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MLK keynote Jeff Johnson calls for this generation to identify, become new social activitists

Celebrations and remembrances of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., mean nothing if persons don't put into action today the values King stood for or worse: if people don't really understand what he stood for in the first place.

So says Jeff Johnson.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE: Jeff Johnson, host and producer
of BET's "The Cousin Jeff Chronicles" urged a packed
crowd at the Student Center Auditorium to put Martin
Luther King's dream into consistent action, hold
today's social and political leaders accountable, and
start making your own difference in your communities.
Johnson was the keynote speaker for Eastern Michigan
University's annual MLK Day Celebration, which took
place Jan. 21.

Johnson, host and producer of BET's "The Cousin Jeff Chronicles," a series of mini-documentaries that tell stories of black and Latino communities, was the keynote speaker for Eastern Michigan University's annual MLK Day Celebration Jan. 21. Before a packed crowd in the Student Center Auditorium that overflowed into a nearby room, Johnson presented "Unclaimed: Who Will Be the Next Social Movement?"

"A celebration is not about events. A celebration is not about pomp and circumstance...The problem I have with (Martin Luther) King Day is I wonder how many would remember him if we weren't told to," said Johnson, who stalked the stage and, at times, spoke in fire-and-brimstone tones.

Johnson, who began his speech by saying he wasn't there to be liked, urged the crowd to realize Dr. King's life was not just about his "I Have a Dream" speech — one moment in time — but an everyday way of life and set of beliefs that King actually lived and was willing to die for.

"MLK in America has been 'Santa Claus-ized.' He's the black Santa Claus that little kids try to emulate and be like, and has been romanticized by parents," Johnson said in a chagrined tone. "He was not perfect, and never wanted to be emulated in that way."

Johnson said that more leaders with King's values are needed today, but stressed that King was not a born leader. King did not go to Morehouse College for his undergraduate degree with any idea he would eventually become a civil rights leader, Johnson said.