Review and Reflections: MLK Jr. on Leadership
By Marivir Montebon
MLK was America’s gift to humanity, the epitome of non-violent, visionary, and servant leadership. In the parlance of Maxwell, he reached the pinnacle of leadership[1]. I am inspired by MLK’s integrity – practice what you preach – and his steadfast anchoring on truth by listening to people and struggling with them that made him larger than life.
MLK Jr. at a rally at the Lincoln Memorial (Photo from the United Methodist Insight).
He was a leader from the middle, a newbie in fact, as Donald T. Phillips wrote in his book ‘Martin Luther King Jr. on Leadership’.[2] By rising from the middle, he learned from the ranks and his elders. He had his fears, but his courage was greater that he accepted the leadership sought of him. He was inspired by the courageous acts of Black persons, like Rosa Parks, for instance, and stepped up as he was called to lead. Essentially, he was following his people’s lead, without much of an ego. He was enlightened by Jesus Christ and Mahatma Gandhi.
MLK also wrote, wherein through reflective writing, he became his own teacher. [3] His reflections on the Montgomery bus rides in 1955 taught him and everyone to remain humble and the Albany failure made him realize to do better. His reflective writing is important and useful to me, being a writer myself. When one sits down to write, one is focused on dealing with one’s fears, joys, faith, and yes vision – to reach a certain clarity. MLK has inspired my current writing ministry.
MLK’s public messages were clear: Give us the ballot. No to segregation. With the responsible use of mass media, these messages reached far and wide and woke people up and ignited the civil rights movement further and it inspired the world too.
MLK’s brilliance, I believe, comes from his humility and curiosity to constantly learn. His leadership had no other agenda than to serve. He read and read, he listened, he reflected, and improved on his actions. He was every inch a progressive and faithful leader, as opposed to stagnant, or stuck with his or her own religious or political lenses.
From this ethic, he developed a clear vision of what action to take, what words to speak to inspire and move people to action by immersing himself on the ground, organizing and mobilizing. But most of all, he walked the talk.
No one is as clear and eloquent to me as MLK was. Although I only saw him on YouTube, he truly was charismatic and moving. His eloquence, based on truth on what the Black people felt and experienced, made him a dangerous man that he had to be killed.
This book made me understand MLK’s humility and wisdom to pursue non-violent protest because “darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that.” [4] Violence only begets violence. “Riots are not revolutionary, they cannot win.” “There was a better way, a way as old as the insights of Jesus of Nazareth and as modern as the methods of Mahatma Gandhi.”[5]
Two years before his assassination, MLK was given the 1964 Nobel prize at age 34, the youngest recipient. Why? Because the chaotic world understood his message of equality, love, and justice. It was as clear as the cloudless blue sky.
In the I had a dream speech, MLK synthesized his vision that was equality. He put the Black people’s struggle in context as a continuation of Abraham Lincoln’s emancipation of slaves, and a realization of the founding fathers dream of democracy. It was part of a continuing past.
The civil rights movement was born from injustice. Years of humiliation on one side of the population and superiority on the other through segregation cannot forever continue. At some point, the injustices will explode. And it ripened at the time of leadership of MLK.
He encouraged innovation, upbeat calls to action and soulful songs during protest marches. He called out people when they were slacking. And on himself, he was brutally critical, and so eager to serve, as his wife Corretta Scott King would recall. [6]
Through Phillips’ masterful presentation of the tenets of leadership, I saw the turbulent past, and the promise that the civil rights activists has delivered with their sacrifices led by MLK.
The end of the illustrious life of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968, was our beginning – that of reaping the fruits of sacrifices of the civil rights movement. We stand on his shoulders, and of the others who sacrificed earlier on.
In retrospect, Pres. Johnson signed into law The Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2, 1968, three months after MLK’s assassination. It legally ended segregation in public places. The Voting Rights Act of 1964 went through several stages of refinements because of the civil rights movement.
Being a public observer and journalist, the book made me ponder on how current campaigns like Black Lives Matter and the Anti-Asian Hate are moving along. I believe that clear contextual message and vigorous and moral leadership are wanting in present day sporadic campaigns. As Dr. Bernice King puts it on the book’s foreword, quoting her mother Coretta: “Struggle is a never-ending process. Freedom is never really won; you earn it and win it in every generation.” [7] Oh, this book is so relevant, and I recommend for all to read. #
(This is a condensed essay submitted to my 2022 class on Transformational Leadership in Post-modern World to commemorate the MLK Day January 16, 2023.)
[1] Maxwell, John C. 2011. “Five Levels of Leadership.” New York. Center Street Hachette Book Group. P.9
[2]Phillips, Donald T. 2021. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Leadership. Grand Central Publishing Hachette Book Group. New York P. 13
[3] Phillips. P. 26
[4] Phillips. P. 34
[5] Phillips. P. 31
[6] Phillips. P. 45
[7] Phillips. P. vii
