# Untitled project from Captivate
## [00:00:00] Introduction and Reflections on Power and Love
[00:00:00]
[00:00:00] **Dr Martin Luther King Jr:** Now we got to get this thing right. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental. Anemic. Power at its best
[00:00:20] **Dr Martin Luther King Jr:** power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice and justice at its best. Is love correcting everything that stands against love.
## [00:00:35] Welcome to the Black Executive Perspective Podcast
[00:00:35] **Dr Martin Luther King Jr:** Welcome
[00:00:35] **Dr Martin Luther King Jr:** to
[00:00:36] **Tony Tidbit:** a Black Executive Perspective podcast, A safe space where we discuss all matters related to race, especially race in corporate America. I'm your host, Tony Tidbit.
## [00:00:48] Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Legacy
[00:00:48] **Tony Tidbit:** Today commemorates Dr . Martin Luther King's Junior's birthday a day traditionally reserved for honoring his remarkable achievements. And [00:01:00] understanding the significance of celebrating him.
## [00:01:03] Unveiling Lesser Known Facts About MLK
[00:01:03] **Tony Tidbit:** However, on this occasion, our focus will shift towards unveiling 11 lesser known facts about MLK and delving into the reason why he remains a continuous, continued source of inspiration for me.
[00:01:25] **Tony Tidbit:** To join me in this discussion is our executive producer. aa. aa. What's going on, my friend? What's up big Tony? How's it going? It's going great, man. You looking good, man. You energized. I'm feeling great for 2024, baby. Let's get all right. I love it. I love it. See, that's what we need. We wanna bring the energy, you bringing us a new year, new things, new thoughts, new goals, new pers, pers perspectives.
[00:01:50] **Tony Tidbit:** And we're gonna bring all this to you, but we're gonna kick it off with, with Martin Luther King Jr's birthday. So let's go into some of these 11 unknown facts. And to be fair, [00:02:00] some of these things you might've heard of. So I'm not gonna sit here and tell you everything that we're gonna walk you through, um, is, uh, um, that everybody be like, I never knew that.
[00:02:09] **Tony Tidbit:** I never knew that. And then there's probably a couple, there's, there's several here that I wasn't aware of, but I wanna share them with you because obviously this is a great. Day for America, um, honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Um, typically we always talk about the, all the things that more the, the high level stuff, um, of what he accomplished, um, in difficult times.
[00:02:33] **Tony Tidbit:** Um, like I said, today we're gonna talk about these 11, uh, unknown, uh, facts, but we're gonna dive in a little bit deeper in, in terms of why we really should be . Celebrating what he accomplished, because to be honest with you, the majority of the majority of us would never ever be where we are today if it wasn't for his, his dedication, love, and fortitude.
[00:02:57] **Tony Tidbit:** So let's jump into it, right?
## [00:02:59] Discussion on MLK's Lesser Known Facts Begins
[00:02:59] **Tony Tidbit:** So number one, [00:03:00] everybody knows. Martin Luther King Jr. Exactly as that, Martin Luther King, Jr. However, he wasn't born Martin. He was born Michael, okay? And so was his father because he was named after his father. However, his father made a PIL pilgrimage to Germany, and he was learning about the Protestant reformer Martin Luther, and was very inspired by that.
[00:03:27] **Tony Tidbit:** So he changed his name. His son name from Michael King to Martin Luther King s and King Jr. Which was fascinating. He went on his trip in 1934, I believe it was. I didn't know that. Yeah, I didn't that I didn't know that either. Right. So, and, and they both had already established birth certificate names and, uh, he changed not only his name, but also, uh, his son, which is MLK Jr.
[00:03:56] **Tony Tidbit:** All right, number two. You know, [00:04:00] obviously we always look at Martin Luther King as a very, uh, uh, uh, intelligent individual, but I didn't know he skipped a couple of grades. Um, in school, I. He ended up having, getting his bachelor's, bachelor's degree when he was 19 years old. Okay. When he graduated, uh, from Morehouse College in 1948 with a degree of sociology.
[00:04:23] **Tony Tidbit:** So, you know, today they don't really do that in school. Right. Double A where they don't let you kinda skip grade. You know, you gotta, I mean, you have to be like it, I mean, extreme prodigy. Yeah, exactly right. They still, they still do it. Yeah. I think it's more, you hear it, you hear it here probably more from a testing standpoint, right?
[00:04:40] **Tony Tidbit:** Yeah. Yeah. But to go from the third to fifth grade, that's, or fifth to eighth grade. No, no, no. You know, but again, it just shows how his intellect and how, um, you know, smart, he was, okay. Number three, I didn't know this. Dr. King won a Grammy award. I didn't know that either. Okay. I didn't even know that. So in 1971, uh, [00:05:00] he won a Grammy after he passed away.
[00:05:02] **Tony Tidbit:** Uh, and he was awarded the best spoken word album for why I opposed the war in Vietnam. So, you know, didn't know that, you know, that is awesome. Uh, you don't hear a lot about him having a Grammy. Um, so that is really gr really great, and this was something I did not know. Okay, so number four. So one of the things, um, that the majority of people, I didn't notice either that he was a big time smoker.
[00:05:31] **Tony Tidbit:** All right. He used to smoke cigarettes. I don't know what brand, but he used to smoke, but he hid it from the public and also from his kids because he didn't want them to pick up that bad habit. Right. And, and the, the, um, the thing is people think that he was smoking a cigarette when he fatally got shot.
[00:05:49] **Tony Tidbit:** Um. And then here's number five. You know, we know him as a great orator, right? A great speaker. You know, there's, uh, today you, if you haven't [00:06:00] seen him, you can see clips of him and, you know, the March on Washington. I have a dream speech, but to be fair, in his first year in college, he didn't do very well in public speaking, right?
[00:06:12] **Tony Tidbit:** He actually got a C in class. Okay. He eventually got a a by his final year, but he wasn't known, just starting off as a great speaker. It was something that he was able to work at, um, to help him become better. So that is interesting because obviously you think that he just, you know, started riffing as soon as he came out the wound and, and unfortunately that that wasn't the case.
[00:06:37] **Tony Tidbit:** Right. . Alright, well you develop, you gotta develop. He had to develop like he's a human being like everybody else. Right? He was already a genius. All it took him a little time to, you know, hey, you know, learn how to public speak and find that passion. Exactly. But here's the kicker though, right? Um, that shows that at the end of the day.
## [00:06:55] Reflections on MLK's Impact and Achievements
[00:06:55] **Tony Tidbit:** You know, for, for the who, whoever's in the audience listening to this, and you [00:07:00] don't, you're not really a good public speaker or something you wanna do, he just shows you that, hey, he worked at it and he was able to to, to perfect it, which is awesome. And, and I think ultimately, I mean, I, I mean, and this is my, my opinion, you know, I think he found, you know, he, he had a passion, I think.
[00:07:16] **Tony Tidbit:** And once he found, like, I wanted, I was, I've we're gonna have this conversation, I was thinking about, you know, .
## [00:07:22] The Turning Point in MLK's Journey
[00:07:22] **Tony Tidbit:** What was his turning point? You know what I mean? Like he had had a turning point where he was like. I, I, I'm, I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore. . Well, you know what I mean? And, and again, though, buddy, I think, and I'm glad you brought that up 'cause I'm gonna dive into this after we go and I don't know, but I'm gonna talk about what I, where, you know, he, he first came on the scene Mm-Hmm.
[00:07:46] **Tony Tidbit:** And to your point, which was probably a turning point. Yeah. And, and so that's an excellent point, excellent point. Okay.
## [00:07:52] MLK's Influence on Star Trek
[00:07:52] **Tony Tidbit:** So for my star, Trekkies , um, . I didn't know this, that, uh, Michelle Nichols, who played the role [00:08:00] of your horror. On the original Star Trek, um, she was considering leaving the show and, and Dr.
[00:08:07] **Tony Tidbit:** King told her not to, advised her not to, I should say, because she was breaking boundaries by playing a character who didn't confo conform to black stereotypes. So I didn't even know this. She was looking to leave and he chatted with her and said, Hey, you should stay because you're doing something that's so progressive that you know, uh,
[00:08:27] **Tony Tidbit:** Other, uh, African American people can look up to you. And more importantly, you can by playing on this role, on this, this popular show breaks, you know, racial stereotypes from people outside of the black community, which, which was awesome to hear. And I'm, I was a big Star Trek, uh, fan back in the day.
## [00:08:46] Reflections on MLK's 'I Have a Dream' Speech
[00:08:46] **Tony Tidbit:** Now let's, let's go to this, right, the speech that everybody knows about, right?
[00:08:51] **Tony Tidbit:** The, um, the speech, uh, in Washington, um, . Um, which, you know, he gave us, I have a dream speech. [00:09:00] Well, this is the thing here, right? Obviously the three major television networks, uh, air King speech, and even though he had done a lot of good work, it's really, it was really the first time where the majority of Americans.
[00:09:13] **Tony Tidbit:** Actually even saw him speak, and that includes President Kennedy, uh, at the time. All right. Um, and then they were blown away by his speech. Right? And then three months later, president Kennedy was assassinated. Um, and then I, and, and I'm pretty sure everybody knows this, Lyndon Johnson, who was the vice president, who became the president, uh, who was the one that
[00:09:37] **Tony Tidbit:** Actually signed the laws, uh, for the Civil's Rights Act of 1964, and the young voting, the, excuse me, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, um, which became the most significant civil rights legislation since reconstruction. And the significance about this is that, uh, you know, JFK was [00:10:00] from Massachusetts. Okay? He was a Northerner, Northeasterner, Northeasterner.
[00:10:05] **Tony Tidbit:** Lyndon Johnson was from the South. Mm-Hmm. . Okay. And it was one of the reasons why JFK made him, uh, uh, vice Vice President. Vice President nominated him to be on the ticket because he would help him carry the South. Okay. And for a southerner to be able to help push through the civil rights legislation. At that time was significant because he was able to talk to his southern brothers and sisters.
[00:10:37] **Tony Tidbit:** Who, to be fair, to be fair, was against it. Okay. They were against it. And it's, it's, you know, there's a clip, um, that, um, people might've seen them not, but after, uh, JFK was assassinated, uh, Lyndon Johnson speaks to Congress. And, um, as he took over, and [00:11:00] one of the things that he spoke about was about passing this legislation that President Kennedy had spoke to the country about, that he was gonna, you know, um, uh, ask Con Congress to act and create, you know, voting rights laws and civil rights laws legislation.
