Interesting Reads related to the Inauguration

The inauguration of Barack Obama is historic by any standards. For many older African-Americans it must be one of the momentous events in their lives and one that many would never have believed possible in the dark days of Jim Crow.

As a humorous inspirational keynote business speaker (sorry, I’ve got to use that hyperbole to attract search engines and anyone looking for a keynote speaker, humorous, inspiration, Irish, Chicago based etc!), I’ve read a lot of books on the Civil Rights era. Some months ago, I posted a review of Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr . Given what has transpired in recent days I thought it might be interesting to present it here again.
Other relevant material on this subject includes my review of Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by Congressman John Lewis. This is one of my favorite books, written by a truly brave man.
Something that might also be of interest is Bill Clinton’s speech on What Would Martin Luther King Say – Remarks to the Convocation of the Church of God in Christ, November 1993

Following is the review of Call to Conscience.

This work is available in book form, CD and also available for download. I have it on my iPod. This is a true test to see if a download can wear out, because I listen to it a lot.

Note, some of the audio quality is not good. To fully appreciate King’s talent and speech construction, you do need the book. The advantage of the audio is that you can hear the real thing and appreciate this wonderful orator’s speech pattern, intonation and delivery.

Rosa Parks said that Martin Luther King told her he spent up to fifteen hours on sermon development. I believe it.

This book provided King’s speeches in chronological order and it is interesting to see how his style develops from the first speech referenced to his final poignant, prophetic address in Memphis, April 3rd 1968, the night before he was assassinated.

Three things strike me about this era as I go through the work.
1) The horrors, humiliation and fear which the “negro” community endured and which King fought so hard to overcome are painted graphically in some of his speeches. Probably the most poignant speech is the address at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama following the murder of four young children.
King’s words are powerful, full of pain, anguish, and controlled anger. But it is the audience response that hit me hard. In almost every other speech on this work, the reaction is upbeat and lively. Here, there is just pain and sadness in the intermittent responses of his congregation. This speech came after King’s acclaimed “I have a dream” speech and the march on Washington, which may have led the leaders of the black community to a misleading sense of hope for the immediate future.

2) The genuine Christian ethic that pervaded King’s thinking. He regularly extols his audience to “love” their persecutors. He does differentiate strongly between “mushy” love, but he continuously asks his audience, many of whom suffered dreadful hardship and pain during this era, to forgive their persecutors.

3) King was a brave man. Not just because of his defiance of the whole “Jim Crow” ethic which ultimately resulted in his assassination. This was a fate that probably would not have surprised him, given the murders of other activists including Medgar Evers. However, his bravest speech may well have been “Beyond Vietnam” April 4th 1967, where he stingingly indicted the United States for its involvement in the war. It was a war which he saw as “an enemy of the poor” because it diverted resources from the war on poverty. But his criticism was even more basic.
“We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. And so we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. And so we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would hardly live on the same block in Chicago. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.”

King knew the speech would be seen by Lyndon Johnson as a stab in the back. It also raised to an even greater level, the ire of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover who was paranoid about King’s activities.

King undoubtedly was an inspirational speaker and motivator. His speeches got better as his audience warmed to him. This, I think is proof positive, that a speech is not just about the words but the delivery of those words. The great speaker feeds of the audience, accepting applause almost as a fuel to deliver even greater energy. This is very obvious with his “I have a dream” speeches, (yes speeches) where great motivating words generate great audience reaction which generates greater energy from the speaker. Compare this to his address on receipt of The Nobel Peace Price, December 1964, where before a very high profile audience, he is restrained and projects little charisma.

Critiquing King is difficult and maybe even foolhardy. But on a few occasions I think he broke one of the key rules for a good speech – speak the language of your audience. For instance in his “Where do we go from here” speech to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference he said:
“My inspiration didn't come from Karl Marx; my inspiration didn't come from Engels; my inspiration didn't come from Trotsky; my inspiration didn't come from Lenin. Yes, I read Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital a long time ago, and I saw that maybe Marx didn't follow Hegel enough. He took his dialectics, but he left out his idealism and his spiritualism. And he went over to a German philosopher by the name of Feuerbach, and took his materialism and made it into a system that he called "dialectical materialism."
On this and a few other occasions, King I think liked to show the audience how clever he was.

