
[00:15:31.120]And he took a position in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, at a church, Dexter Ebenezer Baptist
[00:15:43.780]Church, a very prominent church that's located in Montgomery, not too far from the first
[00:15:52.540]official church.
[00:15:53.540]The first official white house of the Confederacy.
[00:15:56.980]Jefferson Davis lived around the corner from Dexter in Montgomery, Alabama.
[00:16:02.720]Just put that in your mind for a minute from that perspective.
[00:16:06.820]Taking on this church as a full-time minister.
[00:16:12.160]This was a full-time job to do.
[00:16:14.640]He was a new kid in town.
[00:16:18.060]And there was a woman in Montgomery who made a decision.
[00:16:23.360]She made a decision that she was going to sit down on a bus.
[00:16:29.860]There was Rosa Parks and Rosa Parks was a seamstress and she wanted to, she was tired.
[00:16:38.740]And in Montgomery and all throughout the South, they had laws, they call them Jim Crow laws.
[00:16:45.380]And those laws prohibit African Americans from sitting beside each other on a bus.
[00:16:53.180]From sitting down at a restaurant, can you imagine that today?
[00:16:58.160]From sitting down at a restaurant together, have to get your food at the back of the door.
[00:17:04.020]From drinking out a water fountain, you couldn't do that.
[00:17:07.000]It had a sign that said color here, whites there.
[00:17:12.540]And that was a law.
[00:17:14.700]It was a law that said, and there was a police officer who said, you've got to keep the
[00:17:23.000]blacks and the whites separate.
[00:17:26.020]You can't not let them work together.
[00:17:30.320]It's going to tear down the white race when you bring them together.
[00:17:35.420]And that was the prevailing sentiment of the day.
[00:17:40.200]And you are this person who's coming into this environment.
[00:17:46.480]And then this lady said, we're not going to take it anymore, and they started what
[00:17:52.820]they called the Montgomery Bus Movement, which sparked the Civil Rights Movement in a way.
[00:18:01.540]Civil Rights had been going on for years, but this was that moment where they made the
[00:18:07.640]decision.
[00:18:08.640]And they needed a spokesperson.
[00:18:11.940]And Dr. King was the new kid in town.
[00:18:14.120]Y'all know when new people come in, right?
[00:18:16.220]We picked on them.
[00:18:18.000]And there was a group in town that said, we get the new kid.
[00:18:22.640]And we'll let him be the spokesperson for the Montgomery Improvement Association.
[00:18:30.580]He took that on at the age of 25 years old.
[00:18:35.320]He took that on with a child that just born.
[00:18:40.700]He took that on with a wife.
[00:18:43.420]And the weight of that responsibility, that bus boycott started and it took 355 days.
[00:18:52.460]To shake up the system.
[00:18:57.120]And Dr. King became the face of the civil rights movement.
[00:19:03.840]And what was the civil rights all about?
[00:19:07.160]Looking at our rights that are given to us from the Constitution, 14th Amendment.
[00:19:12.240]The right to vote.
[00:19:14.760]The right for fair housing.
[00:19:16.560]He was fighting for those rights.
[00:19:20.100]We can't even fathom that today.
[00:19:22.280]And how difficult that was to move that on, to move forward.
[00:19:28.680]So he took that journey on, and they won.
[00:19:33.200]And it was celebration.
[00:19:35.240]He became front page news all over the United States.
[00:19:40.420]A new leader is in town.
[00:19:43.300]And he, at that moment, knew that his life was going to be forever changed, because that
[00:19:52.100]was the beginning of his journey.
[00:19:57.740]In 1957, he went on to start, while the Montgomery Improvement Association was moving forward,
[00:20:09.260]he started an organization called SCLC, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
[00:20:14.440]He was the president of that organization.
[00:20:17.980]And as the president of that organization, he was looking -- he had made a decision -- he
[00:20:21.920]had made a decision that he was going to give up his pastor role and move back to his home
[00:20:29.020]church in Atlanta, and set up shop there that was going to challenge and tackle all of these
[00:20:36.480]desegregations.
[00:20:37.480]This is someone that's 26 years old, taking on that responsibility, and he moved back
[00:20:43.860]to Atlanta to become the associate minister of the church where his father is a senior
[00:20:49.200]pastor in Atlanta, Georgia.
[00:20:51.740]And the most money that he ever made as a pastor was $8,000 a year, which would equate
[00:21:01.700]to $58,000 today.
[00:21:05.700]He wasn't a man out for money, I can tell you that much.
[00:21:09.640]He was so convicted, purpose-driven, that he knew he was doing something bigger than
[00:21:17.340]just money.
[00:21:19.040]And he had been divinely called.
[00:21:21.560]He was called to move this movement.
[00:21:27.060]When he spoke, people listened.
[00:21:33.580]And when he engaged, people paid attention.
[00:21:38.800]But if you look at Dr. King, and I've read a lot about him, he was a very introverted
[00:21:46.140]person.
[00:21:47.420]He wasn't someone that was extroverted.
[00:21:50.100]He changed when he got in front of people.
[00:21:51.380]He changed when he got in front of a microphone.
[00:21:54.100]And then the divine intervention took over.
[00:21:57.000]He had the ability to paint a picture that people would respond to.
[00:22:03.180]And then when they organized the 1963 March on Washington for jobs, they were afraid in
[00:22:11.700]this country that that march was going to turn into a riot.
[00:22:16.620]And they tried to do everything in their power to convince what they
[00:22:21.200]called the big six, the big six civil rights organization.
[00:22:25.240]SCLC, SNCC, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which was led by John Lewis.
[00:22:32.180]We all know how young people get in and challenge the older people, wanting to be more aggressive.
[00:22:37.680]You had CORE Congress, organization of equality, racial equality, that was also a powerful
[00:22:46.680]organization.
[00:22:47.680]Then you had the Urban League, which is still in
[00:22:51.020]existence.
[00:22:52.160]And then you had the main organization, the NAACP, Roy Wilkins, and A. Philip Randolph.
[00:23:00.940]And then you had Martin Luther King, who was the youngest one of the group.
[00:23:07.200]They're sitting in the White House talking to John F. Kennedy about the March on Washington.