[00:11:19] **Tony Tidbit:** And in that clip, uh, when Lyndon Johnson's states that everybody stands up. Gives them a rounding applause. Right. But to be honest, they just did that for visual standpoint. The majority of, of congressmen in the South Senate, they wasn't, they wasn't for that. Okay. So it's ironic that a southern, southern person was able to push that through, um, which was awesome.
[00:11:45] **Tony Tidbit:** And obviously, you know, JFK was a great president, but it's just interesting how it played itself out. Uh, here's the other thing though, right about the, um, . , the, the March on on Washington. Well, let's go here first.
## [00:11:59] The Aftermath of MLK's Assassination[00:11:59] MLK's Lesser Known Facts Continue
[00:11:59] **Tony Tidbit:** Um, [00:12:00] doc, and I think some people know this, you know, uh, number nine, where Dr. King in Memphis, uh, kind of prophesied his, uh, his death.
[00:12:10] **Tony Tidbit:** Mm-Hmm. , you know, he came down there to, uh, to support the sanitation workers who were trying to get a new contract. Um, and then, uh, he spoke at that night and said, Hey, he doesn't think he's gonna get to the mountaintop with us. May not get there with you, but, but I'm gonna get there. But I've seen them, I've seen Go ahead buddy.
[00:12:26] **Tony Tidbit:** Finish it off. . I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. You energized. Love it. But I've seen the mountain top. That's right. The spirit is in the room, so I love it. Exactly. And you know. The thing about it, he passed away if it wasn't the next, I think it was the next day, uh, because he, he, he was assassinated on April 4th, I believe it was.
[00:12:47] **Tony Tidbit:** Um, and he spoke to, um, the sanitation workers on April 3rd. That way you can check it out. But interesting that he, um, he prophesied his own death and actually ended up [00:13:00] dying, uh, very shortly after that, which was very, very sad. Number 10. Um, because of the success of the March on Washington, uh, the FBI basically started to wiretap, they got on the radar, Martin Luther King Jr.
[00:13:24] **Tony Tidbit:** Okay. So federal authorities monitors the wa, the March on Washington, closely fearing violence rioting. Okay, so what did they do? They, they turned, uh, they came up with a military operation called, uh, code name Operation Steep Hill. They had 19,000 troops put on standby in the DC suburbs to quell what they thought was gonna be rioting, which didn't happen right now.
[00:13:59] **Tony Tidbit:** Now [00:14:00] and again, when we had just in 2020 21, it was, oh excuse. Yeah. 2021, January 6th when 20 insurrection. When that insurrection, there was no troops, nothing. It was none of that. Right? It was, oh, these are, these are patriots. These are peaceful, but let's not digress, but just to get you to see the fear.
[00:14:19] **Tony Tidbit:** Mm-Hmm. that they had. Martin Luther King Jr. When he first came out, not when he, he was around, he was doing stuff, which we're gonna dive into, but when he made that speech and had 250,000 people show up of all different colors. Mm-Hmm. of all different religions. You had Jewish people, you had Muslims, Latinos had rabbis.
[00:14:39] **Tony Tidbit:** You, you know, you had to whole nine yards. Right? And then, so. Um, um, the FBI official will William Sullivan stated this, that King's powerful Dedic speech meant that we must mark him now as the most dangerous [00:15:00] negro of the future in this nation. Now, think about that for a second. Okay. Let's park this for just one quick second.
[00:15:09] **Tony Tidbit:** Okay. He has a, he comes, brings people together. Mm-Hmm. . You can't do that, you know? Right. He talks about, I have a dream. And then look, there were other people that spoke there, so he wasn't the only, he was the last speaker. Right. There was other people that spoke there. Right. And they all talked about, you know, let's get together.
[00:15:28] **Tony Tidbit:** We want civil rights. It should be fair. We just want what the Constitution states. These are what the 14 amendment, 14th amendment, uh, uh, gives us all. J just regular stuff, right? He speaks, I have a dream. You know, the content of my character, of my kids won't matter. I'm paraphrasing, blah, blah, blah. Okay?
[00:15:47] **Tony Tidbit:** And because of that, he becomes the most dangerous Negro Mm-hmm for the future of this country. Of this country. Because he's having a speech of bringing people together, [00:16:00] making people aware. Okay. Think about that. That's dangerous. Okay. Think about that for a second. He didn't say, let's take over the country.
[00:16:10] **Tony Tidbit:** He didn't say, you know, bear arms. He didn't. There was none of that. Okay? It was, hey, rights that we should be given that is written in the constitution. Okay? All, everything he, he had done did up to that point was all nonviolent stuff anyway. Okay. Which I'm gonna dive into, but now he's marked. Okay, now he's marked.
[00:16:36] **Tony Tidbit:** And then not only that, what did they do? They set up wiretaps, a tap in his phones, tapping his phone, his house, his office in the whole nine yards. And then, and, and to be fair, you know, uh, j Edgar Hoover was the FBI director, but you know, he got the Okay from Robert Kennedy, who's the attorney General.
[00:16:56] **Tony Tidbit:** Mm-Hmm. JFK's brother. Mm-Hmm, . Okay. Who, [00:17:00] just so everybody's clear. In 1968, ended up running for president and ended up basically chatting and trying to the same constituents, African Americans, that now he was gonna be able to back them. Okay. Support them. Right. But they put wire taps. All right. And then here's the thing though.
[00:17:24] **Tony Tidbit:** They started saying he was a communist. Okay. They started saying he was a communist because one of the things is they wanted to discredit him. Mm-Hmm. . Okay. This was in 1963 and it went, it, it continued, especially when he spoke out about the Vietnam War. All right. It continued until his assassination in 1968, but then 15 years later, which is number 11.
[00:17:59] **Tony Tidbit:** Ronald Reagan [00:18:00] signed the bill to make his birthday a national holiday. The only other American to earn this honor is George Washington. So let's back up for a second. 15, 20 years earlier, he was a communist. He was radical. He's dangerous to the to, to the society. . We gotta, we, we, we, we don't know who he is.
[00:18:25] **Tony Tidbit:** We gotta make sure we, because we, he, he, he could, he could, he could bring people together and they can overthrow the government. This is the thought process. Mm-Hmm. . Okay. And then 15 years later, they make it, make him make his birthday a national holiday. Why do I bring this up? Because history repeats itself.
[00:18:47] **Tony Tidbit:** Okay. Anytime when a person of color shows up. They're talking about unit and they're, and they can bring a bunch of people together. They become dangerous and then they try to [00:19:00] discredit them. Alright? And I'm, what about Black Lives Matter? Now they're fastest. Okay. They're, they're they. That's the key here.
[00:19:11] **Tony Tidbit:** So this is nothing new. It's always been this, but it's interesting. Years later. They recognized him as a holiday and now let's be clear. I think the first, first few years on, I think it was 15, 16 states that didn't, didn't recognize his birthday as a federal holiday, and eventually that ended up through time where now the whole country I.
[00:19:36] **Tony Tidbit:** Um, basically celebrates his birthday and rightfully so. Right. Um, so those are the, those are interesting, but just piggybacking on what I'm, what, uh, what I just got finished saying when I say rightfully so, because I don't think, um, that we, we give him enough respect for what he went through. [00:20:00] Okay. Today people are off from work.
[00:20:03] **Tony Tidbit:** Banks are closed. Um, it's a three, a three day weekend. Some people are skiing, kids are off, kids are off, they're chilling. If you are in a warm area, maybe you and Megan, a barbecue and those all, and there's nothing wrong with those things. Those things are awesome. Right? Those are great. Those are the things that that, that we do when we.
[00:20:23] **Tony Tidbit:** Have, you know, holidays off, right? And then obviously there'll be, um, certain type of, uh, television shows that, you know, the movie, his biography, the movie and stuff to that nature. And then, look, let's be clear, let's be fair too. There's other things that's going on where people are putting together different, um, events and, and, and really, you know, paying homage to 'em.
[00:20:47] **Tony Tidbit:** But the point I wanna make here is I don't think . Everyone, and I'm talking, everyone really understands what he went through because a lot of times we focus [00:21:00] on the, I got a dream, I have a dream speech. We focus on some of those things, but we don't focus on the things that, that the majority of us would never do.
[00:21:13] **Tony Tidbit:** Would never do. And this is, goes into why I say he, he continues to inspire me today. Now, when I was a kid, I had two heroes. I take that back, I had three. My mother was my hero because she, she was just awesome. She was tough. She loved me unconditionally and she always pushed me to be the best from a male standpoint.
[00:21:39] **Tony Tidbit:** 'cause I didn't have a father. Martin Luther King Jr. Was my hero. Okay. And I'm gonna tell you a little bit why. And the second person, the third person was Muhammad Ali. Those were my heroes. Okay? So, and I've never, ever delved away from Martin Luther King, Martin Luther King Jr. Being my hero because [00:22:00] I know what he went through, okay?
[00:22:02] **Tony Tidbit:** I wasn't there, but I know what he went through. So I wanna dive in and I'm gonna use one of the first things, and this goes to your point earlier, uh, AA, where it was his turning point.
## [00:22:14] The Montgomery Bus Boycott
[00:22:14] **Tony Tidbit:** I'm gonna use one of the first things that when he came on the scene, okay. Which to me should inspire us all. Okay? So let's spend a few minutes here, right?
[00:22:26] **Tony Tidbit:** So we're gonna talk about the Montgomery Montgomery Bus Boycott. That happened in 1955 and it lasted a year. Okay. Now let's back up a little bit because again, I don't think, I think some people know, but I don't think the majority of us really know. Okay, so in Alabama and in the south, you had Jim Crow segregation.
[00:22:52] **Tony Tidbit:** That means blacks were, uh, could not do or not, uh, have the same rights as [00:23:00] whites. And what do, when I say rights, what do I mean? Okay. Even just basic rights about being able to use a public bathroom. Mm-Hmm. being able to drink from any water fountain. Okay. It was, it was supposedly called se separate but equal.
[00:23:19] **Tony Tidbit:** Okay. And it wasn't, it was never equal. Okay? So you couldn't, uh, if, if you walked down the sidewalk and a white person was on the sidewalk, you had to get off the sidewalk and walk in the street, okay? This is what I'm talking about here. And let's be clear here. This ain't the 18 hundreds. I'm just gonna give you in the 1950s, which was only 70 years ago.
[00:23:44] **Tony Tidbit:** So in other words, there's uh, uh, uh, uh, somebody's grandmother, okay, or grandfather, or, excuse me, great-grandmother who experience, who's still alive today, that [00:24:00] experience what I'm saying. Okay. Think about that for a second. Two, three generations ago. Okay? They experienced this, they grew up this way. Okay?
