At a Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration Tuesday, Superintendent Anthony Lewis turned his keynote speech into a civil rights lesson. Drawing heavily upon King’s example, Lewis commanded attention from an audience of government officials and employees.
He urged those attending not to be complacent towards injustice. Referencing King’s famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Lewis reminded the audience that injustice that affects one ultimately affects all.
“If we’re truly sincere about impacting change, be committed,” he said. “Care about the welfare of others.”
Lewis’ call to action, one of many during his impassioned 30-minute address at First Presbyterian Church, was met with a chorus of nods from city and county workers attending the annual joint program in honor of King.
Lewis completed 100 days as Durham Public Schools superintendent on January 15. Despite confronting bus driver shortages and a $7 million budget shortfall, he projected confidence in the strength of Durham on Tuesday, praising the community for striving “to embody the very essence of Dr. King’s dream.”
Lewis’ speech drew upon his Alabama roots. An Alabama native, Lewis attended Alabama State University and spent 18 years living and working in Montgomery, the site of the Montgomery Bus Boycott from 1955 to 1956. He was principal of E.D. Nixon Elementary School in West Montgomery, situated two blocks from Rosa Parks’ home and just a mile from the home where King lived when he was pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.
Lewis focused a central lesson in the speech around a 15-year-old Montgomery student named Claudette Colvin. Months before Rosa Parks’ act of bravery in 1955, Lewis explained, Colvin refused to relinquish her seat to a young white woman.
“Later, when interviewed and asked, ‘Why didn’t you give up your seat when the driver asked you to?’ young Claudette said, ‘It felt as though Harriet Tubman’s hand was pushing me down on one shoulder, and Sojourner Truth’s hand was pushing me down on the other shoulder,’” Lewis said. “‘I felt inspired by these women because my teacher taught us about them in so much detail.’”
His emphasis on “teacher” earned another round of confirming nods from the crowd.
“I was taking notes,” Mark-Anthony Middleton, the city’s mayor pro tem, said after the speech. “I mean, you know, he came to teach. Don’t let the superintendent title fool you, he’s still very much a classroom teacher, and the pedagogy was on full display today.”
Lewis is familiar with the superintendent role, having come to Durham after a six-year tenure as the first Black superintendent of Lawrence Public Schools in Lawrence, Kansas.
“I’ve learned that Durham is a special place,” he said in an interview after his speech. “There’s a lot of opportunities here as well for Durham to be the premier school district in this country. And I do believe we can get there. It’s going to take putting some systems in place, and being intentional about retaining our staff as well, and getting the budget right…but we will get there.”
During his speech, he stressed progress not only for Durham, but for the nation.
“There’s a reason that your windshield is larger than your rearview mirror,” he said. “You have to focus on where you’re going…You check to see, to ensure that nothing interferes with where you’re going.”
“And in this racial equity journey, we must understand where we’re going, but also acknowledge the past and learn from it, because if not, we’re destined to repeat it.”
He acknowledged that recent events have made it harder to remain optimistic and to remain faithful to King’s message.
“Where do we go from here when executive orders are being signed to impact transgenders, executive orders signed to shut down the offices of diversity, equity and inclusion, calling them radical and wasteful? Where do we go from here when Rutgers University cancels its HBCU conference to appease anti-DEI executive orders? Where do we go from here with the maternal death rates of black women still at an all-time high?” he said.
Even though he aimed to teach, Lewis also proposed the need to “unlearn” certain biased beliefs and actions.
“Let us take Dr. King’s legacy into our offices, into our schools, into our homes and into our streets,” he said. “Let us interrogate what influences our minds and our decisions. Let us declare that in Durham, equity is not optional. It is essential. That justice is not negotiable. It is non-negotiable.”
The audience answered with a standing ovation as Lewis left the podium.
“I really liked Dr. Lewis,” Alexandria Linton, senior administrative support assistant for Durham County, said after the speech. “It was emotional, for sure, when he was talking, but I’m glad it was that emotional…we had to feel some fire. So, I’m excited, I’m hopeful for Durham, I guess, to see what we all do to change some things.”
Lewis’ words were bookended by performances by Kimberly Michelle, whose voice and violin filled the entire space at First Presbyterian, from the floor to the vaulted ceiling.
Middleton, who presided over the program, praised the superintendent’s speech.
“It was celebratory, but it was also sober,” he said later. “He was unapologetic, which is what we expect of leaders in Durham.”
Pictured above: Superintendent Anthony Lewis, speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration on Tuesday at First Presbyterian Church. Photo by Abigail Bromberger — The 9th Street Journal
Sophie Endrud