[00:23:13.440]And Dr. King, sitting there and not saying a word, didn't engage, and they
[00:23:20.840]said he would be in a room, and you wouldn't know he was in there, but he was listening.
[00:23:26.780]And he could take what he heard and come back and articulate it to the masses like no one
[00:23:33.060]else in the world could do.
[00:23:36.440]And that was his gift, and he recognized that was his gift to do, is to mobilize and to
[00:23:45.360]put into perspective what was really happening at that day.
[00:23:50.660]The thing about Dr. King, after the success of the March on Washington, in 1964, he won
[00:24:04.340]the Nobel Peace Prize.
[00:24:07.480]He went to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, and he had a team to go with him, and while
[00:24:14.300]he was there, he received a monetary prize of $54,000.
[00:24:20.480]Which would equate to a half a million dollars today.
[00:24:25.960]He gave every dime of that to the movement.
[00:24:30.680]He didn't use it for any personal satisfaction.
[00:24:33.380]Matter of fact, they say he only had six suits that he owned.
[00:24:38.820]They said he traveled over six million miles, gave over 3,000 speeches in his 39 years on
[00:24:46.980]this earth.
[00:24:48.940]And how he used his time.
[00:24:50.300]How he used his time to change the world.
[00:24:55.400]We talked about with the law students today the difference between Dr. Martin Luther King
[00:25:00.400]and Thurgood Marshall.
[00:25:02.100]Thurgood Marshall came from it from a legal perspective.
[00:25:05.400]Thurgood Marshall came from it from the system of being inside and challenging the system.
[00:25:11.280]To be very candid with you, he didn't particularly care about Dr. King and his approach.
[00:25:16.940]They called him a rebel riser, someone who came in to get things done.
[00:25:20.120]Get things started up and then he would have to go in and clean it up.
[00:25:24.060]So they both needed each other to keep things moving forward.
[00:25:29.740]But Thurgood Marshall, another major giant during that moment, who as Chancellor Bennett
[00:25:38.860]referenced earlier, was on the Supreme Court and how he used his position.
[00:25:44.620]He wasn't on the Supreme Court when it was going on.
[00:25:47.020]He was actually arguing before the Supreme Court.
[00:25:49.940]And he did it 32 times, all cases that was direct conflict challenging the Jim Crow laws
[00:25:59.040]of the day.
[00:26:00.500]And he won 29 of those cases.
[00:26:04.420]And he didn't go to a, quote, Ivy League law school.
[00:26:10.920]He went to a law school, quote, that people said at the time was barely holding its own,
[00:26:17.300]Howard University.
[00:26:18.460]Because he couldn't get...
[00:26:19.760]Into a white law school because the law of the land said he couldn't go.
[00:26:26.980]So he went to the only thing that was available, which was Howard University.
[00:26:31.080]And he used what he learned to help change the world.
[00:26:37.100]And when he argued the Brown versus Boarder education decision in 1954, he argued to tear
[00:26:45.900]down Presley versus Ferguson, which was the law of the land.
[00:26:49.580]At that time, which was the separate but equal doctrine that said that it's okay for blacks
[00:26:56.660]to live in this country as long as we keep them separate and keep it equal.
[00:27:02.260]But it wasn't separate but equal.
[00:27:03.880]I had the privilege today with Lawrence of seeing your athletic facilities, some of the
[00:27:14.240]most beautiful facilities I've ever seen in my life.
[00:27:19.400]One thing Lawrence said to me, the males have this and the female, they have this and you
[00:27:27.860]couldn't tell a difference because they were both equal.
[00:27:31.520]It was a level playing field that you have created here for your athletic program.
[00:27:36.760]And I guarantee you that didn't happen by accident.
[00:27:39.160]It didn't happen, but there was a law in the book called Title IX that said you must do
[00:27:45.160]this if you're going to do that.
[00:27:49.220]You abide by that law.
[00:27:51.360]But the United States did not abide by the separate but equal doctrine that came to African
[00:27:55.620]Americans in this country.
[00:27:57.440]The schools were not equal.
[00:27:59.760]They were separate, but they were not equal.
[00:28:01.740]They didn't have the same level of funding.
[00:28:04.040]I work for an organization called the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
[00:28:06.820]We have 54 historically black colleges and universities.
[00:28:09.960]We are constantly talking to the federal government about their responsibility to level the playing
[00:28:17.860]field.
[00:28:19.040]As a land grant institution like this, you get a dollar for dollar match.
[00:28:23.280]For every dollar you get from the federal government, the state will match that.
[00:28:27.360]1862 Land Grant Act, the Morrell Act.
[00:28:30.940]That's the law of the land.
[00:28:32.600]They created the 1890 Land Grant Act because those states who had, the southern states,
[00:28:39.480]who had to figure out how they were going to educate their African Americans, if the
[00:28:43.040]land grant did not want them in, they could create their own land grant institution.
[00:28:48.860]And the law of the land said you must have a dollar for match.
[00:28:53.100]This country has never, never fully given the dollar for dollar match for the 1890 land
[00:28:59.720]grant institution.
[00:29:00.720]To this day.
[00:29:01.720]There was a study that was done recently by Forbes magazine, Susan Adams, who studied
[00:29:07.880]and took 30 years and looked at 30 years worth of data.
[00:29:12.820]30 years worth of data of funding from states, primarily southern states, to say, hey, let
[00:29:18.680]us look and see if those states follow the law.
[00:29:22.000]Let us look and see if those states actually did the dollar for dollar match.
[00:29:26.960]Every single 1862 land grant got the dollar for dollar match.
[00:29:31.500]For 30 years they went back and they underfunded the 1890s by $13 billion.
[00:29:40.680]$13 billion.
[00:29:43.100]Can you imagine what you could do with $13 billion?
[00:29:48.500]So, people talk about the inequities that exist.
[00:29:52.740]Some of those inequities are very intentional from that perspective.
[00:29:56.580]So, we have to keep it front and center in reminding people of why we do the things that
[00:30:04.720]we do.
[00:30:05.720]And it's through the legacy and the memory of not only Justice Marshall, but Martin Luther
[00:30:12.400]King.
[00:30:13.400]And Martin Luther King's saying very clearly, education is that issue.
[00:30:18.320]It's that equalizer.