[00:24:11] **Tony Tidbit:** You, these are the things you could not do if you got on the bus. You had to get in the back. You couldn't come through the front door of the bus. The, the front. You had to get in the side door, the back door, side door of the bus, and then you, there was a colored section, okay? And you had to sit in that section.
[00:24:29] **Tony Tidbit:** And then if the white section got full. A white person can get on the bus. They can come in the back, and then you would have to give up your seat to sit and let them sit down, even though you were there first throwing their yards. Okay, so let's just be clear here. This the way it was. All right. Now MLK moves to Montgomery.
[00:24:56] **Tony Tidbit:** He's not there that long. However, [00:25:00] Rosa Parks. Was on a bus and said, you know what? And then a white person said, Hey, I want bus driver comes back and said, you gotta get up. Let her let this person sit down. She's like, I ain't doing it right. I'm not doing it. And she got arrested. Okay, now let's be clear.
[00:25:18] **Tony Tidbit:** Rosa Parks, everybody knows Rosa Parks, rightfully so, but there was a couple other people who did the exact same thing prior to her, but because of her background. Because of her standing in the community, in the black community, they looked at this as this was their time to really push back. Okay. So she got arrested.
[00:25:40] **Tony Tidbit:** The black ministers got together, they bailed her out. They had been meeting with the, the city of Montgomery, the mayor who was wa Gale. They had met with him. Multiple times [00:26:00] to try to get them to change their policy in terms of riding the bus. Okay? And here's the kicker. They wasn't even trying to say, Hey look, let us get on the front, front of the bus.
[00:26:13] **Tony Tidbit:** Or they weren't even looking to make, they were looking to make concessions and they said no. So a bell Rosa Parks outta jail. The black ministers get together and they all come and say, look, let's have a one day protest that all, uh, black people here in Montgomery, Alabama do not ride the bus for one day.
[00:26:40] **Tony Tidbit:** Now, here's the, here's the thing that people don't know. 75% of the ridership on the buses in Montgomery. By black people, 75%, and I could be wrong, might've been 90%, but I think 75. So 40,000 black people were [00:27:00] using the bus consistently to get to work, to do whatever. So they have a one day boycott. Now, here's the thing, when they have the boycott
[00:27:17] **Tony Tidbit:** All the local black leaders, including Ralph Bernanke King, they all got together and, uh, on, um, they met together at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and agreed to do this one day boycott. Now here, here's my numbers here, 90% on December 5th, because Rosa Parks was uh, arrested on December 1st. On December 5th, 90% of Montgomery black citizens stayed off the buses.
[00:27:51] **Tony Tidbit:** Later that afternoon, the ministers and leaders met to discuss the possibility extending the boycott into a [00:28:00] long-term campaign. During this meeting. Dr. King was elected spokesperson, okay. Of this boycott. Okay, so let's be clear here. Dr. King didn't say, Hey, guess what? I'll, I'll step up. I'll, I'll do this, you know?
[00:28:24] **Tony Tidbit:** No. He was new to town, and this is one of the reasons why they picked him, because he was new to town. He didn't have any enemies. They didn't have anything on him. Okay? And then if it didn't work out, he could move away because Dr. King came to start his own flock work at, I mean, be a minister at a church.
[00:28:46] **Tony Tidbit:** That's what he's there for. Okay, now they say, we want you to be the spokesperson. And be our person out front [00:29:00] on this issue. Now, let's be clear here. Let's not be the spokesperson for a new, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, a commercial okay? Or be a spokesperson, you know, to, to, to talk about, you know, um, Liberty. Liberty.
[00:29:19] **Tony Tidbit:** Liberty. Liberty. Okay. He's talking about being a sports a, a spokesperson for something that you could die for, you could be killed for which I'm gonna get into. Mm-Hmm? . Okay. The majority of us, when somebody reaches out and says, we want you, we immediately be like, I don't think I'm good enough to do this.
[00:29:44] **Tony Tidbit:** Who would've? Black people were getting lynched. Killed. Not only that, if you did have a great job or you had a good business, it would be ruined. Soon as they got wind. You are gonna lead this. Oh, the bank, if [00:30:00] you had a loan, a mortgage, they would call the loan in. All right. Just to keep you passive, just to keep you subservient to two.
[00:30:09] **Tony Tidbit:** What was going on the way of life in the south? Okay, so Dr. King, he could have easily said, well, look, I didn't sign up for this. I came here and brought my family. I just wanna be a minister, uh, at, at my local church. And that's it. This is dangerous. No, he didn't say that. He stood up when we talk about turning points, right?
[00:30:34] **Tony Tidbit:** So the thing was that evening. At a meeting at the Holt Street Baptist Church, Dr. King, first time he spoke, okay, he didn't back down. First time he spoke, what does he say? I wanted to be known that we're going to work with the grim and bold determination to gain justice on the buses in this city, [00:31:00] and we are not wrong.
[00:31:02] **Tony Tidbit:** If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we were wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong, and if we are wrong, God almighty is wrong. Okay. First come right out the gate. Boom. Okay. Was he thinking, uh, uh, uh uh March on Washington? No. Was he, he probably was thinking, ah, I'm gonna stay alive.
[00:31:29] **Tony Tidbit:** Okay. Because let me tell you what happened. Alright? So. The bottom line is, is that they met Dr. King, met in a few of, of, of, uh, uh, the contingent met with the city and they said, Hey, look, this is all we want. We want courteous treatment by bus operators because the bus operators be called all type of names and, and treated like dogs in the whole nine yards by the white constituents.
[00:31:59] **Tony Tidbit:** Okay? [00:32:00] We want first come first serve seating for all. All right. And then they were like with blocks sitting in the rear. So they're not even saying, Hey, we wanna sit wherever on the bus. We just, we just, we'll sit in the back, but we just want first come, first serve. So whoever comes on first gets a seat.
[00:32:17] **Tony Tidbit:** And if, if you come on and the bus is, is, is crowded, you gotta stand up. Okay? And they wanted, uh, uh, the black bus drivers to stop. At, uh, every corner in the predominantly black neighborhoods like they do in the white neighborhoods, in the black neighborhoods. The buses didn't stop at every stop. In on, they would stop.
[00:32:41] **Tony Tidbit:** You would have to get off, you know, four blocks down from where your house is or where you were going. Where in the white neighborhood, they would stop at every corner. Okay, so they, they trying to compromise. Guess what the city's like, we ain't doing it. No. Okay. We ain't. Okay, so [00:33:00] they were like, then guess what?
[00:33:02] **Tony Tidbit:** We're not going to ride these buses again. Alright, so all the black community mobilized together. Okay. And came up with a, a develop, developed a, a carpool system, about 300 cars because everybody didn't have cars. You got, and this is the thing, let's, let's just go back in time here. There was a ton of people that their jobs was more in the service area.
[00:33:27] **Tony Tidbit:** You know, mothers were maids going, walking from their neighborhood, okay. Where they lived at. To go to the white neighborhood to take care of their households and their kids. Okay. People who had jobs who caught, they would catch the bus to do that. So they were like, we're not doing that no more. So just to be fair here, who would've did that today?
[00:33:54] **Tony Tidbit:** Who would, who would number one band all together. Okay. Number two, [00:34:00] all of a sudden say, guys, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta do something. You gotta hit the pocket. Okay. We got, and, and, and one of the most toughest segregated cities in the United States at that time. Okay. And then they, the, the, the, the black taxi driver said, Hey, we'll help out.
[00:34:19] **Tony Tidbit:** The bus affair was 10 cents. So the taxi driver said, we'll only charge you 10 cents to take you wherever you want to go. The city got winded at and started penalizing the black taxi taxi drivers. Now you still going ride our bus? Regardless, we ain't giving you nothing. Okay, now. Dr. King again, he took on something he didn't have to do.
[00:34:44] **Tony Tidbit:** Alright. In early 1956, his house was bombed with his three kids in the house and his wife bombed because [00:35:00] all he's for busing for to be able to sit on a bus. He didn't sign up for that. He could've easily said, you know what guys? I hear you, but at the end of the day, I can't put my family at risk for this.
[00:35:15] **Tony Tidbit:** I gotta back out. Good luck. Let me know how it turns out. Or, you know what? I'm gonna move outta town. I gotta go. And most people would've did that, okay? Most people would've did that. People came outta his house. They're trying to find out, came to his house trying to find out was he okay. You know what he says?
[00:35:34] **Tony Tidbit:** He says to the crowd, be calm. As I and my family are, we are not hurt. And remember that if anything happens to me, there'll be others to take my place determined. When you talked about turning points, Mm-Hmm. , that was it. Determined. They're trying to kill me. Think, let's just back up a second. Let's stay here for a second.
[00:35:56] **Tony Tidbit:** A knock at midnight. They're not asking, they wasn't [00:36:00] asking for half of the wealth of the city, okay? They wasn't. They wasn't saying, Hey, we're gonna go to war if we don't get this. They just said, Hey, if you won't let us come on first, come first serve. We'll even sit in the back. Just help, you know, just me to compromise here for the buses, right?
[00:36:20] **Tony Tidbit:** They, they bombed this house. You'll try to kill him for that. Who would've stuck up with that? Who would've dealt I, I, I could. I, I probably wouldn't have. Okay. Who would deal with that? Okay, and then that didn't stop. What else did they do? The city officials obtained injunctions against the boycott in February, 1956 and indicted over 80 boycott leaders under a 1921 law prohibiting conspiracies that interfere with lawful business.
[00:36:56] **Tony Tidbit:** So in other words, they got arrested. [00:37:00] And basically thrown in jail and said, Hey, it's illegal to to be in charge of a boycott of a business. All right? So by any means necessary, they wanna break this up so the black people can use, still spend money on their buses, but they don't wanna change in their ways.
[00:37:23] **Tony Tidbit:** Think of, just think about that for a second. We ain't changing, and matter of fact, we gonna force you. To use our buses the way we want you to use them. Now he's in jail and guess what? Because he's the spokesperson, they pick him out. He was convicted, alright? And was ordered to pay $500 or served 386 years.
[00:37:48] **Tony Tidbit:** I mean, excuse me, years. 86 days in jail at hard labor. Because they just wanted to ride the bus [00:38:00] like everybody else. He didn't sign up to go to jail. He didn't sign up to put his family at risk to die, but he stood steadfast. He didn't let his, he didn't back out of the commitment that he made. Nine times outta 10, the majority of would never do that.
[00:38:25] **Tony Tidbit:** We are gonna celebrate his birthday. We're gonna be off. We think about how many, how much could you deal with when people are spitting at you, they're throwing stones at you. He almost was assassinated as one of the unknown facts, and I skipped it, but he almost got assassinated when he was signing a book in Harlem.