The other area where he could genuinely be criticized is in the length of his speeches. Maybe this is part of the Baptist tradition he was raised in, but sometimes ‘less is more’. King also had a tendency to reference the fact that he was moving to a conclusion, one that would not occur for maybe another ten minutes.

These are minor criticisms of a wonderful motivational inspirational speaker whose greatest skill was the ability to paint pictures with words. His use of imagery and imagery enhancing adjectives brought so much life to his speeches. He truly is an inspiration to the keynote speaker (inspirational, humorous, motivational, business - whatever) who wishes to craft inspirational, motivating speeches.

I Have A Dream - Indoors

A lot of hype about Barack Obama’s speech this evening – on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s most famous rendition of his “I have a dream” speech. Many people are questioning whether the choice of Invesco Field is a good one.

I think Obama has the ability to nail a speech tonight, but one can learn from Martin Luther King’s experience. I referenced his ‘most famous rendition’ of his speech. August 28th was not the first time King had used the framework of ‘I have a dream.’ He had presented this concept on a number of occasions. His best rendition of the speech – better than the Washington speech – took place at Cobo Hall, Detroit June 23 1963.

King was speaking to a large gathering following the Great March on Detroit. You can listen to the speech on A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. and compare it with the more famous speech of August 28th that also is on this CD. My personal belief is that the Detroit speech was ‘better’ – though not obviously as impactful. King spoke indoors to an audience that just projected a wall of enthusiastic noise back to him.

As a keynote speaker (branding, foodservice, cancer, humorous) I am often intrigued about how the setting can determine audience reaction. A basic rule is that you will get a better audience response in a compact, packed venue rather than from a much larger packed venue.

That is the challenge Obama faces tonight. He is a wonderful orator, but it will be interesting to see if he can generate the type of response which Hillary and Bill Clinton generated. A Humorous or Business Keynote Speaker feeds of the audience. So do politicians.

Here is one blinding flash of the obvious if you are interested in communications and keynote speaking. In addition to his undoubted skills, Obama has one really powerful advantage tonight. The audience love him and really want him to succeed. This makes a huge difference as comedians will tell you. Comics like Robin Williams and Dane Cook have won over their audience before they go on stage. If Williams or Cook even scratch themselves when they first come on stage, the audience laughs. The best unknown actor in the world will not be able to generate the same reaction. Why? – because the audience does not know him and love him.

Obama will wow his audience tonight. The question is can he wow the audience that does not love him – the undecided, whom he must convince if he wants to sleep in the White House for the next four years. This raises another question. What sensible person would want this job?

For those of you interested in Martin Luther King’s Cobo Hall speech, the following is part of his peroration.

"And so I go back to the South not in despair. I go back to the South not with a feeling that we are caught in a dark dungeon that will never lead to a way out. I go back believing that the new day is coming. And so this afternoon, I have a dream. (Go ahead) It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day, right down in Georgia and Mississippi and Alabama, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to live together as brothers.
I have a dream this afternoon (I have a dream) that one day, [Applause] one day little white children and little Negro children will be able to join hands as brothers and sisters.
I have a dream this afternoon that one day, [Applause] that one day men will no longer burn down houses and the church of God simply because people want to be free.
I have a dream this afternoon (I have a dream) that there will be a day that we will no longer face the atrocities that Emmett Till had to face or Medgar Evers had to face, that all men can live with dignity.
I have a dream this afternoon (Yeah) that my four little children, that my four little children will not come up in the same young days that I came up within, but they will be judged on the basis of the content of their character, not the color of their skin. [Applause]
I have a dream this afternoon that one day right here in Detroit, Negroes will be able to buy a house or rent a house anywhere that their money will carry them and they will be able to get a job. [Applause] (That’s right)
Yes, I have a dream this afternoon that one day in this land the words of Amos will become real and "justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."
I have a dream this evening that one day we will recognize the words of Jefferson that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." I have a dream this afternoon. [Applause]
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and "every valley shall be exalted, and every hill shall be made low; the crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places plain; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." [Applause]
I have a dream this afternoon that the brotherhood of man will become a reality in this day."

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Posted by Chicago based Irish keynote speaker and business humorist Conor Cunneen