January 28, 2015
Page 7
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O PINION
Real Path to Greatness is Through Service
A lesson to teach
about Dr. King
BY M ARIAN W RIGHT E DELMAN
“If you want to be impor-
tant—wonderful. If you want to
be recognized—wonderful. If
you want to be great—wonder-
ful. But recognize that he who is
greatest among you shall be
your servant. That’s a new defi-
nition of greatness. And this morning, the
thing that I like about it: by giving that
definition of greatness, it means that every-
body can be great, because everybody can
serve. You don’t have to have a college degree
to serve. You don’t have to make your subject
and your verb agree to serve. You don’t have
to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve.
You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of
relativity to serve. You don’t have to know the
second theory of thermodynamics in physics
to serve. You only need a heart full of grace,
a soul generated by love.”
These well-known words are from Dr. Mar-
tin Luther King Jr.’s sermon “The Drum Major
Instinct,” delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church
on Feb. 4, 1968. Dr. King was explaining that we
all start out with the ingrained instinct to be
“drum majors:” everyone wants to be impor-
tant, to be first, to lead the parade. Watch a
group of children try to form a line and right
away you’ll see this instinct in action. But Dr.
King said too many people never outgrow this
instinct—and by constantly struggling to be
the most powerful or famous or wealthiest or
best-educated, we forget one of the Gospels’
and life’s largest truths: the real path to great-
ness is through service.
This is one of the key lessons we should
teach our children about Dr. King. Many of
them have just studied Dr. King in school in the
days leading up to his birthday, and
many have learned to see him as a
history book hero—a larger-than-life,
mythical figure. But it’s crucial for
them to understand Dr. King wasn’t a
superhuman with magical powers. Just
as the extraordinary new movie Selma
is reminding a new generation of
filmgoers, our children need to be reminded
that Dr. King was a real person—just like all of
the other ministers, parents, teachers, neigh-
bors, and other familiar adults in their lives
today.
I first heard Dr. King speak in person at a
Spelman College chapel service during my
senior year in college. Dr. King was just 31
but he had already gained a national reputa-
tion during the successful Montgomery Bus
Boycott five years earlier. He became a men-
tor and friend. Although I do remember him
as a great leader and a hero, I also remember
him as someone able to admit how often he
was afraid and unsure about his next step.
But faith prevailed over fear, uncertainty,
fatigue, and sometimes depression. It was
his human vulnerability and ability to rise
above it that I most remember. “If I Can Help
Somebody Along the Way” was his favorite
song. He was an ordinary man who made
history because he was willing to stand up
and serve and make a difference in extraordi-
nary ways as did the legions of other civil
rights warriors in the 1950s and 1960s. We
need to teach our children every day that
they can and must make a difference too.
“Everybody can be great, because every-
body can serve.”
Towards the end of “The Drum Major
Instinct,” Dr. King told the congregation he
sometimes thought about his own death and
funeral. He said when that day came he didn’t
want people to talk about his Nobel Peace
Prize or his degrees or hundreds of awards:
“I’d like somebody to mention that day that
Martin Luther King Jr., tried to give his life
serving others. I’d like for somebody to say
that day that Martin Luther King Jr., tried to
love somebody. I want you to say that day
that I tried to be right on the war question. I
want you to be able to say that day that I did
try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be
able to say that day that I did try in my life to
clothe those who were naked. I want you to
say on that day that I did try in my life to visit
those who were in prison. I want you to say
that I tried to love and serve humanity. Yes,
if you want to say that I was a drum major, say
that I was a drum major for justice. Say that
I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum
major for righteousness. And all of the other
shallow things will not matter. I won’t have
any money to leave behind. I won’t have the
fine and luxurious things of life to leave
behind. But I just want to leave a committed
life behind. And that’s all I want to say.”
Dr. King was assassinated two months to
the day after giving this sermon. But a re-
cording of “The Drum Major Instinct” was
played at his funeral, and many people think
of these moving words in Dr. King’s voice as
his own eulogy. He knew how he wanted to
be remembered.
Americans across the country now cel-
ebrate Dr. King’s birthday as “a day on, not
a day off” and use this day to come together
for community service and action¬. But we
shouldn’t wait for the holiday to come back
around to remember and honor him this way.
We can honor Dr. King’s legacy best by
serving every day and standing together to
build a movement to realize Dr. King’s dream
and America’s dream and by following his
lead in being a drum major for justice.
As our country faces morally and eco-
nomically indefensible child poverty rates,
wealth and income inequality, and grand-
standing politicians who put party and poli-
tics ahead of principle and sound policy, I
hope they will hear and follow our great 20th
century prophet.