[00:30:21.100]Education is the place that will give me a fair shot.
[00:30:26.200]Education is where we have an opportunity to do something great.
[00:30:30.500]I was just recently Friday on the campus of Lincoln University, which is the oldest four-year
[00:30:38.700]degree-granting HBCU in America, founded in 1854.
[00:30:46.080]There's another school in Pennsylvania called Chattanooga.
[00:30:48.140]Cheney University, which was founded in 1837.
[00:30:51.600]They said they're the oldest, but they're the oldest because they started, but it was
[00:30:55.440]a primary school.
[00:30:57.920]They didn't start offering four-year degrees until years later.
[00:31:03.240]Lincoln offered four-year degrees.
[00:31:06.420]Thurgood Marshall went to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
[00:31:13.140]We were in the room where we announced a major partnership.
[00:31:17.960]And the library that was built in 1863, it was the library study room where Thurgood
[00:31:25.060]Marshall actually became the president of the debate club in that room.
[00:31:31.500]And also in that room, Thurgood Marshall would have conversations with a man by the name
[00:31:36.140]of Langston Hughes in that room.
[00:31:40.020]Also in that room, there was a president, became president of Ghana, Nkwama Kume, who
[00:31:45.780]graduated.
[00:31:47.780]He was in that room.
[00:31:50.340]If we did not have those institutions that were set up to provide educational opportunities,
[00:31:57.820]where would we be?
[00:32:00.000]There would be no Thurgood Marshall or Langston Hughes because there's those educational institutions
[00:32:06.300]that sparked the intellectual opportunity for them to grow and see what they can become.
[00:32:14.780]And that's why it's important for us all to continue.
[00:32:17.600]To do whatever we can to protect all the rights associated with providing people with an education
[00:32:26.960]that's going to allow them to become their full self.
[00:32:30.160]And to allow them to learn from faculty and give them the independence and the freedom
[00:32:37.840]to speak the truth and to be clear.
[00:32:41.920]Because when we learn and we know the truth, we have a better chance of not repeating it.
[00:32:47.420]Things that are not good and Martin Luther King in his life was very clear on
[00:32:57.840]Speaking the truth. After the 1963 March on Washington, he was at the peak of his popularity.
[00:33:10.960]But there was an agency called the FBI that put him on a list as the most dangerous person in America.
[00:33:25.140]The most dangerous person in America.
[00:33:28.900]This is a person that has never had an elected office.
[00:33:33.340]This was a person that never, ever was motivated by money.
[00:33:43.520]This was a person who dedicated his life to caring for others and loving despite, despite.
[00:33:54.380]Death.
[00:33:56.220]Despite humiliation.
[00:33:59.300]Despite being spit on.
[00:34:02.540]Despite being slapped.
[00:34:05.520]And he will look at you and say, turn the other cheek.
[00:34:10.520]But he was the most dangerous American by the FBI.
[00:34:16.680]And he said, quote, we must destroy him.
[00:34:21.360]We will use all of our resources.
[00:34:24.980]The federal government got a lot of resources.
[00:34:28.420]And I want you to put yourself in this space to know you had that kind of pressure on you.
[00:34:39.300]And what would get you up in the morning to keep moving forward.
[00:34:44.920]You had to have some sort of divine inhibition.
[00:34:49.360]The normal person would cave to that level of pressure.
[00:34:55.240]The pressure was so unwavering.
[00:34:59.020]And then, on top of that, the FBI asked Bobby Kennedy, who was the Attorney General at the time, FBI did, they report to the Attorney General, for permission to wiretap his room.
[00:35:20.820]We want to bug his room.
[00:35:24.280]Our country, we still do that?
[00:35:27.280]To an American?
[00:35:29.280]Because we think he is a communist.
[00:35:34.160]And people believed it because of his association with a person at the time who was a known communist.
[00:35:44.260]But Dr. King loved everybody.
[00:35:48.820]But Dr. King loved America the most.
[00:35:53.240]Because Dr. King challenged America.
[00:35:57.020]Sometimes when we love you, what do we do with our children?
[00:36:00.600]We do hard things when we love you.
[00:36:04.340]And sometimes it's difficult.
[00:36:06.920]But Dr. King loved this great country.
[00:36:12.280]Because he said to America, be true to what you put on paper.
[00:36:17.180]Be true to your word.
[00:36:19.440]If you said we're equal, we're equal.
[00:36:21.520]Be true to what you say.
[00:36:23.220]And then remind people.
[00:36:26.340]And with that conviction, he moved this country.
[00:36:33.100]He's the only person.
[00:36:35.620]I live in Washington, D.C., and I get the privilege of driving around that beautiful capital.
[00:36:41.880]And especially spending time on the National Mall.
[00:36:45.140]Beautiful.
[00:36:46.720]Those of you who've been know the power of that mall and the power of that imagery associated with that.
[00:36:53.200]To know that you have a monument for the first president of the United States, Washington Monument.
[00:37:00.580]You also have a monument of Abraham Lincoln, who saved the Union.
[00:37:07.900]And we also have a monument of FDR, and we know what he did during World War II.
[00:37:15.060]But over there on the corner, there's a monument of Dr. Martin Luther King.
[00:37:22.240]A man who never, as I said, began, who wasn't elected to anything, wasn't driven by money,
[00:37:28.040]but his legacy lives on because he stood for something.
[00:37:33.180]He had principles, and he didn't waver off those principles.
[00:37:38.060]He couldn't be bought.
[00:37:39.120]He couldn't be sold.
[00:37:41.540]Even when his organization, SCLC, was in financial ruin because he wasn't a fundraiser.
[00:37:51.280]He wasn't a fundraiser.
[00:37:52.620]That organization had financial challenges, and they told him when things were going on
[00:38:01.440]wrong in this country around the Vietnam War, they said, don't speak out.
[00:38:07.780]Stay in your lane.
[00:38:10.600]Don't hurt our movement.
[00:38:15.100]Stay focused on civil rights, not human rights.
[00:38:20.540]Don't hurt our movement.
[00:38:21.260]But civil rights, he was told that by the power to be.
[00:38:25.860]And he had conviction.
[00:38:28.200]And he said, I have to do what is right.
[00:38:32.640]And sometimes when you do something that is right, it's going to make you lose friends.
