“You splashed my face with Nile water. Daughter of Diaspora You named me, claimed me.” Jill Scott

Today’s principle of Nia (Purpose) provides us with the opportunity to reflect on how we can best restore  traditional greatness by building & developing community, together. As we prepare for the challenges and opportunities of 2015, let us always remember those ancestors who left us with vitally important lessons and roadmaps. Few people moved with a greater sense of purpose and a deep, unwavering love for young people of African descent than Vivian Verdell Gordon. From the 1970s to the early 1980s, Gordon left an indelible impact on those students at the University of Virginia who were fortunate to  call her teacher.  Frequently when I think about her legacy, I am reminded of the following words from Benjamin Brawley’s 1926 article, “The Profession of the Teacher”:

“To Take our boys and girls, our young men and women and to lead them into the knowledge of truth; to acquaint them with the master-minds of the ages; to help them to be clean of heart and pure of spirit; to teach them to have self-respect without arrogance and chivalry without pride; to help them to have faith even if they see wrong all around them. This is no mere business, no simple matter of office routine. It is the highest task that God can give a mortal.”

We are better because Gordon–a master teacher–saw teaching not just as a career but also a divinely ordained vocation.

“It’s all right to talk about long white robes over yonder, in all of its symbolism, but ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. [Applause] It’s all right to talk about streets flowing with milk and honey, but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here and His children who can’t eat three square meals a day. [Applause] It’s all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day God’s preacher must talk about the new New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. [Applause] This is what we have to do.” Martin Luther King, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.”

The value of black labor and consumer power was a constant theme in the writings of Dr. Martin Luther King; so in honor of today’s principle, UJAMMA (cooperative economics), I leave a few quotes from his book, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community, and his last speech, I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.”

“Black Power is also a call for the pooling of Black financial resources to achieve economic security. Through the pooling of such resources and the development of habits of thrift and techniques of wise investments, the Negro will be doing his share to grapple with his problem of economic deprivation. If Black Power means the development of this kind of strength within the Negro community, then it is a quest for basic, necessary, legitimate power.”

“And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from [big corporations]. And so, as a result of this, we are asking you tonight to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy, what is the other bread? Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart’s bread.”

“As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven’t been fair in their hiring policies; and we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right. But not only that, we’ve got to strengthen Black institutions.”

“I call upon you to take your money out of the banks downtown and deposit your money in Tri-State Bank. We want a ‘bank-in’ movement in Memphis. So go by the savings and loan association. I’m not asking you something we don’t do ourselves at SCLC. Judge Hooks and others will tell you that we have an account here in the savings and loan association from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. We’re just telling you to follow what we’re doing. Put your money there.”

“You have six or seven Black insurance companies in Memphis. Take out your insurance there. We want to have an ‘insurance-in.’ Now these are some practical things we can do. We begin the process of building a greater economic base. And at the same time, we are putting pressure where it really hurts. I ask you to follow through here.”