Martin Luther King's courageous leadership recalled

There are many profound lessons and legacies the world has received from the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. Among them is the powerful message that true visionary leadership requires a tremendous amount of unrelenting courage—a level of courage few leaders manifest but one that Dr. King truly exemplified.

It is easy to hold one’s finger to the populist winds culture and then lean in the direction of political expediency. It is easy to be a cultural chameleon and color oneself in the trends of the day in order to appear a popular leader. It is easy to speak the words people want to hear and create fanciful dreams of presumed righteousness based on appealing to the public’s fears and anxieties. Many populist leaders over the years have done so. Some even attained momentary prominence in the prowess of populist preference. Dr. King was not one of them.

The leadership exemplified in Dr. King was one that defied the popularity of the people and embraced the hard truths facing humanity. Known most notably for his work leading the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King was also a powerful leader for peace, ending the war in Viet Nam, worker’s rights, equality, justice, governmental transparency and non-violence. In every case, he was a prophetic iconoclast—one who broke down the delusions of society and the evil power structures of our culture that promoted inequality, injustice, and inhumanity.

In every case, Dr. King was not motivated by, or appealed to, popular opinion, status quo, or convenient outcomes. In response to his efforts for peace, justice, and upholding the authentic values of both Christian faith and American patriotism, King was greeted with hatred, death threats, physical assaults, lies that degraded his character, unjust accusations, illegal arrests, unconstitutional detainment, and ultimately his assassination.

Under such unrelenting pressure to back down, stay safe, take a defeatist conciliatory approach, give into the demands of evil, and undermine his own integrity in order to appear as a more populist leader, Dr. King remained stalwart. He held to the integrity of his message, upheld the underlying truth of his mission, and remained fundamentally connected through his faith in God.

Dr. King’s courage as a leader remains one of his most powerful and endearing legacies. Much of his divinely inspired dream was ultimately achieved, and much more remains for those who stand in the shadow of his courageous Christian leadership to see fulfilled in our lifetimes. Although we have a long way to go, the world owes a lot to Dr. King and his legacy of courage.

The legacy of courageous leadership amid tremendous opposition, resistance, and controversy is not limited to King. One woman who has taken up the legacy of such leadership is Nicole Nelson-Jean. She is the Associate Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Field Operations for the Office of Environmental Management in Washington, D.C. and serves as one of the highest government officials working with the community of Carlsbad with the oversight and operations of the W.I.P.P site in Carlsbad. The Carlsbad Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Committee is proud to welcome her to our community in support of the annual MLK Scholarship Banquet on Friday, Jan. 13 at 6 p.m.

Nelson-Jean will be the featured keynote speaker at the banquet and will be reflecting on how she sees King’s dream fulfilled, as well as how we as Americans can continue working to realize the fullness of both Dr. King’s dream and his legacy as a courageous leader for a better future for all humanity.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Martin Luther King's courageous leadership recalled