[00:38:40.080]My office is in the Gallup building.
[00:38:44.460]I know some of you know Gallup.
[00:38:46.760]Powerful organization.
[00:38:48.640]Gallup did a poll.
[00:38:51.720]And King was rated one in the poll about his popularity after he spoke out against Vietnam.
[00:39:00.320]It was down in the dumps.
[00:39:03.060]America hated Martin Luther King for speaking out against the war.
[00:39:08.080]But he did because he knew he had to do the right thing.
[00:39:12.900]And on his last journey in 1968, the last.
[00:39:21.220]Journey was in Memphis, Tennessee.
[00:39:22.740]He was asked to come and he was tired.
[00:39:26.680]He was tired.
[00:39:28.080]He was asked to come to Memphis, Tennessee, because there was a strike going on with sanitation workers and those sanitation workers were being underpaid.
[00:39:38.320]So we're in there with someone that was being treated badly.
[00:39:42.460]He had the empathy to go and care for them.
[00:39:47.000]And at that night, at that moment, he didn't want to be.
[00:39:51.200]He didn't want to be there in Memphis.
[00:39:52.280]But he gave his last speech on that night.
[00:39:55.660]And when he gave his last speech, he gave a picture of the future.
[00:40:02.460]He had to give that speech.
[00:40:05.600]He had to say to America.
[00:40:10.500]He said, I might not get there with you, but we will get to the promised land.
[00:40:21.180]He said to America that night on April 4th, he said, we will get to the promised land because I have looked over and I see the promised land.
[00:40:35.940]And I know we are going to work together as brothers and sisters, and I know we're going to strive together in this country and we're going to do that.
[00:40:49.680]So that last.
[00:40:51.160]Speech.
[00:40:51.760]Even though it was fatal in projecting the future, it was also positive about the future.
[00:41:02.340]And it was also encouraging because when Dr.
[00:41:06.360]King was assassinated, there was so much uncertainty.
[00:41:10.160]At that time, I said, what is going to happen because we've killed the dreamer.
[00:41:15.940]If you kill the dreamer, you kill the dream.
[00:41:19.220]But that didn't happen.
[00:41:21.140]That didn't happen.
[00:41:23.340]That didn't happen because people respected what he did.
[00:41:30.160]So in his life, not only the legacy of Dr.
[00:41:34.960]Martin Luther King continues to this day, we have the opportunity to reflect on his journey.
[00:41:43.640]In his 39 years, he did something that's probably the hardest thing in America is to get
[00:41:51.120]an amendment to the Constitution.
[00:41:52.440]Anybody ever done that?
[00:41:53.440]The 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1965 Civil Rights Act, 1968 Fair Housing Act.
[00:42:01.720]Martin Luther King did that in his 39 years.
[00:42:04.780]That's the legacy of someone.
[00:42:08.400]Not only that, he had a time to write six books in those 39 years.
[00:42:14.620]And he dedicated, had a loving wife, four beautiful children.
[00:42:22.100]In those 39 years.
[00:42:24.040]And we are here tonight to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King and what he did, not only for America, but for the world.
[00:42:36.880]And what he did in terms of the promise associated with our great country.
[00:42:42.080]Yes, there are some difficult days, as he said, ahead.
[00:42:47.200]But we're going to be okay.
[00:42:49.380]We're going to be okay.
[00:42:51.080]We're going to be okay because we've been here before.
[00:42:52.460]We're going to be okay because we are strong as a nation.
[00:42:56.380]I had the privilege of spending time here recently with Andrew Young.
[00:43:04.260]Andrew Young was Dr. Martin Luther King's right-hand man
[00:43:10.200]during the Civil Rights Movement outside of Ralph Abernathy.
[00:43:13.480]I also spent some time with Reverend Ralph before he passed away.
[00:43:17.040]But Andrew Young is 92 years old.
[00:43:21.060]And I had the privilege of meeting with him in Atlanta.
[00:43:25.040]He still lives in Atlanta.
[00:43:26.840]He was a former mayor of Atlanta.
[00:43:28.160]He was also the first UN ambassador,
[00:43:30.940]Africa UN ambassador for Jimmy Carter.
[00:43:32.860]And he was a congressman from Georgia.
[00:43:35.400]But he was also in the fight during the movement.
[00:43:41.180]And I asked if things are better now.
[00:43:51.040]And Andrew Young said, things are so much better.
[00:43:53.460]We might think it's hard right now.
[00:43:56.420]We might think it's difficult.
[00:43:58.280]But he said, I know what it means.
[00:44:00.200]I know what difficult looks like.
[00:44:03.680]And the thing that we did to change this country,
[00:44:08.420]it was hard.
[00:44:09.980]People died.
[00:44:12.240]People died for the right that we have today.
[00:44:17.920]And we have to continue to,
[00:44:21.020]remind people of the importance of taking days like this
[00:44:26.160]out of our busy schedule
[00:44:28.500]to reflect on where we've been and where we're going.
[00:44:33.080]And I can tell you, we're going forward,
[00:44:36.300]and we're going forward in a very intentional way.
[00:44:38.540]And I'm happy to be here to just share some moments with you.
[00:44:43.440]Thank you.
[00:44:51.000]Thank you so much, Dr. Williams.
[00:45:00.240]At this point in time, we're going to have some questions,
[00:45:02.580]if you'd like to ask questions.
[00:45:03.860]And just some special instructions for the questions.
[00:45:06.700]Please wait until the microphone gets to you.
[00:45:08.400]We have Julie and Meredith.
[00:45:09.400]We'll bring you a microphone.
[00:45:10.420]Ask the question into the microphone,
[00:45:12.340]because we do have some streaming going on,
[00:45:14.060]and we'd like people on the stream to be able to get those questions.
[00:45:20.980]I was going to say you had 30 seconds.
[00:45:33.200]And if it wasn't 30 seconds, I'm out.
[00:45:35.000]My name is Jennifer Peek-Smith,
[00:45:38.380]and I work in faculty affairs here.
[00:45:40.980]And my question is about organizing,
[00:45:44.740]because many times we think of MLK and we think of speeches,
[00:45:49.740]and you mentioned that you're a member of the MLK,
[00:45:50.960]but he did lead SCLC.