[00:38:46] **Tony Tidbit:** Alright. A few years after this and a lady comes up with a, a letter opener and stabs him, and he almost died from that. Who could deal with that? The pressure and then [00:39:00] carrying the weight of a whole race on his shoulders. He didn't raise his hand and say, I wanna do this,
[00:39:11] **Tony Tidbit:** and he took it. He took it. He did it and for what he went through and what he endured and how he did it, and he did it with class. He did it with love. He talked about nonviolence when he was getting stoned and bombed, he. Okay. And I wouldn't be where I am today. A lot of us in the African American community wouldn't be where we are today.
[00:39:39] **Tony Tidbit:** And this, to be fair, my white brothers and sisters, you wouldn't be, where are you, where you are today too, because he helped us all start coming together and he helped make awareness of how evil segregation was.
[00:39:59] **Tony Tidbit:** I mean, [00:40:00] for me. We waver on anything today. Commitment. What does that mean? We don't know. We say we're committed, but soon as the wind starts blowing a little tough, we, I can't do that. I can't do it. I hear you, buddy. I, that's what I thought in the beginning, but i's too tough. We don't say that. We'll come up with some other excuses.
[00:40:23] **Tony Tidbit:** Okay. That is for real. And so we have to give this man. On his birthday a a lot more respect than we do. Here's the thing, they stuck, they stuck with this for a year, not riding the bus a year when that was the primary transportation in that town, in that city, and then on December 20th. The Supreme Court a year [00:41:00] later made upheld the lower court's ruling that, uh, segregation on buses was unconstitutional, and the boycott stopped.
[00:41:13] **Tony Tidbit:** Stopped at that timeframe. So they were able to complete their mission, not, it wasn't easy. Or, and, and again, I'm just telling you some stuff on a higher level. , what about the people who had jobs? They ended up losing their job, their livelihood, because they wouldn't ride the bus. Mm-Hmm? . Okay. What about the businesses that had loans and the white bankers called their loans 'cause they wouldn't ride the bus.
[00:41:47] **Tony Tidbit:** Okay. There's a ton of people that was affected by just trying to get their God-given constitutional rights of the country. Nothing more. [00:42:00] So it was a huge sacrifice. Right. And then this is what I love what he said. When the bus, the bus boycott ended, he said, he said the next morning he boarded an integrated bus with Ralph Alber, Anthony Ed Next Nixon and Glenn Smiley King said of the boy bus boycott.
[00:42:18] **Tony Tidbit:** We came to see that in the long run it was more honorable to walk in dignity than ride and humiliation. So we decided to substitute tired feet for tired soles and walk the streets of Montgomery. Think about that. I mean, this man, and, and this is just one section of the things that he dealt with from 1955 till he was assassinated in 1968.
[00:42:55] **Tony Tidbit:** Don't, you, don't, you don't. We don't. We think that he would wanna live for his kids. [00:43:00] Don't you think he wanted to be a father and see his kids grow up and, uh, graduate high school, get married, have his grandchildren like we all do, but he sacrificed. He knew that eventually he would be killed and he sacrificed for all of us.
[00:43:23] **Tony Tidbit:** All of us. So those are the reasons that I'm inspired by him, because I wouldn't be where I am today. My family wouldn't have what we have today if it wasn't for a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And you know, the thing is, is this aa, I know you talked about turning Points. and we all have them. The thing is, is it a turning point [00:44:00] or is it an inconvenience?
[00:44:04] **Tony Tidbit:** And when you have a real turning point, that's when you say, you know what? I ain't doing this no longer. I don't care what come up. I'm done. You know what? I didn't know about this. I wasn't aware, but now I am. It ain't gonna never happen to me again. I learned from that, so I can't speak for him in terms of what his turning point was.
[00:44:26] **Tony Tidbit:** I'm just going off of what I knew he went through coming on into the, coming into the scene, and I could imagine. That was one, but he could have had multiple way before that timeframe. But for me, that was very significant. And here's the the things that I, the words that I throw in when I say I'm inspired by him.
[00:44:52] **Tony Tidbit:** And, and, and even that story, number one, he stepped up. He didn't have to. He stepped [00:45:00] up and he didn't, he stepped up for his fellow human beings. Number two, he became uncomfortable. Okay. I remember, um, and I saw this in the scene of a movie, but when they went in, and I don't know how accurate it was, but I, when they first went in to make their, uh, uh, demands to, to the city of, uh, Montgomery.
[00:45:22] **Tony Tidbit:** And, uh, he, they start, he started chatting with the city council and then they started pushing back really hard and he didn't know what to say. He was like, stump. And then he came back and, uh, they said, how did it go? And he's, and I'm paraphrasing, he said, well, first you got, first we have to, we have to get rid of the slave mind.
[00:45:42] **Tony Tidbit:** We have to believe that this is really, we really deserve this. 'cause you can't go ask for something. That you don't think you deserve? I never, I never forgot that I thought that was all. So he was uncomfortable and he had to, by being uncomfortable, he grew [00:46:00] and when he grew, he helped us all grow. The adversity that he dealt with from the beginning to the end, he had a million reasons to back out a million.
[00:46:11] **Tony Tidbit:** And who would've blamed them? Who would've blamed him, but he didn't let that stop him because he saw this as an opportunity to make a change in the United States for every human being. Every human being,
[00:46:29] when
[00:46:29] **Tony Tidbit:** they're wiretapping you, they're calling you a communist. They're bombing your house. I can't imagine what his kids went through.
[00:46:36] **Tony Tidbit:** His wife went through. Just think about the adversity. But here's the, here's the kicker. He was all about love, and he showed love, even through all the negativity that came his way, even through the violence that came his way, he still . Show love for not only his fellow human being, but also for the people [00:47:00] That was who, who, who, who gave, who was against him from a, a violent standpoint.
[00:47:05] **Tony Tidbit:** Okay. Most of us wouldn't do that. And then more importantly, his I dream. I, I have a dream speech speaks to this other word vision. He had vision. He didn't see what this country was at that moment. He saw what it could be in the future. And so those are the five things. The five words that inspire me. You know, the thing that bothers me the most, I.
[00:47:34] **Tony Tidbit:** Is, and you see this on television or radio or there's a documentary, and, and, and I'm pretty sure, um, if you look today, um, you're gonna see it too. It's like, you know, what do we need to do to make, uh, Dr. King's dream come real? Okay? What do we need to do, you know, to make his dream come real? My question is, do you really want it to become real?
[00:47:56] **Tony Tidbit:** Because that's an easy thing to do. [00:48:00] It, it, it, it, it's not like putting an astronaut on Mars. Okay. This is easy to do. Each and every human being has to want that dream. And if each and every human being wants that dream, then each and every human being would work on their, their, their personal self to make that happen.
[00:48:20] **Tony Tidbit:** Each and every human being will make themselves. They will step up and say, you know what? This is, guess what, we've been doing this for too long. It's time for us to come together as people, and race shouldn't be an issue. They would be uncomfortable because yes, they're not, haven't spent time with other people from other races or sexuality or whatever the case may be.
[00:48:46] **Tony Tidbit:** But by being uncomfortable and, and be willing to, to delve in that, they would then eventually become comfortable. And then obviously from an adversity standpoint, there's gonna be people pushing back and says, I don't want none of that, or I don't believe [00:49:00] that. Or what case BB, and guess what? That's fine.
[00:49:03] **Tony Tidbit:** But you know what? We wanna make this dream come true. So guess what? I'm willing to deal with the adversity. And then the other word was love. You're doing this because you love. Your fellow brother and sister, no matter what they look like, you love your kids. 'cause you want them to grow up in a world that will treat them no different than they're, they're treating their neighbor no matter how they look or how smart they are, or whatever the case may be.
[00:49:29] **Tony Tidbit:** You. And then the people that push back, you still love them where they are. And then the final thing is. That vision, if we all can have that vision and visualize if we all did this on a daily basis, where we would be as a town, city, a state, country, and a world. So that's what I [00:50:00] wanted to share with you today on a Black Executive perspective Podcast, Martin Luther King, Jr.
[00:50:07] **Tony Tidbit:** Unknown facts and how he in, he inspired me. Double a final thoughts, my friend.
## [00:50:14] Final Thoughts on MLK's Legacy
[00:50:14] **Tony Tidbit:** Oh, I mean, you know, the way he inspired me, you know, was in seventh grade, you know, learning about. Civil rights movement. And he, when I really think about it, when I was thinking about this, you know, he really was the beginning of my journey of self-discovery because that's when I started thinking about who I was, uh, as a Hispanic male, uh, Latinx male and a Puerto Rican at the time.
[00:50:37] **Tony Tidbit:** Mm-Hmm. . So I'm very grateful for Dr. King. Well, that's also my friend. Um, I think he inspired a lot of people, and, and I know even though I'm, we're chatting about this today, I know there's a ton of people that do have that, um, mad respect for him. Um, but I just think for today, we wanna make sure that everyone's clear [00:51:00] in terms of the things that he brought to the table.
[00:51:02] **Tony Tidbit:** And we just talked about just a small portion of all the things that he has done. So I think it's time for.
## [00:51:10] Closing Remarks and MLK Quotes
[00:51:10] **Tony Tidbit:** Tony's tidbit. So for Martin Luther King Jr's birthday, I would be remiss just to give one quote because he had multiple quotes that I thought were fascinating. I thought they were thought provoking, and, and I, I carry some of these wherever I go.
[00:51:28] **Tony Tidbit:** So guess what? I'm gonna go, I'm gonna give you more than one tidbit today. All right? All right. But these are all by Martin Luther King Jr. First one, darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. Number two, our lives begin to end. The day we became silent.
[00:51:51] **Tony Tidbit:** About things that matter. I love that. Number three, the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands [00:52:00] in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. We kinda spoke a little bit about that. Number four, I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love.
[00:52:16] **Tony Tidbit:** We'll have the final word in reality. That's why. This is why, right? Temporary defeat is stronger than evil triumph. And then finally, and this will close out our podcast. We must live together as brothers or parish together. As fools. Hmm. And all those were from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. So I hope you enjoyed this episode of a Black Executive Perspective podcast, Martin Luther King's Jr.
[00:52:52] **Tony Tidbit:** 11 Unknown Facts and Why he inspired me Today. Please continue to follow a [00:53:00] black executive perspective on all the social platforms at Tony Tidbit, BEP, and you can subscribe. Give us a rating at a Black executive perspective podcast wherever you get your podcast. Four, my energetic 2024 Executive Producer aa.
[00:53:22] **Tony Tidbit:** I'm Tony Tidbit. We love you. We talked about it. And we're out. Thank you for tuning into this episode of Tony Tidbit, a black executive perspective, and for joining in today's conversation with every story we share, every conversation we foster and every barrier we address, we can ignite the sparks that bring about lasting change.
