On Wednesday, Jan. 23d, SFCC hosted an MLK speaker, Victor Lewis, a nationally recognized, award winning activist. You can see him in the documentary “The Color of Fear” and he even once appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show. On Monday, Jan. 20, we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day, an American federal holiday for the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. While his actual birthday is Jan. 15, it’s observed on the third Monday of every month.

Lewis started off his speech powerfully by saying “Martin Luther King Jr. was the very first flesh and blood superhero I wanted to be like at 7 years old.” It was the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965 that caught Lewis’ attention at that young age. He said that there was a cut on King’s jaw, a sense of determination in his stride.

“Somehow it seemed his job was to be good,” Lewis said.

He spoke more about how being a part of King’s following, and believing in his words meant you got to stand for something.

“I knew in that moment that my life would be about standing for something,” Lewis said.

He brought his enthusiasm for King and merged it with his passion for community colleges. Lewis said the chances of forging a life of one’s choosing, different from the people in your same ZIP code were very slim.

“I would return to the projects 5, 10, 20 and even 30 years later and find the same people there,” Lewis said. “The challenge King puts to everyone is to be great.”

This is why he has an admiration for community colleges, and people getting the chance to create their lives. Not everybody, however, knows what to do with their lives at age 18, so Lewis gave some tips to help out all the students who have no idea what to do for the rest of their days.

“Your calling is going to relate to your loves and your passions,” Lewis said. “Next, the things you are gifted and talented at, and finally there has to be an opening.”

He said there needs to be an “unmet need in the world” for what you want to do. He said that from that moment when he was seven years old watching King on that march, he knew what his passion was going to be. Lewis talked about a mentor in his life, Father Tom, he singled out his passion and gift for public speaking, he told him that he should go do it for a living, that Lewis had a talent for motivation and speaking. Lewis looked at him and said, “careers are for white people.” He said, “You see, growing up in my society, black people got jobs, everyone else had careers.” He said it was his unintentional racism and classism speaking.

The most powerful moment in Lewis’ speech was when he simply said, “The world had decided before it met me, that I wasn’t made for anything, if people focus on what society says we are meant for, we surrender to it, and it becomes true.”

Lewis then said that humans’ most profound gifts only emerge in the collaboration of others. He told the crowd to think of the person in our lives that helped us through tough times, hard decisions and bold actions, that made a change or difference for our lives and the lives of others, and to thank them.

“We can’t make a difference alone,” he said.  “We need complex relationships of cooperation of people like us and different from us.”