[00:45:55.360]And aside from the financial struggles that you mentioned,
[00:45:59.700]I wonder if there are lessons you think we could take away
[00:46:02.860]in our current moment about the organizing aspect,
[00:46:07.460]or from SNCC or CORE or any of the other organizations at that time.
[00:46:12.700]Well, thank you for that question.
[00:46:14.040]And one thing I want to share with you all,
[00:46:16.280]Dr. King wasn't an organizer.
[00:46:20.940]He had people around here who could organize.
[00:46:22.720]And so when they planned the...
[00:46:26.080]I would encourage all of you
[00:46:28.160]that there's a great movie on Netflix now.
[00:46:32.600]It's called Rustin.
[00:46:33.960]It's about Bernard Rustin.
[00:46:36.200]He was an incredible organizer.
[00:46:40.400]And Bernard Rustin was...
[00:46:46.280]And this is all known.
[00:46:47.660]He was part of...
[00:46:50.920]He was part of the organization
[00:46:54.340]that helped kind of the SELC.
[00:46:57.260]He was on the team there.
[00:46:59.040]But at the time, he was openly gay.
[00:47:04.560]And that wasn't good back then
[00:47:06.760]for someone to be that close to ministers in particular.
[00:47:12.960]And it just didn't look right.
[00:47:15.360]So the old guard didn't like that image.
[00:47:17.400]And there's a scene in the movie
[00:47:19.500]and there's a confrontation
[00:47:20.900]there.
[00:47:21.480]But Rustin was the,
[00:47:25.320]I mean, he was the man
[00:47:26.800]when it came to organizing activities.
[00:47:29.180]And he was the
[00:47:31.020]architect behind
[00:47:32.620]the
[00:47:33.820]March on Washington.
[00:47:35.780]Because to pull together
[00:47:38.480]300,000 people,
[00:47:40.160]you need someone to be able to get that done.
[00:47:43.400]And so by using
[00:47:44.780]that skill, and it's kind of interesting
[00:47:47.020]when they were debating
[00:47:48.920]on the March on
[00:47:50.880]Washington,
[00:47:51.420]they thought success would look like
[00:47:54.740]50,000 people.
[00:47:56.000]They had one, I think, in 1935.
[00:47:58.960]In 1935 or so, the NAACP
[00:48:01.060]had one.
[00:48:01.740]But they wanted to go
[00:48:05.040]big. And there was a big
[00:48:07.120]debate in that big six
[00:48:08.720]led by
[00:48:10.860]A. Philip Randolph and
[00:48:13.200]Roy Wilkins. And Roy Wilkins
[00:48:14.820]was kind of the
[00:48:16.740]godfather because of the NAACP
[00:48:18.960]and its
[00:48:20.860]legacy. It was a legacy
[00:48:22.740]organization that had been around
[00:48:24.400]and SELC had just come on the scene.
[00:48:26.760]But they all
[00:48:29.160]knew that they
[00:48:30.820]couldn't get the people there.
[00:48:32.560]They need Dr. King to get
[00:48:34.860]the people there. But they
[00:48:36.220]needed
[00:48:37.460]Rustin to organize it.
[00:48:40.580]And so they had a big debate on
[00:48:42.780]how do we get him
[00:48:44.180]in without getting him
[00:48:46.880]up front.
[00:48:47.940]But we need him to get it done.
[00:48:50.840]And they figured it out.
[00:48:52.980]And if you watch that movie, you
[00:48:54.780]look at that famous
[00:48:56.500]speech.
[00:48:58.980]Rustin is sitting right there behind
[00:49:01.000]Dr. King on the stage.
[00:49:02.940]But he'll tell you,
[00:49:04.580]and this is in his biography, that
[00:49:06.860]he wasn't about
[00:49:07.860]fame or fortune.
[00:49:10.780]He said, you could call me the dog catcher,
[00:49:12.600]but are we going to do this thing in terms of how
[00:49:14.740]we organize? And people
[00:49:16.800]responded to that.
[00:49:18.380]So that was part of the movement.
[00:49:20.820]As you stated.
[00:49:22.640]And they also had a lot of
[00:49:24.960]and
[00:49:26.620]one of the
[00:49:28.220]best books that's out here
[00:49:30.760]now about kings called King
[00:49:32.480]Life. It's by
[00:49:34.640]Jonathan
[00:49:36.160]Ige, I think.
[00:49:38.140]He just
[00:49:40.620]published, I just finished it about a year ago.
[00:49:42.780]It's an incredible book. And there's a lot
[00:49:44.780]of detail of
[00:49:46.640]actually what went on in
[00:49:48.780]the room there. I mean,
[00:49:50.800]it's the most comprehensive
[00:49:52.180]book.
[00:49:53.380]E-I-G, last name.
[00:49:56.500]And he
[00:49:58.060]goes into detail
[00:50:00.640]about how
[00:50:02.740]the players interacted
[00:50:04.880]with each other. And there was a lot
[00:50:06.740]of tension. Because you can imagine,
[00:50:08.920]you know, do we have
[00:50:10.840]egos? Anybody got an ego in here?
[00:50:12.320]I mean, I said we don't have any egos,
[00:50:14.800]right? But you got, so you can imagine
[00:50:17.080]being in that room
[00:50:19.020]and trying to
[00:50:20.780]articulate which direction
[00:50:22.980]to go and how to go
[00:50:24.880]and who should be the top,
[00:50:26.500]who should be the person. And there was
[00:50:28.760]a group in there
[00:50:30.980]called SNCC, it was Student
[00:50:32.740]Nonviolent Coordinating Committee,
[00:50:34.460]which was founded on the campus of
[00:50:36.860]Shaw University in
[00:50:38.520]Raleigh, North Carolina.
[00:50:40.340]And it was a group
[00:50:42.980]of young kind of
[00:50:44.880]you know,
[00:50:45.900]college students
[00:50:48.360]who wanted change now
[00:50:50.760]now. So you got that group
[00:50:52.900]of, you know,
[00:50:54.240]college students really want change quick, right?