[00:53:47] **Tony Tidbit:** And this carries us one step closer to transforming the face of corporate America.
## [00:53:53] Introduction and Call to Action
[00:53:53] **Tony Tidbit:** If today's episode resonated with you, consider subscribing and leaving us a rating or review on Apple Podcast, [00:54:00] Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. Share this episode with your circle and with your support, we can reach more people and tell more stories.
[00:54:13] Untitled project from Captivate
[00:54:15] ===
## [00:54:15] The Power of Love and Justice
[00:54:15] [00:00:00]
[00:54:15] [00:00:00] Now we got to get this thing right. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental. Anemic. Power at its best
[00:54:29] [00:00:20] power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice and justice at its best. Is love correcting everything that stands against love.
## [00:54:39] Welcome to the Black Executive Perspective Podcast
[00:54:39] Welcome to a Black Executive Perspective podcast, A safe space where we discuss all matters related to race, especially race in corporate America. I'm your host, Tony Tidbit.
## [00:54:50] Commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday
[00:54:50] [00:00:48] Today commemorates Martin Luther King's Junior's birthday a day traditionally reserved for honoring his remarkable achievements. And [00:01:00] understanding the significance of [00:55:00] celebrating him. However, on this occasion, our focus will shift towards unveiling 11 lesser known facts about MLK and delving into the reason why he remains a continuous, continued source of inspiration for me.
## [00:55:13] Discussion with the Executive Producer
[00:55:13] [00:01:25] To join me in this discussion is our executive producer. aa. aa. What's going on, my friend? What's up big Tony? How's it going? It's going great, man. You looking good, man. You energized. I'm feeling great for 2024, baby. Let's get all right. I love it. I love it. See, that's what we need. We wanna bring the energy, you bringing us a new year, new things, new thoughts, new goals, new pers, pers perspectives.
## [00:55:44] Unveiling Lesser Known Facts about MLK
[00:55:44] [00:01:49] And we're gonna bring all this to you, but we're gonna kick it off with, with Martin Luther King Jr's birthday. So let's go into some of these 11 unknown facts. And to be fair, [00:02:00] some of [00:56:00] these things you might've heard of. So I'm not gonna sit here and tell you everything that we're gonna walk you through, um, is, uh, um, that everybody be like, I never knew that.
[00:56:13] [00:02:09] I never knew that. And then there's probably a couple, there's, there's several here that I wasn't aware of, but I wanna share them with you because obviously this is a great.
## [00:56:26] The Significance of MLK's Achievements
[00:56:26] Day for America, um, honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Um, typically we always talk about the, all the things that more the, the high level stuff, um, of what he accomplished, um, in difficult times.
[00:56:40] [00:02:33] Um, like I said, today we're gonna talk about these 11, uh, unknown, uh, facts, but we're gonna dive in a little bit deeper in, in terms of why we really should be . Celebrating what he accomplished, because to be honest with you, the majority of the [00:57:00] majority of us would never ever be where we are today if it wasn't for his, his dedication, love, and fortitude.
[00:57:08] [00:02:57] So let's jump into it, right?
## [00:57:11] MLK's Lesser Known Facts Continued
[00:57:11] So number one, [00:03:00] everybody knows. Martin Luther King Jr. Exactly as that, Martin Luther King, Jr. However, he wasn't born Martin. He was born Michael, okay? And so was his father because he was named after his father. However, his father made a PIL pilgrimage to Germany, and he was learning about the Protestant reformer Martin Luther, and was very inspired by that.
[00:57:36] [00:03:27] So he changed his name. His son name from Michael King to Martin Luther King s and King Jr. Which was fascinating. He went on his trip in 1934, I believe it was. I didn't know that. Yeah, I didn't that I didn't know that either. Right. So, and, and they both had already established birth certificate [00:58:00] names and, uh, he changed not only his name, but also, uh, his son, which is MLK Jr.
[00:58:07] [00:03:56] All right, number two. You know, [00:04:00] obviously we always look at Martin Luther King as a very, uh, uh, uh, intelligent individual, but I didn't know he skipped a couple of grades. Um, in school, I. He ended up having, getting his bachelor's, bachelor's degree when he was 19 years old. Okay. When he graduated, uh, from Morehouse College in 1948 with a degree of sociology.
[00:58:34] [00:04:23] So, you know, today they don't really do that in school. Right. Double A where they don't let you kinda skip grade. You know, you gotta, I mean, you have to be like it, I mean, extreme prodigy. Yeah, exactly right. They still, they still do it. Yeah. I think it's more, you hear it, you hear it here probably more from a [00:59:00] testing standpoint, right?
[00:59:01] [00:04:40] Yeah. Yeah. But to go from the third to fifth grade, that's, or fifth to eighth grade. No, no, no. You know, but again, it just shows how his intellect and how, um, you know, smart, he was, okay. Number three, I didn't know this. Dr. King won a Grammy award. I didn't know that either. Okay. I didn't even know that. So in 1971, uh, [00:05:00] he won a Grammy after he passed away.
[00:59:31] [00:05:02] Uh, and he was awarded the best spoken word album for why I opposed the war in Vietnam. So, you know, didn't know that, you know, that is awesome. Uh, you don't hear a lot about him having a Grammy. Um, so that is really gr really great, and this was something I did not know. Okay, so number four. So one of the things, um, that the majority of [01:00:00] people, I didn't notice either that he was a big time smoker.
[01:00:04] [00:05:31] All right. He used to smoke cigarettes. I don't know what brand, but he used to smoke, but he hid it from the public and also from his kids because he didn't want them to pick up that bad habit. Right. And, and the, the, um, the thing is people think that he was smoking a cigarette when he fatally got shot.
[01:00:29] [00:05:49] Um. And then here's number five.
## [01:00:32] The Impact of MLK's Speeches
[01:00:32] You know, we know him as a great orator, right? A great speaker. You know, there's, uh, today you, if you haven't seen [00:06:00] him, you can see clips of him and, you know, the March on Washington. I have a dream speech, but to be fair, in his first year in college, he didn't do very well in public speaking, right?
[01:00:57] [00:06:12] He actually got a C [01:01:00] in class. Okay. He eventually got a a by his final year, but he wasn't known, just starting off as a great speaker. It was something that he was able to work at, um, to help him become better. So that is interesting because obviously you think that he just, you know, started riffing as soon as he came out the wound and, and unfortunately that that wasn't the case.
[01:01:27] [00:06:37] Right. . Alright, well you develop, you gotta develop. He had to develop like he's a human being like everybody else. Right? He was already a genius. All it took him a little time to, you know, hey, you know, learn how to public speak and find that passion. Exactly. But here's the kicker though, right? Um, that shows that at the end of the day.
[01:01:54] [00:06:55] You know, for, for the who, whoever's in the audience listening to this, [01:02:00] and you [00:07:00] don't, you're not really a good public speaker or something you wanna do, he just shows you that, hey, he worked at it and he was able to to, to perfect it, which is awesome. And, and I think ultimately, I mean, I, I mean, and this is my, my opinion, you know, I think he found, you know, he, he had a passion, I think.
[01:02:27] [00:07:16] And once he found, like, I wanted, I was, I've we're gonna have this conversation, I was thinking about, you know, . What was his turning point? You know what I mean? Like he had had a turning point where he was like. I, I, I'm, I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore. . Well, you know what I mean? And, and again, though, buddy, I think, and I'm glad you brought that up 'cause I'm gonna dive [01:03:00] into this after we go and I don't know, but I'm gonna talk about what I, where, you know, he, he first came on the scene Mm-Hmm.
[01:03:10] [00:07:45] And to your point, which was probably a turning point. Yeah. And, and so that's an excellent point, excellent point. Okay.
## [01:03:19] MLK's Influence on Star Trek
[01:03:19] So for my star, Trekkies , um, . I didn't know this, that, uh, Michelle Nichols, who played the role [00:08:00] of your horror. On the original Star Trek, um, she was considering leaving the show and, and Dr.
[01:03:34] [00:08:07] King told her not to, advised her not to, I should say, because she was breaking boundaries by playing a character who didn't confo conform to black stereotypes. So I didn't even know this. She was looking to leave and he chatted with her and said, Hey, you should stay because you're doing something that's so progressive that you know, uh,
[01:03:59] [00:08:27] Other, [01:04:00] uh, African American people can look up to you. And more importantly, you can by playing on this role, on this, this popular show breaks, you know, racial stereotypes from people outside of the black community, which, which was awesome to hear. And I'm, I was a big Star Trek, uh, fan back in the day.
## [01:04:22] MLK's Legacy and Impact
[01:04:22] Now let's, let's go to this, right, the speech that everybody knows about, right?
[01:04:27] [00:08:51] The, um, the speech, uh, in Washington, um, . Um, which, you know, he gave us, I have a dream speech. [00:09:00] Well, this is the thing here, right? Obviously the three major television networks, uh, air King speech, and even though he had done a lot of good work, it's really, it was really the first time where the majority of Americans.
[01:04:53] [00:09:13] Actually even saw him speak, and that includes President Kennedy, uh, at the time. All right. [01:05:00] Um, and then they were blown away by his speech. Right? And then three months later, president Kennedy was assassinated. Um, and then I, and, and I'm pretty sure everybody knows this, Lyndon Johnson, who was the vice president, who became the president, uh, who was the one that
[01:05:19] [00:09:37] Actually signed the laws, uh, for the Civil's Rights Act of 1964, and the young voting, the, excuse me, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, um, which became the most significant civil rights legislation since reconstruction. And the significance about this is that, uh, you know, JFK was [00:10:00] from Massachusetts. Okay? He was a Northerner, Northeasterner, Northeasterner.
[01:05:43] [00:10:05] Lyndon Johnson was from the South. Mm-Hmm. . Okay. And it was one of the reasons why JFK made him, uh, uh, vice Vice President. Vice President nominated him to be on the ticket because he would help him carry the South. [01:06:00] Okay. And for a southerner to be able to help push through the civil rights legislation. At that time was significant because he was able to talk to his southern brothers and sisters.
[01:06:13] [00:10:37] Who, to be fair, to be fair, was against it. Okay. They were against it. And it's, it's, you know, there's a clip, um, that, um, people might've seen them not, but after, uh, JFK was assassinated, uh, Lyndon Johnson speaks to Congress. And, um, as he took over, and [00:11:00] one of the things that he spoke about was about passing this legislation that President Kennedy had spoke to the country about, that he was gonna, you know, um, uh, ask Con Congress to act and create, you know, voting rights laws and civil rights laws legislation.
