Some months ago, I informed USF that I would retire as Director of the USF Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice as I approached my 90th birthday, and that it was my wish that Jonathan Greenberg be appointed to assume all of the directorship responsibilities upon my retirement. Jonathan joined me as co-founder of the Institute following thirty years of teaching at Stanford Law School, and he has been my partner throughout, serving as Senior Associate Director and Scholar in Residence since we became part of USF.
The Institute means so much to me. Its purpose is to carry on the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., perhaps the single most significant, transformative moral leader of the 20th century, who I was honored to serve as counsel and to know as a dear friend. Dr. King’s message of nonviolence, racial justice, and economic equity remains of paramount importance and urgency for our world today. We cannot go forward in peace, nor can we heal this country, until we heed his call. This is why Jonathan and I founded the USF Institute for Nonviolence and Social Justice, and why I am gratified that the Institute’s work will continue going forward, with unwavering commitment to Dr. King’s vision, and dedicated outreach to new generations of students, activists, and concerned citizens of the world.
My birthday is coming very soon, on January 8, and the time has come for my retirement from my position as Director of our USF Institute.
I grew up the old-fashioned way in Black culture. There’s an expression that “Never forget who brought you the dance and or leave the dance without the girl or persons who brought you.” Reflecting on my experiences at the University of San Francisco since I first came to teach my course “From Slavery to Obama: Redeeming and Renewing the Promise of Reconstruction” as the inaugural USF Distinguished Visiting Professor in Critical Diversity Studies, I remember those persons who made it possible for me to “come to the dance” at the University of San Francisco almost ten years ago, including Dr. Joseph Marshall, former USF President Rev. Stephen Privett, former Provost Jennifer Turpin, Dean of the College Dr. Marcelo Camperi, and Dr. Mary Wardell-Ghirarduzzi, Vice Provost for Diversity Engagement and Community Outreach. I am immensely grateful to our current President Paul Fitzgerald, whose strong support for our Institute has been of great meaning to our University, and to me personally. I am moved and proud to have been part of our wonderful USF faculty, and I am grateful for special relationships with colleagues who mean so much to me, including Dr. Candice Harrison, my partner in creating the original From Slavery to Obama course, Dr. Andrea Spero, my partner in teaching the course in each subsequent year, and Professors James Taylor, Richard Callahan, Carol Batker, Bill Hing, former Provost Don Heller, Jennifer Azzi, Spencer Rangitsch, Gladys Perez, Ria DasGupta, Vice President Opinder Bawa, Vice President Peter Wilch, and Law School Dean Susan Freiwald.
In my life, I have traveled to Iraq, Israel, Egypt, France, Switzerland, Germany, Tunisia, throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Caribbean. I arranged the financing of the 1974 Heavy Weight Boxing Championship match in then Kinshasa, Zaire. Like a fool, accepted Muhammad Ali invitation to jog with him early in the morning for five miles (those were years I jogged 6 miles a day five days a week) and returning to his gym to watch him do 500 sit ups as part of training for the Big Fight. I was legal counsel for James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, and Lorraine Hansberry, and honored to know them as dear friends. I had the opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue with Malcolm X. I helped to negotiate the resolution of the Attica prison riot. I was active in the practice of law, finance, and publishing. But I want you to most remember me by my role as a teacher here at the University of San Francisco, and my efforts to bring to our USF community the wisdom the teachings the experiences my dear friend the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., who I was I was privileged to serve as a political advisor and then as the personal lawyer and draft speechwriter, from 1960 until his assassination on April 4, 1968.
It is within this context that I want you to remember my time here at USF as an effort to interpret and carry forward Dr. King’s commitment to the pursuit of personal excellence and a commitment to nonviolence and social justice, and the struggle against poverty and militarism. Dr. King was always focused on the “least of these”, the poorest and most vulnerable brothers and sisters in our community and world. I can assure you that, had he lived, he would be focused on gender equality in ways he didn’t fully appreciate in his time, he would passionately endorse the nonviolent Black Lives Matter movement throughout the United States, and he would strongly support the students who are marching for human rights and democracy, an end to gun violence, and a transition to a just post-carbon economy, throughout the world.
I can also assure you that the Institute will carry forward strongly under the able direction of Jonathan Greenberg, an extraordinary person who has developed a profound understanding of Dr. King’s life and teachings, a deep knowledge of the strategy and practice of disciplined nonviolence in the tradition of Gandhi and King, and a clear vision of the urgency of Kingian nonviolence as applied to the grave challenges to justice, equality, and democracy we face today. I am excited to continue working closely with Jonathan in my new role as Founding Director Emeritus, and I look forward to engaging with all of you in Institute programs, workshops, and dialogues over the coming months and years.