[00:50:56.760]And if you're
[00:50:57.800]19, 18, you see the administration,
[00:51:00.660]I know y'all don't have that here, but
[00:51:02.500]they wanted to change
[00:51:05.100]and Dr. King
[00:51:06.260]was the person who was the senior guy
[00:51:08.700]in the room, so he had to
[00:51:10.320]manage that and they would have these
[00:51:12.900]fights, I mean
[00:51:14.580]real big fights about
[00:51:16.600]what they should be doing.
[00:51:18.260]And I'm getting some of these stories
[00:51:20.740]from Andrew Young
[00:51:22.500]and Andrew Young
[00:51:24.460]indicated to me
[00:51:26.700]that
[00:51:27.460]in that room, and it's great
[00:51:30.540]for him to be around now, if anybody
[00:51:32.700]he just recently
[00:51:34.860]spoke at President Jimmy
[00:51:36.580]Carter's funeral
[00:51:37.980]and he was there
[00:51:39.920]but that person
[00:51:42.680]is a giant in that space
[00:51:44.940]but the organization
[00:51:46.360]was important to have that
[00:51:48.320]and bringing people together, but there was a
[00:51:50.720]lot of internal
[00:51:52.720]conflict, which I think
[00:51:54.960]is a natural thing
[00:51:56.580]when you're both impacting
[00:51:58.660]change, and that's what you're doing
[00:52:00.580]you're just trying to figure out what to do
[00:52:02.860]and what
[00:52:03.520]Andrew Young said to me
[00:52:06.180]he talked about that
[00:52:08.620]a lot of the activity
[00:52:10.900]that went on, they didn't know
[00:52:12.780]what, it wasn't really planned
[00:52:14.580]some of it just happened
[00:52:15.660]even the
[00:52:17.840]famous speech
[00:52:20.700]that he gave, the I have a dream speech
[00:52:22.640]that wasn't the original
[00:52:23.980]he had a written out speech that he was going to give
[00:52:26.820]but Mahalia Jackson was on the stage
[00:52:29.180]and Mahalia Jackson
[00:52:30.480]he was reading his little speech
[00:52:31.940]and he said, I told you he did
[00:52:34.740]over 3,000 speeches
[00:52:36.200]but a lot of those speeches he just repeated
[00:52:38.280]over and over again and Mahalia Jackson
[00:52:40.820]said tell them about the dream
[00:52:42.220]Martin, tell them about the dream
[00:52:43.840]and that moment it clicked in
[00:52:46.620]if you watch, he threw the notes aside
[00:52:48.840]and extemporaneously he just go
[00:52:50.680]into this almost like
[00:52:52.580]character, you know, he throw that
[00:52:54.580]head back and he would just go
[00:52:56.660]into and talk about
[00:52:57.940]he'd take you around America
[00:53:00.000]he'd say I go, you know, I look at all the mountains
[00:53:02.280]and how we're going to come together as a
[00:53:04.580]nation, but that was a speech
[00:53:06.360]that transcended
[00:53:08.340]not only him, but the world
[00:53:10.260]because we all listened to that speech
[00:53:11.980]we all listened to the words
[00:53:13.960]that was articulated there, but it was
[00:53:16.280]words that meant something
[00:53:18.020]at the time and it means something even today
[00:53:20.660]Thank you so much
[00:53:38.260]for the masterpiece of eloquence
[00:53:40.260]really enjoyed that
[00:53:41.160]as somebody who is coming from central Asian
[00:53:44.580]region, which is
[00:53:46.360]surrounded by different dictators
[00:53:47.940]lots of authority and impression
[00:53:50.640]so
[00:53:51.780]in your opinion
[00:53:53.360]my part of the world, we are craving for somebody
[00:53:56.580]like Martin Luther King
[00:53:57.740]so in your opinion
[00:53:59.740]what made MLK
[00:54:02.620]the legend he is remembered
[00:54:04.640]as today
[00:54:05.640]like what top three qualities
[00:54:07.840]thank you
[00:54:09.360]I think Dr. King would be
[00:54:11.940]remembered as what they call a transformational
[00:54:14.900]leader
[00:54:15.540]and a transformational leader
[00:54:18.040]of those leaders that
[00:54:19.340]that
[00:54:20.620]that can drive emotion
[00:54:22.600]right and they can
[00:54:23.700]they can move you
[00:54:26.260]in a way that's going to
[00:54:28.860]motivate you
[00:54:30.080]to take action
[00:54:32.560]you know if you listen to
[00:54:34.700]his speeches
[00:54:36.320]they're all about action
[00:54:38.740]it's about doing something
[00:54:40.620]it's about taking action
[00:54:42.500]even when they did the famous
[00:54:44.420]Selma to
[00:54:45.300]from Selma to Montgomery March
[00:54:48.760]that was an action
[00:54:50.600]that took place because when he
[00:54:52.520]got on the steps you remember I said he
[00:54:54.580]he was the pastor
[00:54:56.600]of Dexter Avenue
[00:54:58.200]Baptist Church
[00:54:59.820]that's located in Montgomery
[00:55:02.440]I meant literally Dexter Avenue
[00:55:04.840]Baptist Church is here
[00:55:06.260]and the state capitol is like maybe
[00:55:08.740]a block over that's how
[00:55:10.660]close proximity and they
[00:55:12.660]had that march and they got to the state
[00:55:14.500]capitol and he gave this
[00:55:16.640]famous three minutes
[00:55:17.920]speech about
[00:55:20.580]we're not going to turn around
[00:55:22.220]we're not afraid
[00:55:23.840]and so the followers needed to
[00:55:26.860]hear that because when you
[00:55:28.700]are in a
[00:55:30.500]fight
[00:55:31.300]but the only thing you got is your words
[00:55:34.440]you don't have guns
[00:55:35.960]you know and then you got on the other side
[00:55:38.980]this guy called Malcolm X y'all heard