[01:06:52] [00:11:19] And in that clip, uh, when Lyndon Johnson's states that everybody stands up. Gives them a rounding [01:07:00] applause. Right. But to be honest, they just did that for visual standpoint. The majority of, of congressmen in the South Senate, they wasn't, they wasn't for that. Okay. So it's ironic that a southern, southern person was able to push that through, um, which was awesome.
[01:07:18] [00:11:45] And obviously, you know, JFK was a great president, but it's just interesting how it played itself out. Uh, here's the other thing though, right about the, um, . , the, the March on on Washington. Well, let's go here first.
## [01:07:34] The Struggles and Triumphs of MLK
[01:07:34] Um, [00:12:00] doc, and I think some people know this, you know, uh, number nine, where Dr. King in Memphis, uh, kind of prophesied his, uh, his death.
[01:07:45] [00:12:10] Mm-Hmm. , you know, he came down there to, uh, to support the sanitation workers who were trying to get a new contract. Um, and then, uh, he spoke at that night and said, Hey, [01:08:00] he doesn't think he's gonna get to the mountaintop with us. May not get there with you, but, but I'm gonna get there. But I've seen them, I've seen Go ahead buddy.
[01:08:12] [00:12:26] Finish it off. . I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. You energized. Love it. But I've seen the mountain top. That's right. The spirit is in the room, so I love it. Exactly. And you know. The thing about it, he passed away if it wasn't the next, I think it was the next day, uh, because he, he, he was assassinated on April 4th, I believe it was.
[01:08:42] [00:12:47] Um, and he spoke to, um, the sanitation workers on April 3rd. That way you can check it out. But interesting that he, um, he prophesied his own death and actually ended up [00:13:00] dying, uh, very shortly after that, which was [01:09:00] very, very sad. Number 10. Um, because of the success of the March on Washington, uh, the FBI basically started to wiretap, they got on the radar, Martin Luther King Jr.
[01:09:12] [00:13:24] Okay. So federal authorities monitors the wa, the March on Washington, closely fearing violence rioting. Okay, so what did they do? They, they turned, uh, they came up with a military operation called, uh, code name Operation Steep Hill. They had 19,000 troops put on standby in the DC suburbs to quell what they thought was gonna be rioting, which didn't happen right now.
[01:09:38] [00:13:59] Now [00:14:00] and again, when we had just in 2020 21, it was, oh excuse. Yeah. 2021, January 6th when 20 insurrection. When that insurrection, there was no troops, nothing. It was none of that. Right? It was, oh, these are, these are patriots. These are peaceful, but let's not digress, but just [01:10:00] to get you to see the fear.
## [01:10:02] MLK's Vision and Legacy
[01:10:02] [00:14:19] Mm-Hmm. that they had. Martin Luther King Jr. When he first came out, not when he, he was around, he was doing stuff, which we're gonna dive into, but when he made that speech and had 250,000 people show up of all different colors. Mm-Hmm. of all different religions. You had Jewish people, you had Muslims, Latinos had rabbis.
[01:10:26] [00:14:39] You, you know, you had to whole nine yards. Right? And then, so. Um, um, the FBI official will William Sullivan stated this, that King's powerful Dedic speech meant that we must mark him now as the most dangerous [00:15:00] negro of the future in this nation. Now, think about that for a second. Okay. Let's park this for just one quick second.
[01:10:52] [00:15:09] Okay. He has a, he comes, brings people together. Mm-Hmm. . You can't do that, you know? Right. He [01:11:00] talks about, I have a dream. And then look, there were other people that spoke there, so he wasn't the only, he was the last speaker. Right. There was other people that spoke there. Right. And they all talked about, you know, let's get together.
[01:11:17] [00:15:28] We want civil rights. It should be fair. We just want what the Constitution states. These are what the 14 amendment, 14th amendment, uh, uh, gives us all. J just regular stuff, right? He speaks, I have a dream. You know, the content of my character, of my kids won't matter. I'm paraphrasing, blah, blah, blah. Okay?
[01:11:41] [00:15:47] And because of that, he becomes the most dangerous Negro Mm-hmm for the future of this country. Of this country. Because he's having a speech of bringing people together, [00:16:00] making people aware. Okay. Think about that. That's dangerous. Okay. Think about that for a second. [01:12:00] He didn't say, let's take over the country.
[01:12:03] [00:16:10] He didn't say, you know, bear arms. He didn't. There was none of that. Okay? It was, hey, rights that we should be given that is written in the constitution. Okay? All, everything he, he had done did up to that point was all nonviolent stuff anyway. Okay. Which I'm gonna dive into, but now he's marked. Okay, now he's marked.
[01:12:27] [00:16:36] And then not only that, what did they do? They set up wiretaps, a tap in his phones, tapping his phone, his house, his office in the whole nine yards. And then, and, and to be fair, you know, uh, j Edgar Hoover was the FBI director, but you know, he got the Okay from Robert Kennedy, who's the attorney General.
[01:12:52] [00:16:56] Mm-Hmm. JFK's brother. Mm-Hmm, . Okay. Who, [00:17:00] just so everybody's clear. In 1968, ended up running for [01:13:00] president and ended up basically chatting and trying to the same constituents, African Americans, that now he was gonna be able to back them. Okay. Support them. Right. But they put wire taps. All right. And then here's the thing though.
[01:13:16] [00:17:24] They started saying he was a communist. Okay. They started saying he was a communist because one of the things is they wanted to discredit him. Mm-Hmm. . Okay. This was in 1963 and it went, it, it continued, especially when he spoke out about the Vietnam War. All right. It continued until his assassination in 1968, but then 15 years later, which is number 11.
[01:13:42] [00:17:59] Ronald Reagan [00:18:00] signed the bill to make his birthday a national holiday. The only other American to earn this honor is George Washington. So let's back up for a second. 15, 20 years earlier, he was a communist. He was radical. [01:14:00] He's dangerous to the to, to the society. . We gotta, we, we, we, we don't know who he is.
[01:14:07] [00:18:25] We gotta make sure we, because we, he, he, he could, he could, he could bring people together and they can overthrow the government. This is the thought process. Mm-Hmm. . Okay. And then 15 years later, they make it, make him make his birthday a national holiday. Why do I bring this up? Because history repeats itself.
[01:14:30] [00:18:47] Okay. Anytime when a person of color shows up. They're talking about unit and they're, and they can bring a bunch of people together. They become dangerous and then they try to [00:19:00] discredit them. Alright? And I'm, what about Black Lives Matter? Now they're fastest. Okay. They're, they're they. That's the key here.
[01:14:52] [00:19:11] So this is nothing new. It's always been this, but it's interesting. Years later. They recognized him [01:15:00] as a holiday and now let's be clear. I think the first, first few years on, I think it was 15, 16 states that didn't, didn't recognize his birthday as a federal holiday, and eventually that ended up through time where now the whole country I.
[01:15:18] [00:19:36] Um, basically celebrates his birthday and rightfully so. Right.
## [01:15:22] The Importance of MLK's Birthday
[01:15:22] Um, so those are the, those are interesting, but just piggybacking on what I'm, what, uh, what I just got finished saying when I say rightfully so, because I don't think, um, that we, we give him enough respect for what he went through. [00:20:00] Okay. Today people are off from work.
[01:15:43] [00:20:03] Banks are closed. Um, it's a three, a three day weekend. Some people are skiing, kids are off, kids are off, they're chilling. If you are in a warm area, maybe you and Megan, a barbecue and those all, and there's [01:16:00] nothing wrong with those things. Those things are awesome. Right? Those are great. Those are the things that that, that we do when we.
[01:16:09] [00:20:22] Have, you know, holidays off, right? And then obviously there'll be, um, certain type of, uh, television shows that, you know, the movie, his biography, the movie and stuff to that nature. And then, look, let's be clear, let's be fair too. There's other things that's going on where people are putting together different, um, events and, and, and really, you know, paying homage to 'em.
[01:16:36] [00:20:47] But the point I wanna make here is I don't think . Everyone, and I'm talking, everyone really understands what he went through because a lot of times we focus [00:21:00] on the, I got a dream, I have a dream speech. We focus on some of those things, but we don't focus on the things that, that the [01:17:00] majority of us would never do.
[01:17:02] [00:21:13] Would never do. And this is, goes into why I say he, he continues to inspire me today. Now, when I was a kid, I had two heroes. I take that back, I had three. My mother was my hero because she, she was just awesome. She was tough. She loved me unconditionally and she always pushed me to be the best from a male standpoint.
[01:17:29] [00:21:39] 'cause I didn't have a father. Martin Luther King Jr. Was my hero. Okay. And I'm gonna tell you a little bit why. And the second person, the third person was Muhammad Ali. Those were my heroes. Okay? So, and I've never, ever delved away from Martin Luther King, Martin Luther King Jr. Being my hero because [00:22:00] I know what he went through, okay?
[01:17:55] [00:22:02] I wasn't there, but I know what he went through. [01:18:00] So I wanna dive in and I'm gonna use one of the first things, and this goes to your point earlier, uh, AA, where it was his turning point. I'm gonna use one of the first things that when he came on the scene, okay. Which to me should inspire us all. Okay? So let's spend a few minutes here, right?
[01:18:24] [00:22:26] So we're gonna talk about the Montgomery Montgomery Bus Boycott. That happened in 1955 and it lasted a year. Okay. Now let's back up a little bit because again, I don't think, I think some people know, but I don't think the majority of us really know. Okay, so in Alabama and in the south, you had Jim Crow segregation.
[01:18:48] [00:22:52] That means blacks were, uh, could not do or not, uh, have the same rights as [00:23:00] whites. And what do, when I say rights, what do [01:19:00] I mean? Okay. Even just basic rights about being able to use a public bathroom. Mm-Hmm. being able to drink from any water fountain. Okay. It was, it was supposedly called se separate but equal.
[01:19:13] [00:23:19] Okay. And it wasn't, it was never equal. Okay? So you couldn't, uh, if, if you walked down the sidewalk and a white person was on the sidewalk, you had to get off the sidewalk and walk in the street, okay? This is what I'm talking about here. And let's be clear here. This ain't the 18 hundreds. I'm just gonna give you in the 1950s, which was only 70 years ago.
[01:19:43] [00:23:44] So in other words, there's uh, uh, uh, uh, somebody's grandmother, okay, or grandfather, or, excuse me, great-grandmother who experience, who's still alive today, that [00:24:00] experience what I'm saying. Okay. Think about that for a second. Two, three generations ago. [01:20:00] Okay? They experienced this, they grew up this way. Okay?
[01:20:03] [00:24:11] You, these are the things you could not do if you got on the bus. You had to get in the back. You couldn't come through the front door of the bus. The, the front. You had to get in the side door, the back door, side door of the bus, and then you, there was a colored section, okay? And you had to sit in that section.
