“Dr. King in his "Drum Major Instinct” speech spoke on being a servant. The type of service that he did, he wasn’t well paid as a lot of the activists are today. He was looking for his reward in heaven. I really think that’s what inspired me the most, is the serve. The greatest amongst you should be your servant. That’s what he said in his “Drum Major Instinct” speech and I agree.

I would give advice to the black community, specifically. I’m not versed on every issue in the world. I do know that Dr. Martin Luther King fought for negroes’ rights and I think that we have split, to some extent, between family breakdowns and addictions within the community. There’s a whole lot of different things that separate us and the unity we had, under his one voice, is what I hope we go back to. Right now, we’re celebrating Martin Luther King Day and just last night, Kamala Harris announced that she’s running for president. There’s not a unified black community behind her. There are identity politics, which she represents more so than the community that wants her to be in office. I want that unity to be restored. I want the community to be restored. I want the families to be restored, so that we as a collective, can be whole.

We can fight heroine if we stop selling it to ourselves. We can fight homelessness if we open our doors to one another. We can fight starvation if we treat each other as brothers and sisters. We have to stop discounting each other. We still have a long way to go before we find equality in America. We need to go back and reclaim lost values, like Dr. King spoke on. When he said that, he was saying that when they left Jesus, a day’s journey away, they had to go back to reclaim Jesus, so they can go forward. We’re in the same situation. Our community is a lot more secular than it used to be. The black church isn’t the pillar, like it used to be. In fact, it’s more so identity politics and focus groups that take our charge. So, going back to reclaim Jesus is a big thing, which means we need to re-identify in love . ” - Dereck (pictured left), California

“There’s so much to think about when you listen to all of the people that hung out with Dr. King, like J.W. Stokes, Rev. Elliott and all of these guys in this community. They talk about how he inspired them and you try to live in that shadow. We were the dream. We are the dream. To live under that inspiration and to hear these men talk about him, for me, is to be that kind of man. That’s what most inspired him. He could see me, in the future, being that man.

The strength and the power of the force of unity is something that, if ever needed, I hope we have it, collectively, regardless of who we are. My advice is for us to not see ourselves as separate and get fragmented in our own viewpoints and find that collective unity. The strongest force is unity. There’s no other force stronger. Find that strength and voice in unity. We need to be whole to carry and shoulder each other’s burdens.” - Martin (pictured right), California