[00:55:40.840]of him I think he's from Nebraska
[00:55:43.100]and maybe
[00:55:44.780]down the road in Omaha
[00:55:45.880]you got this other person
[00:55:47.960]that's saying hey we're going to
[00:55:50.560]use the constitution too it's called
[00:55:52.500]right to bear arms we're going
[00:55:54.620]to get us some guns I said whoa
[00:55:56.580]whoa they might get
[00:55:58.480]they might have somebody come
[00:56:00.540]in and ship some guns here
[00:56:02.500]right we've seen that happen around
[00:56:04.700]the world right people talk about
[00:56:06.560]and then you got Malcolm
[00:56:08.260]who had a following
[00:56:10.740]I mean he had a real following
[00:56:12.840]even though people are trying to downplay
[00:56:14.640]it but he had people
[00:56:16.500]who listened to him just like
[00:56:18.620]they listened to Martin Luther King Martin
[00:56:20.540]Luther King had the former training education
[00:56:22.660]he had the PhD he had the
[00:56:24.460]undergraduate degree and Malcolm as we
[00:56:26.580]all know he came
[00:56:28.340]I think he had a ninth grade education
[00:56:30.660]and then he went to prison we know
[00:56:32.680]the story Alex Haley wrote
[00:56:34.740]the autobiography of
[00:56:36.520]someone again
[00:56:37.720]using the intellect
[00:56:40.260]self-made person
[00:56:41.600]who could use words
[00:56:44.420]to paint a picture
[00:56:46.260]and let you know how you're being
[00:56:48.700]treated I mean he
[00:56:50.520]only met Dr. King once
[00:56:52.360]they were both in Washington
[00:56:54.980]at the same time the meeting lasted
[00:56:56.800]about one minute
[00:56:57.680]it was enough to catch a picture
[00:57:00.120]and because they talked
[00:57:01.940]Malcolm X had some words to say about Dr. King
[00:57:05.080]about how he was
[00:57:06.440]not he was
[00:57:07.680]he wouldn't he
[00:57:10.440]compromised too much
[00:57:12.180]he gave up too much
[00:57:14.640]he didn't believe in the non-violent
[00:57:16.420]approach he didn't believe
[00:57:18.500]that it wasn't strong enough
[00:57:20.500]and Dr. King
[00:57:21.800]was taking his
[00:57:24.700]non-violent approach
[00:57:26.300]because it worked for Mahatma Gandhi
[00:57:28.520]and it worked for Jesus
[00:57:30.540]Christ
[00:57:31.100]and the power of
[00:57:34.500]that and using that
[00:57:36.700]to kind of move
[00:57:37.880]to make things happen
[00:57:40.480]so important
[00:57:42.520]from that
[00:57:44.500]so one of his biggest
[00:57:46.580]one of his
[00:57:48.820]biggest trait of
[00:57:50.480]skill you know as
[00:57:52.480]we know is he had
[00:57:54.660]this he could master
[00:57:56.260]words and he
[00:57:58.400]could make those words come
[00:58:00.420]alive and people
[00:58:02.320]could actually feel
[00:58:04.060]what he would say what he
[00:58:06.360]was saying and that's a
[00:58:08.460]gift and that's a talent
[00:58:10.700]but he also
[00:58:12.560]knew that he couldn't
[00:58:14.660]do this without some
[00:58:16.380]divine intervention
[00:58:18.580]to move him forward
[00:58:20.460]there's a scene
[00:58:21.700]there's a Taylor Branch
[00:58:24.380]wrote a book called Parting the Waters
[00:58:26.340]and in that book there's a
[00:58:28.240]story about
[00:58:29.520]Dr. King
[00:58:31.840]being in his kitchen
[00:58:33.920]and the moment
[00:58:36.000]that this weight
[00:58:37.820]of what was happening was on
[00:58:40.440]him so bad that he
[00:58:42.420]wanted to give up
[00:58:43.660]and he wanted to give up
[00:58:46.020]but he said there was a
[00:58:47.660]almost like a holy ghost
[00:58:50.440]spirit that came in
[00:58:51.780]and cleared and said
[00:58:53.640]you're going to do this
[00:58:55.340]and then he came at peace with that
[00:58:58.420]and that's when he
[00:59:00.260]moved forward and there's a story
[00:59:02.120]in there with him saying this
[00:59:03.940]talking about it and he knew
[00:59:05.640]that this was what he was here
[00:59:08.100]on this earth when he died
[00:59:10.360]he didn't have a will
[00:59:13.980]he didn't have
[00:59:16.540]money
[00:59:17.500]for his kids to go to college
[00:59:19.880]and
[00:59:20.420]it was Harry Belafonte
[00:59:22.600]who was part of the movement
[00:59:24.560]that set up a fund
[00:59:25.980]so that all of his kids go to college
[00:59:28.720]there were people
[00:59:30.300]looking out for him
[00:59:31.640]now because he wasn't
[00:59:34.560]thinking about those worldly possessions
[00:59:36.680]they're important
[00:59:38.620]don't get me wrong
[00:59:40.600]they're very important
[00:59:42.120]for us to think about it but he
[00:59:44.200]recognized that he was doing something
[00:59:46.520]that was so much bigger
[00:59:48.560]than what
[00:59:50.400]we sometimes
[00:59:51.700]don't clearly see from that
[00:59:54.340]perspective
[00:59:54.820]I think
[01:00:00.420]that was the last question then we're going to
[01:00:02.040]break up not break up
[01:00:04.200]break up
[01:00:04.680]Nick Hernandez
[01:00:08.320]you mentioned
[01:00:10.080]agape and I also
[01:00:12.400]saw his
[01:00:13.120]writing a little bit on I think it was
[01:00:16.200]philia or friendship and beloved
[01:00:18.320]community and I was wondering if you might
[01:00:20.380]tie those together
[01:00:22.180]from what you
[01:00:23.540]sort of have taken in about
[01:00:26.560]Martin Luther King Jr.