[01:20:31] [00:24:29] And then if the white section got full. A white person can get on the bus. They can come in the back, and then you would have to give up your seat to sit and let them sit down, even though you were there first throwing their yards. Okay, so let's just be clear here. This the way it was. All right. Now MLK moves to Montgomery.
[01:20:58] [00:24:56] He's not [01:21:00] there that long. However, [00:25:00] Rosa Parks. Was on a bus and said, you know what? And then a white person said, Hey, I want bus driver comes back and said, you gotta get up. Let her let this person sit down. She's like, I ain't doing it right. I'm not doing it. And she got arrested. Okay, now let's be clear.
[01:21:24] [00:25:17] Rosa Parks, everybody knows Rosa Parks, rightfully so, but there was a couple other people who did the exact same thing prior to her, but because of her background. Because of her standing in the community, in the black community, they looked at this as this was their time to really push back. Okay. So she got arrested.
[01:21:48] [00:25:40] The black ministers got together, they bailed her out. They had been meeting with the, the city of Montgomery, the mayor who was wa Gale. They had met [01:22:00] with him. Multiple times to [00:26:00] try to get them to change their policy in terms of riding the bus. Okay? And here's the kicker. They wasn't even trying to say, Hey look, let us get on the front, front of the bus.
[01:22:17] [00:26:13] Or they weren't even looking to make, they were looking to make concessions and they said no. So a bell Rosa Parks outta jail. The black ministers get together and they all come and say, look, let's have a one day protest that all, uh, black people here in Montgomery, Alabama do not ride the bus for one day.
[01:22:41] [00:26:40] Now, here's the, here's the thing that people don't know. 75% of the ridership on the buses in Montgomery. By black people, 75%, and I could be wrong, might've been 90%, but I think 75. So 40,000 black people were [00:27:00] using the bus consistently to [01:23:00] get to work, to do whatever. So they have a one day boycott. Now, here's the thing, when they have the boycott
[01:23:08] [00:27:17] All the local black leaders, including Ralph Bernanke King, they all got together and, uh, on, um, they met together at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and agreed to do this one day boycott. Now here, here's my numbers here, 90% on December 5th, because Rosa Parks was uh, arrested on December 1st. On December 5th, 90% of Montgomery black citizens stayed off the buses.
[01:23:35] [00:27:51] Later that afternoon, the ministers and leaders met to discuss the possibility extending the boycott into a long-term [00:28:00] campaign. During this meeting. Dr. King was elected spokesperson, okay. Of this boycott. Okay, so let's be clear here. Dr. King didn't say, Hey, guess what? I'll, I'll step up. I'll, I'll do this, you know?
[01:23:57] [00:28:24] No. He was new to [01:24:00] town, and this is one of the reasons why they picked him, because he was new to town. He didn't have any enemies. They didn't have anything on him. Okay? And then if it didn't work out, he could move away because Dr. King came to start his own flock work at, I mean, be a minister at a church.
[01:24:23] [00:28:46] That's what he's there for. Okay, now they say, we want you to be the spokesperson. And be our person out front [00:29:00] on this issue. Now, let's be clear here. Let's not be the spokesperson for a new, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, a commercial okay? Or be a spokesperson, you know, to, to, to talk about, you know, um, Liberty. Liberty.
[01:24:49] [00:29:19] Liberty. Liberty. Okay. He's talking about being a sports a, a spokesperson for something that you could die for, you could be killed for [01:25:00] which I'm gonna get into. Mm-Hmm? . Okay. The majority of us, when somebody reaches out and says, we want you, we immediately be like, I don't think I'm good enough to do this.
[01:25:13] [00:29:44] Who would've? Black people were getting lynched. Killed. Not only that, if you did have a great job or you had a good business, it would be ruined. Soon as they got wind. You are gonna lead this. Oh, the bank, if you [00:30:00] had a loan, a mortgage, they would call the loan in. All right. Just to keep you passive, just to keep you subservient to two.
[01:25:41] [00:30:09] What was going on the way of life in the south? Okay, so Dr. King, he could have easily said, well, look, I didn't sign up for this. I came here and brought my family. I just wanna be a minister, uh, at, at my local [01:26:00] church. And that's it. This is dangerous. No, he didn't say that. He stood up when we talk about turning points, right?
[01:26:08] [00:30:34] So the thing was that evening. At a meeting at the Holt Street Baptist Church, Dr. King, first time he spoke, okay, he didn't back down. First time he spoke, what does he say? I wanted to be known that we're going to work with the grim and bold determination to gain justice on the buses in this city, [00:31:00] and we are not wrong.
[01:26:35] [00:31:02] If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we were wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong, and if we are wrong, God almighty is wrong. Okay. First come right out the gate. Boom. Okay. Was he thinking, uh, uh, uh uh March on Washington? No. Was he, he probably was thinking, ah, I'm [01:27:00] gonna stay alive.
[01:27:01] [00:31:29] Okay. Because let me tell you what happened. Alright? So. The bottom line is, is that they met Dr. King, met in a few of, of, of, uh, uh, the contingent met with the city and they said, Hey, look, this is all we want. We want courteous treatment by bus operators because the bus operators be called all type of names and, and treated like dogs in the whole nine yards by the white constituents.
[01:27:31] [00:31:59] Okay? [00:32:00] We want first come first serve seating for all. All right. And then they were like with blocks sitting in the rear. So they're not even saying, Hey, we wanna sit wherever on the bus. We just, we just, we'll sit in the back, but we just want first come, first serve. So whoever comes on first gets a seat.
[01:27:57] [00:32:17] And if, if you come on [01:28:00] and the bus is, is, is crowded, you gotta stand up. Okay? And they wanted, uh, uh, the black bus drivers to stop. At, uh, every corner in the predominantly black neighborhoods like they do in the white neighborhoods, in the black neighborhoods. The buses didn't stop at every stop. In on, they would stop.
[01:28:21] [00:32:41] You would have to get off, you know, four blocks down from where your house is or where you were going. Where in the white neighborhood, they would stop at every corner. Okay, so they, they trying to compromise. Guess what the city's like, we ain't doing it. No. Okay. We ain't. Okay, so [00:33:00] they were like, then guess what?
[01:28:46] [00:33:02] We're not going to ride these buses again. Alright, so all the black community mobilized together. Okay. And came up with a, a develop, developed a, a carpool system, about 300 cars [01:29:00] because everybody didn't have cars. You got, and this is the thing, let's, let's just go back in time here. There was a ton of people that their jobs was more in the service area.
[01:29:13] [00:33:27] You know, mothers were maids going, walking from their neighborhood, okay. Where they lived at. To go to the white neighborhood to take care of their households and their kids. Okay. People who had jobs who caught, they would catch the bus to do that. So they were like, we're not doing that no more. So just to be fair here, who would've did that today?
[01:29:40] [00:33:54] Who would, who would number one band all together. Okay. Number two, [00:34:00] all of a sudden say, guys, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta do something. You gotta hit the pocket. Okay. We got, and, and, and one of the most toughest segregated cities [01:30:00] in the United States at that time. Okay. And then they, the, the, the, the black taxi driver said, Hey, we'll help out.
[01:30:09] [00:34:19] The bus affair was 10 cents. So the taxi driver said, we'll only charge you 10 cents to take you wherever you want to go. The city got winded at and started penalizing the black taxi taxi drivers. Now you still going ride our bus? Regardless, we ain't giving you nothing. Okay, now. Dr. King again, he took on something he didn't have to do.
[01:30:35] [00:34:44] Alright. In early 1956, his house was bombed with his three kids in the house and his wife bombed because [00:35:00] all he's for busing for to be able to sit on a bus. He didn't sign up for that. He could've easily said, you know what guys? I hear you, but at the end of the day, I can't [01:31:00] put my family at risk for this.
[01:31:02] [00:35:15] I gotta back out. Good luck. Let me know how it turns out. Or, you know what? I'm gonna move outta town. I gotta go. And most people would've did that, okay? Most people would've did that. People came outta his house. They're trying to find out, came to his house trying to find out was he okay. You know what he says?
[01:31:28] [00:35:34] He says to the crowd, be calm. As I and my family are, we are not hurt. And remember that if anything happens to me, there'll be others to take my place determined. When you talked about turning points, Mm-Hmm. , that was it. Determined. They're trying to kill me. Think, let's just back up a second. Let's stay here for a second.
[01:31:53] [00:35:56] A knock at midnight. They're not asking, they wasn't [00:36:00] asking for half of the [01:32:00] wealth of the city, okay? They wasn't. They wasn't saying, Hey, we're gonna go to war if we don't get this. They just said, Hey, if you won't let us come on first, come first serve. We'll even sit in the back. Just help, you know, just me to compromise here for the buses, right?
[01:32:21] [00:36:20] They, they bombed this house. You'll try to kill him for that. Who would've stuck up with that? Who would've dealt I, I, I could. I, I probably wouldn't have. Okay. Who would deal with that? Okay, and then that didn't stop. What else did they do? The city officials obtained injunctions against the boycott in February, 1956 and indicted over 80 boycott leaders under a 1921 law prohibiting conspiracies that interfere with lawful business.
[01:32:52] [00:36:56] So in other words, they got arrested. [00:37:00] And basically thrown in jail and said, Hey, it's illegal [01:33:00] to to be in charge of a boycott of a business. All right? So by any means necessary, they wanna break this up so the black people can use, still spend money on their buses, but they don't wanna change in their ways.
[01:33:17] [00:37:23] Think of, just think about that for a second. We ain't changing, and matter of fact, we gonna force you. To use our buses the way we want you to use them. Now he's in jail and guess what? Because he's the spokesperson, they pick him out. He was convicted, alright? And was ordered to pay $500 or served 386 years.
[01:33:41] [00:37:48] I mean, excuse me, years. 86 days in jail at hard labor. Because they just wanted to ride the bus like [00:38:00] everybody else. He didn't sign up to go to jail. He didn't sign up to put his family at risk to die, [01:34:00] but he stood steadfast. He didn't let his, he didn't back out of the commitment that he made. Nine times outta 10, the majority of would never do that.
[01:34:11] [00:38:25] We are gonna celebrate his birthday. We're gonna be off. We think about how many, how much could you deal with when people are spitting at you, they're throwing stones at you. He almost was assassinated as one of the unknown facts, and I skipped it, but he almost got assassinated when he was signing a book in Harlem.
