Two American Heroes—Martin Luther King, Jr. and Booker T. Washington—Who Overcame Injustice With a Zero-Victim Attitude

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Send them to OurAmericanStories.com. They're some of our favorites. Up next, pastor and author James E. Ward Jr. came to national prominence after Jacob Blake Jr. was shot during an incident involving the Kenosha, Wisconsin police. What made his response so unique was his call to prayer, peace, healing, and forgiveness. In his book, Zero Victim Overcoming Injustice with a New Attitude, James Ward tells his story as a zero victim black American. Here's James Ward talking about two other African Americans in US history who inspired his zero victim mentality. I like researching historical figures to see if there were any other zero victim thinkers in history, especially in the African American community. And one of the great zero victim thinkers in American history is Booker T. Washington, who, of course, became the first president of Tuskegee University.

And I like his writings. For example, you know, Up From Slavery is a well-known, you know, writing of Booker T. Washington. And as early as 1901, he was communicating what I call a zero victim message. Speaking to blacks in the South who had experienced tremendous victimization, you're still talking about the era of blacks not being considered full human beings. You're still talking about blacks being subject to, you know, Jim Crow laws and the effects of slavery and racism that were very, very pervasive in the South and was overt.

You know, these things were it was a way of life. And yet during that time, Booker T. Washington was encouraging blacks in the South to not be victims, to not see themselves as victims, that despite the injustice that they were dealing with on a daily basis and historically, in my words, he was encouraging them to overcome injustice with a new attitude. And he began to explain, for example, to blacks in the South who were working in the cotton fields, who were working on the sugar plantations, who were working the tobacco plantations. He was reminding the blacks during that time, listen, that even though slavery has been difficult, you have the intellectual property of commerce.

It was the blacks in the South on those plantations that literally knew how to grow tobacco and sugarcane and cotton. He tried to explain to them and to teach them. And this is where you see this really fleshed out in Tuskegee University with his overall vision for the school. But he was on this campaign to teach blacks in the South that were industrious, how they could use their intellectual capability and the knowledge that they had gained from slavery to be empowered economically, that they really understood, let's just say, the basis of how to drive the economy in the South.

And Booker T. would take that message even to the pastors in the black churches. And you read from some of his writings that he was oftentimes rejected and scolded by the black pastors for not taking a much more aggressive stance about slavery and the injustice that they were dealing with. But he was not dismissive of that, but he was talking about a new mindset. He was really trying to encourage them to engage. And he was asking the pastor to actually help teach what I call now a zero victim mindset to people during that time. And so I like his perspective.

In some situations, it was not well received. But then we see the effect of a great university, which is Tuskegee University, coming out of that way of thinking. Even his successor, Robert Moden, they continued this track where they were really calling blacks to be empowered with this zero victim mindset, teaching them how to engage economically with industry, how to use their hands and their work experience, how to not be a victim, how to be overcomers and to not be overcome by the circumstances that they were dealing with to help black America really rise up into prominence and for us to enhance the quality of living for black American people.

And so I appreciate his voice and his writings. I see so many remnants of zero victim thinking in the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., going through the civil rights movements in the 60s, calling for nonviolence, calling for peace, really using a biblical foundation concerning what justice is. He attempted, although not a perfect man, he wasn't flawless in any way. But I really think he did a great job of helping to lead our nation in what I call a zero victim perspective of not seeing, you know, himself as a victim, but really speaking and calling for biblical justice and not just a cultural perspective of justice, but really calling for justice from God's perspective based upon the truth of God's word. And so I'd like to say that Dr. King was also a predecessor in the zero victim thinking, you know, in the zero victim school of thought. And I tell folks today, Dr. King had a dream.

We have a vision now. We really want to see and we can use his mode of thinking and facing off with some of the things that we're dealing with today with some of the sociopolitical and racial challenges that we see in America. I still think that there's tremendous benefit in the mindset of a Booker T. Washington and a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in dealing with some of the challenges that we're facing off with in today's society. And a great job on the editing and production of that piece by Greg Hengler. And a special thanks to James Ward.

His book, Zero Victim Overcoming Injustice with a New Attitude is available on Amazon and all the usual suspects. And it's great and fun to listen to a hero talk about his heroes. By the way, none of these people are perfect people. We always have to say that because too often in this world, we're judging people by their flaws and not by what they've overcome and what they've contributed. And this is a real failure in American life right now to judge a person by their worst day.

It's a terrible thing. My goodness, look up Booker T. Washington, his life. My goodness, we need to know more and have more stories told about him. And the same with Reverend King.

You can call him Dr. King, but always remember he was a reverend and he loved the Bible and the Lord. The stories of MLK and Booker T. Washington as told by James E. Ward here on Our American Story. Folks, if you love the great American stories we tell and love America like we do, we're asking you to become a part of the Our American Stories family. If you agree that America is a good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly gift of $17.76 is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to OurAmericanStories.com now and go to the donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming.

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