Please Accuse Me of Doing Good.

The following is an edited version of Fred Payne’s keynote address at the Indianapolis Public Schools’ 42nd Annual Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the historic Crispus Attucks High School on Friday, Jan. 13, 2023. Click here to watch the full celebration, which includes remarks from IPS leaders and performances of song, dance and prose by IPS students. 

Good morning.  

It’s an honor to speak to you today at the 42nd Annual IPS Tribute of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

We are at the historic Crispus Attucks High School. The place named after the first patriot to lose his life in the American Revolution – the fight for freedom and country. 

Let me highlight just a few extraordinary things about this high school:  

• Opened in 1927 as the only public high school for African Americans 

• The first all-black high school in the nation to win a basketball championship (1955) 

• The first state champs to complete a season undefeated the next year, prior to tournament play 

• Won another state championship in 1959 

• Won its last state basketball championship in 2017 

• The Medical Magnet School is a one-of-a-kind partnership with IUPUI 

Notable alumni: 

• US Congress:  Late Congress Woman Julia Carson 

• Chess: Chess master Bernard Parham 

• US Military:  Harry Brooks, U.S. Army Major General 

• NBA: Oscar Robertson and Bobby Edmonds 

• Harlem Globetrotters: Bailey Flip Wilson and “Wee” Willie Gardner 

The diversity of accomplishments that have walked through the Attucks doors is amazing.  The accomplishments of each of those persons were simply dreams, at some point.  Simply dreams by their parents.  Simply dreams of theirs. Simply dreams that are the essence of Dr. Martin Luther King’s I have a Dream speech and what he both stood and fought for. 

Many of us have heard or read all or parts of his “I have a dream” speech. It is perhaps one of the most quoted speeches in the last 60 years. But when we look at the speech and reflect on where we are today, what can we say about his dream. 

Let’s start by looking at his dream: 

I have a dream that one day…sons of former slaves and sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood”.  CHECK! Dreams do come true. 

In our society that is as simple as it is complex, the sons and daughters of slave owners and the sons and daughters of slaves do sit down in brotherhood.  We all have friends who can trace their ancestry back to a slave owner or slave, and we can testify to the friendships that we have today, that never would have happened 100 years ago.  It’s hard to say that we can’t put a check in that box. 

I have a dream that one day …little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. CHECK! 

The 2020 census showed a 241% increase in the number of Hoosiers who are multiracial (6.4% v. 2% in 2010).  Over 9 million individuals in the U.S. are identified as multiracial.  This is pure evidence that there is some “holding of the hands.” 

In 2015, 17% of all U.S. newlyweds had a spouse of a different race/ethnicity.  Remember, it was illegal to do such a thing during the time of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in many states. 

 I have a dream that little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.  No check. 

Since we can’t put a check next to that portion of that dream, we don’t need to go further, because the dream is “incomplete” or still in development. 

That’s where we come in.  That’s where our theme today becomes relevant. Today’s theme, “Our responsibility to create a just, equitable, anti-racist society” is essentially a description of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.   

There are naysayers out there.  There are those who loath progress out there.  There are those out there who never wanted or want Dr. King’s dream to come true. We call them Haters.    

The evidence is against the haters, the naysayers and those who loathe progress.  Those who will tell you that we have not and can not and will not ever get to realize Dr. King’s Dream.  Dreams come true, even if in stages.   

I am sure that there is a former sixth grade science & social studies teacher who only dreamed of being the first Black woman to serve as superintendent of the largest school district in Indiana.  I am sure that former teacher, Dr. Johnson, sitting on this stage, will tell you that dream came true. 

There those who, more than 42 years ago, only dreamed of the program we are having today, who will tell you that dreams come true, since this is the 42nd such program. 

There are those in this state who only dreamed of a Hispanic/Latino person heading up major banks, but who will tell you that dreams do come true through the likes of Juan Gonzalez, president of Key Bank, or Rafael Sanchez, executive vice president at Old National Bank. 

Let’s not mistake progress that may be slower than we like as no progress at all.  

Our responsibility to create a just, equitable and anti-racist society implies that it all of our responsibility to ensure that we have continuous progress to Dr. King’s dream. But we get there by DOING! 

It may take a breakthrough moment for you to start doing.   

That breakthrough moment came to my late father when my oldest sister couldn’t enroll in a small school in El Dorado, Arkansas and businesses refused to hire people simply because the color of their skin.  

So my father began doing.  He marched, protested and used every legal means to effectuate change.  My oldest sister ultimately became one of the first African Americans to attend Southside Elementary school in Eldorado (I would subsequently attend there as well).  Because of his dedication and commitment to the essence of Dr. King’s dream, the city of El Dorado recently honored him by dedicating a street, the street I grew up on, to him.  If he were alive today, he too, would say that dreams come true, but they come true by DOING. 

So what will you do?  What will you be willing to take responsibility for?  

There are lots of verbs to pick from. 

Will you march?  

Will you write your state representative?   

Will you volunteer?  

Will you be friends with kids who look different than you, with different backgrounds than you?  

Will you stand up to discrimination?  

Will you work with United Way to be in service to others?  

Will you simply be a good role model to your friends, family members, peers, and on Instagram and TikTok?  (I just made my first TikTok with my daughter recently, so I am a newly initiated cool dad, by the way) 

Whatever you do, chances are, you’ll find your breakthrough moment. And you will be part of making the dream come true. 

Keep in mind that today, you have an opportunity to be like Dr. King.  Dr. King was accused of many things by those who were opposed to progress.  But the one thing he was accused of, that he is most remembered for, is “doing good.” 

I want to be accused.  I want you to be accused.  I want us all to be accused of doing good! 

I want to be accused of helping people to live the lives they are capable of living.  In other words, I will take responsibility for helping to create a just, equitable and anti-racist society.  Will you? 

Will you join me in being friends with someone who doesn’t look like you or has the same background as you? 

Will you join me in helping a neighbor? 

With you join me and speaking up to wrongs you see happening? 

Will you join me in completing school assignments (even when they aren’t fun)? 

Will you join me in “Doing Good?”  

Now please join me in giving yourselves a round of applause for the good you have already done and the good we know you will be accused of!