[01:00:27.380]The most important aspect of
[01:00:29.920]and Dr. King would say this
[01:00:31.900]and he was
[01:00:33.500]I mean he was just brilliant
[01:00:36.120]and the one thing about it he had a
[01:00:38.260]he had a photographic memory
[01:00:40.740]and that's a gift for itself
[01:00:42.540]he could memorize
[01:00:43.880]speeches
[01:00:46.000]and he quoted poetry
[01:00:47.760]and he could do it in a way
[01:00:50.360]that would again
[01:00:52.000]paint a picture
[01:00:53.080]and his
[01:00:55.280]unconditional love
[01:00:58.480]for
[01:01:00.020]mankind
[01:01:02.520]and that's the type of love
[01:01:05.960]that he would express
[01:01:08.540]and that was the type
[01:01:10.500]of love that Jesus Christ
[01:01:12.380]expressed
[01:01:13.740]and that was the type of love
[01:01:16.200]that he felt
[01:01:18.000]so deeply
[01:01:20.340]I meant
[01:01:21.820]to the core
[01:01:23.800]because we all know
[01:01:26.500]if Lawrence come up and hit me
[01:01:28.720]right now, my first reaction is to hit Lawrence
[01:01:30.640]back
[01:01:30.980]but they had to be trained
[01:01:34.580]to not to hit
[01:01:36.640]back
[01:01:37.020]I worked at a university called
[01:01:40.400]North Carolina A&T
[01:01:41.840]and North Carolina A&T is in Greensboro, North Carolina
[01:01:44.880]in
[01:01:46.600]1960, four students
[01:01:49.040]at North Carolina A&T
[01:01:50.320]decided they wanted to
[01:01:51.740]go to a lunch counter
[01:01:53.700]and decided they wanted to get a hot dog
[01:01:56.520]they wanted to get a drink
[01:01:58.040]at the local drug store
[01:02:00.380]downtown and they went
[01:02:02.380]down there and they told
[01:02:04.440]them that they couldn't come in
[01:02:05.600]and they sat there and they started the sit-in movement
[01:02:08.580]that started with
[01:02:10.380]four students
[01:02:11.200]went down there and what they wanted
[01:02:14.160]was something very simple
[01:02:16.140]they wanted to sit down
[01:02:18.320]and they wanted to be served
[01:02:20.300]and the law of the land
[01:02:22.460]said he couldn't do that
[01:02:23.340]and so when you went in there
[01:02:25.560]and those students
[01:02:27.360]going back to this
[01:02:29.260]this discipline
[01:02:32.340]that you have to have
[01:02:34.540]when you are part of
[01:02:36.420]a movement like this
[01:02:37.640]you're sitting at lunch
[01:02:40.280]room counter and people
[01:02:42.420]coming in and throwing ketchup on your head
[01:02:44.300]what's your reaction
[01:02:45.900]and they're spitting on you
[01:02:48.420]what's your reaction
[01:02:50.280]you have to have
[01:02:52.780]love
[01:02:53.940]you have to have
[01:02:56.360]a big picture approach
[01:02:58.580]that this is bigger
[01:03:00.480]than you
[01:03:01.260]and you have to have
[01:03:04.140]people telling you
[01:03:06.220]and they would go
[01:03:07.440]there was a group called the Highlanders
[01:03:09.360]they would go in and they would go through this training
[01:03:11.500]of actually people coming in
[01:03:13.580]and shaking you up and spitting on you
[01:03:15.860]so that when that would occur
[01:03:17.620]and what they wanted to happen
[01:03:19.380]was
[01:03:20.260]and it helped
[01:03:21.640]they wanted to get it on TV
[01:03:23.580]so the world could see
[01:03:25.960]and the world could see
[01:03:28.660]and that was what
[01:03:30.360]the Montgomery
[01:03:31.460]Birmingham, I'm leaving tonight
[01:03:34.440]tomorrow morning, I'm going to Birmingham
[01:03:35.800]because we got schools down there, we got a big event
[01:03:37.940]that we're having, but Birmingham was a major city
[01:03:40.140]that really
[01:03:42.240]really
[01:03:44.060]transformed
[01:03:45.600]this country and there was a person
[01:03:48.300]there called
[01:03:50.000]Bull Connor
[01:03:51.100]he was a commissioner
[01:03:53.300]of the police
[01:03:55.340]and Bull Connor
[01:03:57.660]said you're not going to come in here
[01:04:00.000]and rivalize and create
[01:04:02.040]problems for us here, you can take
[01:04:04.040]that marching stuff and get away from here
[01:04:05.880]because we're going to hold the law
[01:04:08.000]and that was a
[01:04:09.460]perfect spot to get on
[01:04:12.000]TV, to show the world
[01:04:14.220]how people
[01:04:15.980]treat their citizens around the
[01:04:18.080]world and that's where the fire hoses
[01:04:19.740]and that's where little kids
[01:04:22.160]were going to jail and the dogs
[01:04:24.420]that they were sitting on
[01:04:25.440]they literally meant the four young
[01:04:27.660]little girls
[01:04:28.780]when they were going to Sunday school
[01:04:31.320]and they drop a bomb in the church
[01:04:33.940]and they kill those four little girls
[01:04:36.120]it was there
[01:04:37.580]but there's also two stories that people
[01:04:39.840]didn't learn about where the police
[01:04:41.840]shot in the back two
[01:04:43.500]teenagers and killed them
[01:04:45.420]during that time. All that was
[01:04:48.000]happening
[01:04:49.480]real time
[01:04:50.360]but you needed to have someone
[01:04:52.700]saying I'm going to turn
[01:04:54.600]the other cheek. That
[01:04:56.620]is hard. That
[01:04:58.780]is really really
[01:05:00.400]hard but they did
[01:05:02.760]it and it had to be a bigger
[01:05:04.720]higher
[01:05:05.820]being that was bigger
[01:05:08.720]than us
[01:05:09.320]that would allow. I'll go back to what
[01:05:12.420]Andrew Young said. We are a better
[01:05:14.300]place now today
[01:05:16.120]because of what
[01:05:18.300]they did
[01:05:19.220]if they didn't do that
[01:05:22.440]we will still be
[01:05:24.480]doing some of the things
[01:05:25.900]that we all
[01:05:27.340]are now don't even
[01:05:30.400]think about. So again Chancellor
[01:05:32.380]thank you for this moment
[01:05:33.780]thank you for this opportunity. Thank you
[01:05:36.600]Lincoln. Thank you University of Nebraska
[01:05:38.640]for your willingness to
[01:05:40.540]hear and continue to
[01:05:42.460]keep the message moving
[01:05:44.460]about the legacy of
[01:05:46.580]Martin Luther King.
[01:05:47.960]Have a great
[01:05:48.960]evening.
[01:05:49.200]applause
[01:05:50.240]applause
[01:05:51.200]Thank you.
[01:05:53.200]you

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Dr. Harry L. Williams gives 2025 MLK Lecture: Leadership for the Future—Carrying Forward the Dream

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