[01:34:35] [00:38:46] Alright. A few years after this and a lady comes up with a, a letter opener and stabs him, and he almost died from that. Who could deal with that? The pressure and then [00:39:00] carrying the weight of a whole race on his shoulders. He didn't raise his hand and say, I wanna do this,
[01:34:58] [00:39:11] and he took [01:35:00] it. He took it. He did it and for what he went through and what he endured and how he did it, and he did it with class. He did it with love. He talked about nonviolence when he was getting stoned and bombed, he. Okay. And I wouldn't be where I am today. A lot of us in the African American community wouldn't be where we are today.
[01:35:27] [00:39:39] And this, to be fair, my white brothers and sisters, you wouldn't be, where are you, where you are today too, because he helped us all start coming together and he helped make awareness of how evil segregation was.
[01:35:43] [00:39:59] I mean, [00:40:00] for me. We waver on anything today. Commitment. What does that mean? We don't know. We say we're committed, but soon as the wind starts blowing a little tough, we, I can't do that. I can't do [01:36:00] it. I hear you, buddy. I, that's what I thought in the beginning, but i's too tough. We don't say that. We'll come up with some other excuses.
[01:36:11] [00:40:23] Okay. That is for real. And so we have to give this man. On his birthday a a lot more respect than we do. Here's the thing, they stuck, they stuck with this for a year, not riding the bus a year when that was the primary transportation in that town, in that city, and then on December 20th. The Supreme Court a year [00:41:00] later made upheld the lower court's ruling that, uh, segregation on buses was unconstitutional, and the boycott stopped.
[01:36:44] [00:41:13] Stopped at that timeframe. So they were able to complete their mission, not, it wasn't easy. Or, and, and again, I'm just telling you some stuff on a higher level. , what about the people who had jobs? [01:37:00] They ended up losing their job, their livelihood, because they wouldn't ride the bus. Mm-Hmm? . Okay. What about the businesses that had loans and the white bankers called their loans 'cause they wouldn't ride the bus.
[01:37:14] [00:41:47] Okay. There's a ton of people that was affected by just trying to get their God-given constitutional rights of the country. Nothing more. [00:42:00] So it was a huge sacrifice. Right. And then this is what I love what he said. When the bus, the bus boycott ended, he said, he said the next morning he boarded an integrated bus with Ralph Alber, Anthony Ed Next Nixon and Glenn Smiley King said of the boy bus boycott.
[01:37:45] [00:42:18] We came to see that in the long run it was more honorable to walk in dignity than ride and humiliation. So we decided to substitute tired feet for tired soles and walk the streets [01:38:00] of Montgomery. Think about that. I mean, this man, and, and this is just one section of the things that he dealt with from 1955 till he was assassinated in 1968.
[01:38:12] [00:42:55] Don't, you, don't, you don't. We don't. We think that he would wanna live for his kids. [00:43:00] Don't you think he wanted to be a father and see his kids grow up and, uh, graduate high school, get married, have his grandchildren like we all do, but he sacrificed. He knew that eventually he would be killed and he sacrificed for all of us.
[01:38:38] [00:43:23] All of us. So those are the reasons that I'm inspired by him, because I wouldn't be where I am today. My family wouldn't have what we have today if it wasn't for a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And you know, the thing is, is this aa, I know you talked [01:39:00] about turning Points. and we all have them. The thing is, is it a turning point [00:44:00] or is it an inconvenience?
[01:39:08] [00:44:04] And when you have a real turning point, that's when you say, you know what? I ain't doing this no longer. I don't care what come up. I'm done. You know what? I didn't know about this. I wasn't aware, but now I am. It ain't gonna never happen to me again. I learned from that, so I can't speak for him in terms of what his turning point was.
[01:39:37] [00:44:26] I'm just going off of what I knew he went through coming on into the, coming into the scene, and I could imagine. That was one, but he could have had multiple way before that timeframe. But for me, that was very significant. And here's the the things that I, the words that I throw in [01:40:00] when I say I'm inspired by him.
[01:40:02] [00:44:52] And, and, and even that story, number one, he stepped up. He didn't have to. He stepped [00:45:00] up and he didn't, he stepped up for his fellow human beings. Number two, he became uncomfortable. Okay. I remember, um, and I saw this in the scene of a movie, but when they went in, and I don't know how accurate it was, but I, when they first went in to make their, uh, uh, demands to, to the city of, uh, Montgomery.
[01:40:35] [00:45:22] And, uh, he, they start, he started chatting with the city council and then they started pushing back really hard and he didn't know what to say. He was like, stump. And then he came back and, uh, they said, how did it go? And he's, and I'm paraphrasing, he said, well, first you got, first we have to, [01:41:00] we have to get rid of the slave mind.
[01:41:03] [00:45:42] We have to believe that this is really, we really deserve this. 'cause you can't go ask for something. That you don't think you deserve? I never, I never forgot that I thought that was all. So he was uncomfortable and he had to, by being uncomfortable, he grew and [00:46:00] when he grew, he helped us all grow. The adversity that he dealt with from the beginning to the end, he had a million reasons to back out a million.
[01:41:36] [00:46:11] And who would've blamed them? Who would've blamed him, but he didn't let that stop him because he saw this as an opportunity to make a change in the United States for every human being. Every human being, when they're wiretapping you, they're calling you a communist. They're bombing your house. I can't imagine what his kids went [01:42:00] through.
[01:42:00] [00:46:36] His wife went through. Just think about the adversity. But here's the, here's the kicker. He was all about love, and he showed love, even through all the negativity that came his way, even through the violence that came his way, he still . Show love for not only his fellow human being, but also for the people [00:47:00] That was who, who, who, who gave, who was against him from a, a violent standpoint.
[01:42:30] [00:47:05] Okay. Most of us wouldn't do that. And then more importantly, his I dream. I, I have a dream speech speaks to this other word vision. He had vision. He didn't see what this country was at that moment. He saw what it could be in the future. And so those are the five things. The five words that inspire me. You know, the thing that bothers me the most, I.
[01:42:59] [00:47:34] Is, [01:43:00] and you see this on television or radio or there's a documentary, and, and, and I'm pretty sure, um, if you look today, um, you're gonna see it too. It's like, you know, what do we need to do to make, uh, Dr. King's dream come real? Okay? What do we need to do, you know, to make his dream come real? My question is, do you really want it to become real?
[01:43:29] [00:47:56] Because that's an easy thing to do. It, [00:48:00] it, it, it, it's not like putting an astronaut on Mars. Okay. This is easy to do. Each and every human being has to want that dream. And if each and every human being wants that dream, then each and every human being would work on their, their, their personal self to make that happen.
[01:43:55] [00:48:20] Each and every human being will make themselves. They will step [01:44:00] up and say, you know what? This is, guess what, we've been doing this for too long. It's time for us to come together as people, and race shouldn't be an issue. They would be uncomfortable because yes, they're not, haven't spent time with other people from other races or sexuality or whatever the case may be.
[01:44:22] [00:48:46] But by being uncomfortable and, and be willing to, to delve in that, they would then eventually become comfortable. And then obviously from an adversity standpoint, there's gonna be people pushing back and says, I don't want none of that, or I don't believe [00:49:00] that. Or what case BB, and guess what? That's fine.
[01:44:45] [00:49:03] But you know what? We wanna make this dream come true. So guess what? I'm willing to deal with the adversity. And then the other word was love. You're doing this because you love. Your fellow [01:45:00] brother and sister, no matter what they look like, you love your kids. 'cause you want them to grow up in a world that will treat them no different than they're, they're treating their neighbor no matter how they look or how smart they are, or whatever the case may be.
[01:45:20] [00:49:29] You. And then the people that push back, you still love them where they are. And then the final thing is. That vision, if we all can have that vision and visualize if we all did this on a daily basis, where we would be as a town, city, a state, country, and a world. So that's what I [00:50:00] wanted to share with you today on a Black Executive perspective Podcast, Martin Luther King, Jr.
[01:45:51] [00:50:07] Unknown facts and how he in, he inspired me.
## [01:45:55] Conclusion and Final Thoughts
[01:45:55] Double a final thoughts, my friend. Oh, I mean, you know, the [01:46:00] way he inspired me, you know, was in seventh grade, you know, learning about. Civil rights movement. And he, when I really think about it, when I was thinking about this, you know, he really was the beginning of my journey of self-discovery because that's when I started thinking about who I was, uh, as a Hispanic male, uh, Latinx male and a Puerto Rican at the time.
[01:46:27] [00:50:37] Mm-Hmm. . So I'm very grateful for Dr. King. Well, that's also my friend. Um, I think he inspired a lot of people, and, and I know even though I'm, we're chatting about this today, I know there's a ton of people that do have that, um, mad respect for him. Um, but I just think for today, we wanna make sure that everyone's clear [00:51:00] in terms of the things that he brought to the table.
[01:46:57] [00:51:02] And we just talked [01:47:00] about just a small portion of all the things that he has done. So I think it's time for. Tony's tidbit. So for Martin Luther King Jr's birthday, I would be remiss just to give one quote because he had multiple quotes that I thought were fascinating. I thought they were thought provoking, and, and I, I carry some of these wherever I go.
[01:47:25] [00:51:28] So guess what? I'm gonna go, I'm gonna give you more than one tidbit today. All right? All right. But these are all by Martin Luther King Jr. First one, darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. Number two, our lives begin to end. The day we became silent.
[01:47:50] [00:51:51] About things that matter. I love that. Number three, the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands [00:52:00] in [01:48:00] moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. We kinda spoke a little bit about that. Number four, I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love.
[01:48:13] [00:52:16] We'll have the final word in reality. That's why. This is why, right? Temporary defeat is stronger than evil triumph. And then finally, and this will close out our podcast. We must live together as brothers or parish together. As fools. Hmm. And all those were from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. So I hope you enjoyed this episode of a Black Executive Perspective podcast, Martin Luther King's Jr.
[01:48:41] [00:52:52] 11 Unknown Facts and Why he inspired me Today. Please continue to follow a [00:53:00] black executive perspective on all the social platforms at Tony Tidbit, BEP, and you can subscribe. Give us a rating at a Black executive perspective podcast wherever you get your podcast. [01:49:00] Four, my energetic 2024 Executive Producer aa.
[01:49:02] [00:53:22] I'm Tony Tidbit. We love you. We talked about it. And we're out. Thank you for tuning into this episode of Tony Tidbit, a black executive perspective, and for joining in today's conversation with every story we share, every conversation we foster and every barrier we address, we can ignite the sparks that bring about lasting change.
[01:49:25] [00:53:47] And this carries us one step closer to transforming the face of corporate America. If today's episode resonated with you, consider subscribing and leaving us a rating or review on Apple Podcast, [00:54:00] Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. Share this episode with your circle and with your support, we can reach more people and tell more stories.