In his last speech in Memphis the night
before he was assassinated he gave us our
marching orders: “...I’m always happy to
see a relevant ministry. It’s all right to talk
about long white robes over yonder, in all
of its symbolism, but ultimately people
want some suits and dresses and shoes to
wear down here. It's all right to talk about
streets flowing with milk and honey, but
God has commanded us to be concerned
about the slums down here and His chil-
dren who can’t eat three square meals a
day. It’s all right to talk about the new
Jerusalem, but one day God’s preacher
must talk about the new New York, the new
Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new
Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennes-
see. This is what we have to do.”
His mandate was not just to God’s preach-
ers but also to all of God’s people. That’s all
of us.
Marian Wright Edelman is president of
the Children's Defense Fund.
Historic Drama Reflective of Modern Reality
Selma movie wins
hearts and minds
BY M ARC H. M ORIAL
Who among us could
have predicted that a cin-
ematic retelling of the he-
roic efforts of Rev. Dr. Mar-
tin Luther King Jr. and other
civil rights leaders in 1965
to organize and lead marches from Selma to
Montgomery, Alabama in an effort to gain
equal voting rights for African Americans in
that city would end up teaching us as much
about the present as it does the past?
Selma, with its nod to history, is a film that
also manages to channel and highlight our
nation’s modern-day struggles to form a more
perfect union.
Ava DuVernay’s Oscar-nominated biopic
comes across the big screen at a pivotal mo-
ment in our history. It comes on the 50th
anniversary of the three Selma to Montgom-
ery marches and the signing of the federal
Voting Rights Act into law. It comes during
this week’s 30th anniversary celebration of
Martin Luther King Day as a national holiday.
It comes on the heels of demonstrations and
social unrest over the lack of accountability in
the deaths of black people from Sanford, Fla.,
to Staten Island, N.Y. and beyond – with
protestors of varied hues and backgrounds
calling for an end to centuries-long discrimina-
tion, racial inequality, and police misconduct.
These demands, the urgency for change,
and the use of productive, non-violent civil
disobedience would have been all too familiar
to Dr. King, who, along with other notable and
nameless heroes, sacrificed his own life in the
pursuit of many of these goals.
With John Legend, the co-creator of the
film’s soundtrack“Glory” at his side, rapper
Common recently accepted Selma’s sole Golden
Globe award for Best Original Song – drawing
a direct line from the past to the present:
“The first day I stepped on the set of
Selma, I began to feel like this was bigger than
a movie. As I got to know the people of the
civil rights movement, I realized I am the
hopeful black woman who was denied her
right to vote. I am the caring white supporter,
killed on the front lines of freedom. I am the
unarmed kid, who maybe needed a hand, but
instead was given a bullet. I am the two fallen
police officers murdered in the line of duty.
Selma has awakened my humanity…We look
to the future, and we want to create a better
world. Now is our time to change the world.
'Selma' is now.”
For those who have seen this powerful
film, is it possible to watch a young black man
be shot and killed by police officers acting
with impunity then and not think of the
names that crowd our front pages and pro-
tests now? Is it possible to watch a black
woman fail to meet an unreasonable stan-
dard to be permitted to vote and not worry
about the Supreme Court’s 2013 decision
that effectively dismantled the 1965 Voting
Rights Act? Yes, in so many ways, Selma is
now.
It is thus unfortunate that this historic,
culturally-relevant, well-made feature about
an iconic moment in and figures of American
history has not been fully recognized during
this awards season. While I celebrate the
film’s win for Best Original Song at the Golden
Globes, I have also expressed my disap-
pointment that DuVernay did not win Best
Director. The film is worthy – and so is she.
The subsequent failure of the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to nomi-
nate DuVernay and the film’s lead actors for
Oscars has not only been almost universally
viewed as a snub, but it has set the stage for
the least diverse Oscars since 1998, with not
one actor of color receiving an acting nomi-
nation.
Still, Selma has achieved much more than
could ever be reflected in any statuette as
everyday citizens, politicians, entrepreneurs,
business and community leaders, and no-
table personalities have stepped in to give
the film the recognition it deserves – and to
give thousands of students a meaningful
history lesson beyond their classrooms.
Through various coalitions, free screen-
ings of Selma are being offered to middle
school and high school students across the
country in select cities including Selma, Wash-
ington, D.C., New York and New Orleans,
which was led, in part, by the Urban League
of Greater New Orleans. I have also joined a
coalition of African American business and
civic leaders in New Jersey who are under-
writing free admission to Selma for students.
Although Hollywood’s most coveted honor
will elude the director and actors, Selma – and
everyone involved – have already won for one
of the most impactful and inspirational movies
of a generation to a nation still in search of
peace, healing, and equality.
Marc H. Morial is president and chief
executive officer of the National Urban
League.